Lamelas, David, 1946-

Argentine artist David Lamelas (b. 1944 or 1946) began working with video in 1976, the same year he moved to Los Angeles.

Argentine sculptor and conceptual artist.

Biographical/Historical Note

Argentinian artist David Lamelas is one of the pioneers of Conceptual Art. The son of Spanish immigrants, Lamelas was born in Buenos Aires in 1946 (or 1944?). While in his teens, he studied art at the Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes, with an early focus on sculpture; he began exhibiting his work in Buenos Aires around this time. At the age of 21, he represented Argentina at the 1967 Bienal Internacional de Sáo Paulo, with a work of architectural intervention, Dos Espacios Modificados (Two Modified Spaces). That same year, Lamelas created his important installation, Situación de tiempo (Time situation), in Buenos Aires. He represented Argentina at the XX Venice Biennale with the installation piece "Office of Information about the Vietnam War at Three Levels: The Visual Image Text, and Audio."

In 1968 Lamelas left Argentina for London, where he studied sculpture at St. Martins School of Art. During his time at St. Martins he developed an interest in film. Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s Lamelas continued to work and exhibit in Europe. He was a pioneer in the radical repositioning of sculpture at this time, using new materials and modes of production. Lamelas moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1970s and currently makes his home in Berlin. He has continued to make films and videos, including works such as "Film Script," "To Pour Milk Into a Glass," and "The Dictator." Among his better known non-film works are "The Other Side/El Otro Lado," an installation project that was part of InSITE97 binational exhibition of art in public places, and "Publication," a book as art exhibition.