Gabriel Chaile, Installation view of ‘No se me quita lo naco’ at Meridiano, Puerto Escondido, 2023. © Gabriel Chaile. Courtesy the artist. Photo Alex Krotov
Gabriel Chaile, Installation view of ‘The Milk of Dreams’, 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, 2022. Courtesy of Malba, Fundación Costantini, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires. Photo Andrea Rossetti
Free entry
1 Apr - 6 Sep 2026
Gallery 4
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 11am–6pm |
| Wednesday | 11am–6pm |
| Thursday | 11am–9pm |
| Friday | 11am–6pm |
| Saturday | 11am–6pm |
| Sunday | 11am–6pm |
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Whitechapel Gallery presents a new commission from Argentinian Lisbon-based artist Gabriel Chaile (b. 1985, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina). Archaeology of Memory (Arqueología de la Memoria) marks Chaile’s first major London institutional solo show following his shortlisting for the Fourth Plinth (2024) and presentation at Studio Voltaire (2023).
Chaile’s practice is rooted in the distinctive cultural traditions of north-west Argentina. He creates engaging anthropomorphic sculptures, often monumental in scale using adobe (a type of clay made from local organic materials) which reinterpret the formal and material language of the region’s indigenous communities. Acting as both anthropologist and storyteller, Chaile investigates what he terms the ‘genealogy of form’ – the idea that certain forms, motifs or shapes repeat throughout history, taking on a new significance in each changed context. Throughout his work, Chaile features recurring figures and symbols that memorialise and recall a lineage of traditions and practices drawn from his ancestors and community.
For the commission at Whitechapel Gallery, Chaile will create a site-specific installation that engages with the particularly rich and diverse historical and cultural identity of the East End. Continuing his long-standing interest in collecting ceramics and other items from across the globe, Chaile will scavenge and source a range of objects (decorative and functional) from the local area surrounding Whitechapel Gallery, which will then feature in the exhibition. When entering the gallery, visitors will encounter a group of adobe sculptures that act as both containers for, and guardians of, the various objects Chaile has found. His use of ancient organic forms to display culturally diverse objects offers a particularly intimate way of connecting worlds, peoples and stories, within a configuration that evokes a site of archaeological excavation.
Archaeology of Memory expands Chaile’s interests and practice, creating a terrain, or environment, sown with different histories and reflecting the many ways of living across diverse geographies. While his work initially appears rooted in materiality, it reveals a rich conceptual framework that offers audiences the means to approach complex issues – as he does – in the manner of an archaeologist.
Read the full exhibition press release.
Gabriel Chaile (b.1985, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina) has exhibited extensively around the world. His large-scale public work The Wind Blows Where It Wishes was presented on the High Line in New York in 2023. Chaile’s work was included in the Venice Biennale and the Coimbra Biennial of Contemporary Art in 2022 and the New Museum Triennial in 2021. His work has been the subject of solo presentations at the Fundación Cervieri Monsuárez, José Ignacio (2025); La Tabakalera, San Sebastián, (2024); Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley (2024); Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2022); the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (2017); Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires (2014); Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires (2015); and Nuevo Museo Energía de Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires (2011).
He has been featured in group exhibitions at Guggenheim, Bilbao (2025); Islamic Arts Biennale, Jeddah (2025); Malba Puertos, Buenos Aires (2025); Madragoa, Lisbon (2025); the 14th Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre (2025); MARCO, Buenos Aires (2024); C3A – Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba (2023); BoCA – Biennial of Contemporary Arts, Lisbon (2023); Temporary Gallery, Cologne (2023); FORMA, Paris (2023); Fondation Thalie, Brussels (2021); the New Museum, New York (2021); Galeria Municipal, Porto (2021); Plural Nodo Cultural, Bogotá (2021); Espacio Temporal, Mexico City (2021); Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, Montevideo (2019); Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires (2019); Faena Festival, Miami Beach (2019); Art Basel Cities, Buenos Aires (2018); Museo de Arte Moderno de Cuenca (2015); and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Latinoamericano, La Plata (2012). Chaile’s work is included in collections of the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires; the Fundación Costantini, Buenos Aires; Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid; and Kadist Foundation, Paris.
Gabriel Chaile: Archaeology of Memory has been generously supported by: Whitechapel Gallery Commissioning Council
