Gabriel Orozco was born in Jalapa, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, on April 27, 1962. From 1981 to 1984, he attended the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City, after which he studied at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid from 1986 to 1987. Since that time, he has traveled extensively and has spent time living in New York, Berlin, and Mexico City.

Orozco works in diverse mediums, including sculpture, photography, video, drawing, and installation. His aesthetic vocabulary is indebted to Conceptualism, the artistic traditions of his native Mexico, and Marcel Duchamp's readymades. Everyday objects as well as their fragile relationships to one another and to humans are the principal subjects of Orozco's oeuvre. In his early work, he placed such items in unexpected venues and documented their presence in photographs. Cats and Watermelons (1992) shows eleven cans of cat food, their labels sporting the same furry feline face, atop bulbous watermelons in a supermarket. Five Problems (1992) depicts five potatoes sitting on five stacks of spiral notebooks in the stationery section of a store. In The Office and The Office II (1992), leafy plants transform a workspace into a veritable jungle.

In the 1990s, Orozco also began to make sculptures using found objects. Empty Shoebox (1993) is nothing more than a white cardboard shoebox with its lid on its underside and its interior exposed. Yogurt Caps (1994) is a series of clear-plastic yogurt lids with colored edges. Four Bicycles–There Is Always One Direction (1994) comprises parts of four bicycles arranged, ironically, in different directions. Toilet Ventilator (1997), an installation work, includes rolls of toilet paper attached to the blades of a ceiling fan, each progressively unraveling as the ventilator turns. Also during the 1990s, Orozco began to fabricate sculptures imitating industrial objects. Horses Running Endlessly (1995) is a wooden chess set comprised only of knights. Oval with Pendulum (1995) is a round pool table without pockets over which swings a red billiard ball. Ping Pong Table (1998) is a cross-shaped ping-pong table for four players, the center of which is a faux lily pond, complete with ping-pong balls for blossoms.

The human skeleton as well as animals and insects are also themes found throughout Orozco's work. My Hand Is the Memory of Space (1991) is made of hundreds of wooden hourglass ice cream spoons laid on the floor in the shape of a slice of pie, at the point of which there is a void resembling a human hand. Snake (1991) consists of a series of flat, triangular-shaped pieces of appropriated iron arranged in a serpentine form that echoes the human spinal column. Octopus (1991) is a color photograph of metal tubing that brings to mind the undersea creature. Sleeping Dog (1990), My Dog's Chair (1991), and Dog Urine in the Snow (1993), all color photographs, illustrate the artist's affinity for man's best friend, while his collage series Butterfly Effect (1998) evokes similar sentiments for these winged creatures. Path of Thought (1997) and Black Kites (1997) consist of geometric graphite marks traced on human skulls.

Geometry and high abstraction have also preoccupied Orozco throughout his artistic career. His series Atomists (1996) includes photographs of male athletes in action, taken from British newspapers and overlaid with colorful circles and ovals in gouache, which echo forms one finds in Russian Constructivist painting. In 1997, Orozco produced similar series, using paper currency from various countries and his airline tickets.

In his more recent work, Orozco has investigated themes of weightlessness, mass, and aerodynamics. Delta Tail, Under Tow, and Double Cut (all 2003) are sculptures made of wedges of smooth, buttery-colored poured polyurethane foam, which the artist cut and grafted together. Hung from the ceiling by monofilaments, these mobiles suggest birds, fish, and airplanes. Multiple Pourings (2003), five hollow, partial spheres cast in black polyurethane foam, echo classic Minimalist creations, their relative lightness ironically calling to mind the excessive weight of their monumental metal forebears.

Orozco began exhibiting in 1983. Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1995 and 1998) and Serpentine Gallery in London (2004), among other venues. Traveling retrospectives have been organized by the Kunsthalle Zürich (1996–97) and Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (2000–01). His work has been included in the Venice Biennale (1993), Whitney Biennial (1995 and 1997), and Documenta (1997 and 2002). In 1987, he received the Secció Espacios Alternativos prize at the Salón Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Mexico City. In 1995, he was a DAAD artist-in-residence in Berlin. Orozco currently lives and works in New York and Mexico City.