Artist represented by the Madrid-based gallery La Caja Negra (Spain and Mexico – Proyecto Paralelo) and by Páramo gallery (Mexico).
Emanuel Tovar (b. 1974) was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he currently lives and works. Tovar’s work emerges from the conflicts and vulnerabilities of the human condition. He is deeply interested in materiality and in sculpture as a reflection of social context—as a medium for constructing dialogue.

His geometric deconstructions, which might appear to be purely formal exercises, operate as metaphors for the disintegration of structural lines that gradually fracture and transform. Fragility becomes a constant theme in his creative pursuit, as he questions both social frameworks and the very structures of art.

By using forgotten, recycled, repurposed, and salvaged materials and elements—drawn from a social context where consumerism prevails and class divisions grow increasingly stark—he creates constructions through a chaotic and precarious process, one that mirrors the practices found in conflicted environments (where people build using only the most basic and available resources). His work generates tensions that draw our attention to what persists in nearby peripheries, recovering the “other” stories that grow like parasites fed by society’s waste.

Tovar views the periphery as a kind of containment belt of capitalist societies, where he encounters abstract realities within a fleeting context of fragile economies and ephemeral architectures, removed from the established order. His work explores precariousness and reflects on the power of action, human labor, and work itself—posing scenarios where the system appears to crack. Within this framework, his works become postcards portraying suburban chaos, as a kind of antithesis to aesthetic perfection.