David Lamelas: The Machine
Dia Art Foundation
March 6–September 30, 2026
Dia is pleased to announce David Lamelas: The Machine, a comprehensive survey exhibition of the Argentine artist’s work and his first major solo presentation in New York. A foundational yet overlooked figure of 1960s and ’70s art, Lamelas has produced paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, performances, and films, bridging Conceptual, Minimalist, and Pop approaches to art making.
The presentation at Dia Chelsea comprises three parts—a performance, an exhibition, and a film program. Preceding the exhibition, 1416 m3 (2014) is performed in the galleries on February 10, 2026. The piece, scored by composer Gavin Gamboa following Lamelas’s concept, uses sound and voice to represent volumetric and metaphysical space, functioning as an immersive prelude to the installation. Opening on March 6, the nonlinear exhibition emphasizes key moments from the artist’s career, surveying 1965 to the present through a diverse selection of works, among them recent additions to Dia’s collection, such as the especially commissioned Situación de tiempo II (Situation of Time II, 2025). In parallel, the films presented in the program space further expand the physical dimension of the exhibition, illustrating the breadth of the artist’s moving-image practice from the mid-1970s to 2020. Together, The Machine’s three chapters reveal the artist’s lifelong preoccupations with information and communication, and how they are mediated by the viewer’s perception.
David Lamelas: The Machine is organized in partnership with the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA).
David Lamelas (b. 1946, Argentina) is a key figure in the history of conceptual art and experimental film. Comprising film, video, performance, photography, sculpture, installation, and drawing, his complex practice excavates the viewer’s perception and critically assesses the mechanisms of cultural production. Central to Lamelas’s oeuvre is the notion of time and what people make of it. His work has been the subject of several solo exhibitions, includingDavid Lamelas, Extranjero, Foreigner, Étranger, Ausländerat the Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, and the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (2006), andTime as Activity: David Lamelasat the Hunter College Art Galleries, New York (2021).