Guppy by Francisco Sierra consists of 48 wood panels mounted on concave reliefs, each painted with a life-size guppy – also known as rainbow fish. These representations of tropical, colorful animals mimic an aquarium or a tableau vivant in a room-filling installation at this year’s Art Basel, where swarms of fish and visitors meet. The relationship between humans and their pets is a recurring theme in Sierra’s practice. For Unlimited (June 10–16, 2024), the Chilean-Swiss artist presents the most extensive installment of the guppies to date, drawing thought-provoking parallels between art-making and guppy-breeding.

The fantastical small fish—named after Robert John Lechmere Guppy, a British naturalist—have become living decorative objects that people can breed in all directions and keep in their aquariums at home, mostly intensively decorated and staged. Especially among Gen X and Millennials, small aquarium designs, often called “Aquatecture,” have recently become very popular. Here, the breeding becomes almost like a form of artmaking, an expression of creativity itself. Although each animal is different, and only the male guppies are considered the “beautiful” ones, they still belong to the same species. It originated in the northeast of South America and is now found worldwide. Sierra is fascinated by this contradictory idea of diversity forced by humans. Diversity is desired in animals but remains problematic among people regarding acceptance and tolerance of the so-called “other.”

It goes without saying that the project also comments on matters of scale, and so it speaks of the artist’s humor and pointy commentary that he suggests a project with his smallest paintings of tiny fish for the Unlimited sector. The project activates the viewer’s imagination: what is our relation to other species, and to what extent does mankind manipulate nature? Everything seems possible in a world where humans design their own pets for aesthetic purposes, but the social question remains: at what cost?

Header image:
Francisco Sierra,
Guppy, 2024
1 of 48 panels, oil on wood,
6.5 × 6.5 cm.
Photo: Sebastian Verdon