Leopoldo Goût is an artist, writer, and filmmaker who works across mediums to capture the ephemeral: an abstract and figurative clash with memory and humanity, with chaos. Born in Mexico City, Goût grew up among poets, musicians, explorers, activists, filmmakers, scientists,and visual artists. Their stories and ideas inspired Goût, who quickly became part of that community. He embarked on numerous artistic pursuits: painting, drawing, sculpture, filmmaking, digital art, soundscapes, performance, and more. He studied in London at the renowned Central Saint Martins School of Art through a full scholarship from the Mexican Center for the Arts and the British Council. He also won the Erasmus scholarship, despite not being European. It was at school that he began to approach his work as a kaleidoscope of references that inhabit and obscure easy origins and meaning.
“I want to emulate and echo that fleeting moment when you wake from an intensely vivid dream, but immediately those images and senses start to dissipate,” Goût says. “I believe my work lives in that ephemeral space. Now you see it, now you don’t.” What may at first appear random, without any form whatsoever, is in reality a carefully crafted, unique perspective on what it means to be conscious.
All his projects, including films and novels, influence each other in unexpected ways. Goût’s perspective is a confluence of the modern and ancient, order and disorder, and speaks to a wide audience. He has written and produced films, documentaries, and television shows for more than a decade (Molly’s Game, directed by Aaron Sorkin; Days of Grace directed by Everardo Goût, among others).
Goût’s documentary film Carlos debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and was theatrically distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. He wrote and produced The Chosen One (El Elegido) with his brother Everardo, a television show that debuted on Netflix in 2023 on the top 10 list in more than 70 countries. Goût is also an accomplished novelist. His book Piñata with Nightfire (Macmillan) won the Top 10 Horror Novels of 2023. His series Genius: The Game won several awards, including The Mathical Book Prize, the CONACULTA grant for artists, and various other recognitions in film, documentaries, and art. He is in the process of transforming his illustrated novel Monarca (Harper One) into a magical experiential adventure in support of the butterfly sanctuaries in Michoacán, México. He lives with his family in NYC and has studios in NYC, Mexico City, and Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca. His work has appeared in galleries and museums throughout the world, including The West Collection of Pennsylvania, The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City, Galeria Museo of Bogotá, Colombia, The Dikeou Collection, The Pritzker Collection, Tricia Collins Contemporary Art, Sandra Gering, Jack Tilton, and PS1.