TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary

Álvaro Urbano

Álvaro Urbano is a Spanish artist known for his immersive, site-specific installations that blur the lines between reality and fiction. Born in Madrid in 1983, Urbano studied at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura in Madrid before completing his education at the Institut für Raumexperimente (Institute for Spatial Experiments) in Berlin under the guidance of Olafur Eliasson.

Urbano’s work often explores themes of architecture, memory, and the interplay between human presence and constructed environments. Using a wide range of media—including sculpture, performance, and installation—he crafts carefully choreographed spaces that invite viewers to question the boundaries of perception and narrative. His practice is characterized by a theatrical sensibility and an interest in animating architectural elements with storytelling potential.

He has exhibited widely across Europe and beyond, with solo and group exhibitions at prominent institutions such as the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. Urbano’s projects frequently reflect a deep engagement with the context and history of the spaces he inhabits, using humor and subtle disorientation as tools to reframe the familiar.

Urbano currently lives and works in Berlin, where he continues to develop projects that merge artistic, architectural, and performative disciplines.

For more information about his work, visit his official website: https://alvarourbano.com

Related works in the collection

Álvaro Urbano La vida breve (GRANADA GRANADA), 2023

Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano Lunar Ensemble for Uprising Seas, 2023

Related program

The Ecologies of Peace

The Ecologies of Peace II Exhibition