Oscar Santillán’s practice departs from a transdisciplinary approach —connecting diverse scientific fields, cosmologies, and non-human perspectives— in order to participate within the wondrous complexity and conflicts of our planet. This approach has led him to continuous collaborations with scientists, software programmers, indigenous thinkers and anthropologists, sci-fi writers, and biologists. Santillán’s education began in the early 2000s as a self-taught artist in his native Ecuador. In 2011 he obtained an MFA in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University, and he has been an artist-in-residence at Skowhegan (US), Jan van Eyck (NL), Ratti Foundation (IT), Delfina Foundation (UK), and Leiden Astronomical Observatory (NL).

Solo exhibitions of Santillán’s work have taken place at Radius CCA, Delft, NL; MUAC, Mexico City, MX; Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, NL; Copperfield, London, UK; Fundación ODEON, Bogota, CO; Spazio Calderara, Milan, IT; Château La Borie, Solignac, FR; LLANO, Mexico City, MX. Group exhibitions include LACMA, Los Angeles, CA; Yokohama Triennial 2020, Yokohama; NRW FORUM, Düsseldorf; SongEun Art Space, Seoul; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar; Zadkine Museum, Paris; FRAC Île-de-France, Paris; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX; Rochechouart Musée d’art contemporain, Rochechouart; Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo; Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City; Museo de la Universidad Nacional, Bogotá; Centraal Museum, Utrecht; and Socrates Park, New York.