Oswaldo Maciá Migratory Movements 5th December 2025 – 15th February 2026 Elizabeth Xi Bauer Exmouth Market Private View: 4th December 2025

Elizabeth Xi Bauer presents Migratory Movements, a solo exhibition of new works by Oswaldo Maciá, developed during his 2025 residency at the gallery’s studio. Known for his pioneering multisensory practice, Maciá expands sculpture beyond the visual, using sound, smell, drawing and fresco to explore the invisible systems that sustain life. The exhibition celebrates movement, cross-pollination, and environmental interdependence.

For more than two decades, Maciá has developed what he calls Olfactory Acoustic Composition—a new artistic language grounded in the “volume of smell” and the “volume of sound.” His compositions draw on field recordings made in rainforests, deserts, and polar regions, combined with a vast “smell library” developed through years of collaboration with perfumers and scientists. 

Migratory Movements is conceived as a series of “notes” for a sculptural composition. It brings together visual observations on the communication and interdependence between species, such as insects and flowers, alongside olfactory reflections on consciousness, all presented in dialogue with Maciá’s 2001 sound work Tomorrow will be Cloudy. The sound is embedded within benches designed in collaboration with Jasper Morrison. It takes as its starting point John Wilkins’ 1668 attempt to systematically catalogue the animals said to have boarded Noah’s Ark. Maciá’s new pastels, frescoes, and ink works on paper interact with both sound and smell, seeking to register the continuous movement of often unseen forces in the natural world. 

“I am always seeking to extend the language of sculpture using sound and smell as well as vision to create volumes in space. This selection of movements is a kind of monument to celebrate migration in nature—whether plants, animals or humans—and the cross-pollination that all life depends upon. While I work with these forces, I am trying to create the opposite of stagnation.” – Oswaldo Maciá. 

One of the “notes” in the composition is a series of frescoes created with natural pigments in the buon fresco tradition. Depicting flowers and insects, they reference species whose histories are intertwined with movement, extinction, and transformation. One example is a fresco referencing the American cockroach, a species introduced to the Americas from Africa in the 17th century, which is part of the force of movement. A pastel on Tiziano paper depicts the Dead Horse Lily, a plant that mimics the scent of decay to attract pollinators, exemplifying nature’s ingenuity and the hidden communication between species. 

Migratory Movements is curated by Maria do Carmo M.P. de Pontes.

Oswaldo Maciá (born 1960, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia) lives and works in London, UK, and Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. 

In 1976, Oswaldo Maciá attended the School of Fine Arts in Cartagena, graduating in 1980. In 1982, he moved to Bogotá to study advertising at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University and left after five semesters to pursue a career as an artist. Maciá taught Fine Art at Jorge Tadeo Lozano University from 1985 before moving to Barcelona in 1989, where he studied Mural Painting at Llotja School of Fine Art. 

In 1990, Maciá moved to London. He studied BA Sculpture between 1990 and 1993 at Guildhall University, followed in 1994 by a Masters in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London. 

Maciá has earned international acclaim for redefining sculpture and sensory experience. In 2018, he received the Golden Pear at the Art & Olfaction Awards for his groundbreaking work with scent, affirming his pioneering role in olfactory art. His 2015 public commission for Bogotá marked a historic milestone: the first public sound sculpture in the Southern Hemisphere. 

His seminal installation, Something Going On Above My Head (1999–2021), has been exhibited at major institutions including, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Museo Reina Sofía, the Venice Biennale, and Whitechapel Gallery. Comprising over two thousand birdsongs played through sixteen speakers, it challenges the dominance of the visual in sculpture, inviting audiences to experience art through sound, space, and presence. 

In 2011, the artist received the prestigious first prize at the Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador. Maciá has shown work in numerous biennales around the world. In 2025 he exhibited concurrently in BOG25, Bogotá, Colombia, and Bi_AM - International Art Biennial of Antioquia and Medellín, Medellín, Colombia. Prior to this, Maciá was included in the 15th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea (2024); the 1st Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Riga, Latvia (2018); the 10th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2010); Manifesta 9, Genk, Belgium (2012); and the 51st Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2005). 

Elizabeth Xi Bauer has exhibited Oswaldo Maciá’s work in several group shows prior to Migratory Movements. Earlier this year, he participated in Elizabeth Xi Bauer’s Exmouth Market Inaugural Exhibition (2025), displaying a series of ink on paper insects each accompanied by a photograph of the Namib Desert, where the artist conducted an extensive research project in 2024. Maciá also exhibited in É a lama, é a lama (2023) at the gallery’s Deptford location, alongside contemporary artists Maria Thereza Alves, Tapfuma Gutsa, ikkibawiKrrr, and Uriel Orlow. 

Maciá’s work has been acquired for the public and private collections of the Tate Collection, London, UK; the Collection Catherine Petitgas, London; Daros Latinamerica, Zurich, Switzerland; and the New Mexico Museum of Art, New Mexico, USA, amongst others. His work has been displayed in a number of major institutions worldwide, including Tate Modern, London; Tate Britain, London; Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, UK; Daros Latinamerica, Zurich; Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland; MOCO Montpellier Contemporain, Montpellier, France; Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany; Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Museum Anna Nordlander/MAN, Skellefteå, Sweden; the New Mexico Museum of Art, New Mexico, USA; Site Santa Fe, New Mexico; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia. 

Oswaldo Maciá: Migratory Movements will run from 5th December 2025 – 15th February 2026, at Elizabeth Xi Bauer’s Exmouth Market location, open Wednesday through to Sunday, 12 – 6 pm or by appointment. A Private View will be held on 4th December 2025, 6 – 8 pm. 

Gallery locations:

20-22 Exmouth Market, London, EC1R 4QE 

Fuel Tank, 8-12 Creekside, London, SE8 3DX 

For further information, press inquiries, or to schedule a visit, contact Paige Ashley at paige@lizxib.com