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Hauser & Wirth, one of the world’s largest commercial galleries, has signed Los Angeles-based artist rafa esparza to its roster. The gallery will represent esparza jointly with Commonwealth and Council, his longtime Los Angeles gallery. The move makes esparza one of very few living Latinx artists represented by a major international mega-gallery.
A Distinctive Practice Rooted in Adobe
esparza has built his reputation through installations, sculptures, and paintings made using adobe. Since 2014, he has worked with the material, which combines loam, straw, manure, and water to form sun-baked bricks. He learned the technique from his father, whose family has used adobe for generations in Durango, Mexico.
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His early adobe works challenged conventional art spaces directly. The organic material naturally conflicts with museums’ strict climate control systems. esparza calls his creations “brown architectures,” and they deliberately confront the white cube gallery environment. Many installations allow visitors to walk across the adobe surface, which gradually crumbles throughout the exhibition.
Landmark Exhibitions and Collaborations
esparza presented notable works at both the 2016 Made in L.A. biennial and the 2017 Whitney Biennial. At the Whitney, he built an adobe rotunda and invited Latinx artists outside the official biennial to exhibit and perform. His collaborators included Beatriz Cortez, Gala Porras-Kim, Eamon Ore-Girón, and Nao Bustamante. After the Whitney show closed, workers transported the bricks to Marfa, Texas, where they were installed at Ballroom Marfa.
More recently, esparza has expanded his practice to include painting directly onto adobe surfaces. His works now range from intimate portraits to large-scale sculptures supported by visible metal armatures. One recent piece, Tratos: Después de Pedro Valtierra Entre Redadas (2025–26), incorporated a US flag into its metal structure and depicted a police officer manhandling a protester.
Solo Shows and Upcoming Projects
esparza has held solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Performance Space New York, and Artists Space. He also presented two-person exhibitions with Cortez at the Americas Society in New York and the Museo Anahuacali in Mexico City. His work has also featured in major group shows, including the Prospect.6 triennial in New Orleans and the Latinx painting survey “Let us Gather in a Flourishing Way” at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum.
Looking ahead, esparza will debut a new work at Hauser & Wirth’s Art Basel Miami Beach booth next month. In February, Zolo Press will publish his first monograph, titled rafa esparza: Works on Adobe. His first solo exhibition with Hauser & Wirth is scheduled for fall 2027 at one of the gallery’s New York spaces.
Hauser & Wirth president Marc Payot welcomed the signing. “rafa brings real warmth to a conceptual practice that is enormously rigorous and disciplined,” Payot said. “It will be an honor to share his art with increasingly international audiences and new generations.” The gallery also represents fellow Latinx artists Firelei Baéz and Angel Otero.
