Augusto Esquivel is a Miami-based sculptor originally from Argentina. He began experimenting with unconventional materials at a young age, eventually finding his voice through sewing buttons — transforming everyday objects into intricate, gravity-defying sculptures. A self-taught artist, Esquivel’s work explores the tension between fragility and permanence, playfully engaging with ideas of perception, nostalgia, and material transformation in the digital age.
Augusto Esquivel is a Miami-based sculptor who builds his work one small object at a time. Working primarily with reclaimed sewing buttons, he suspends each one individually on monofilament rather than gluing or fixing it in place, so every piece keeps turning, catching light, and holding onto its own size, color, and wear. The sculptures that result are made of thousands of small, repeated decisions — the actual subject of the work is repetition, accumulation, and what happens when discarded material is given a second use it was never built for.
Esquivel is self-taught as a sculptor. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he immigrated to the United States in 2001 and now lives and works in Miami, where he is a Resident Artist at Bakehouse Art Complex. He is represented by Aldo Castillo Gallery, following an earlier partnership with Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, and his work has shown at Art Miami and Palm Beach Modern+Contemporary nearly every year since 2010, along with fairs in Bogotá, Colombia, and a permanent public installation, Spotify Mirror, at Spotify’s Miami headquarters. He is a member of the National Button Society.
Esquivel is currently expanding his practice into 3D printing and parametric design through Blender, developing larger, architecturally scaled work built on the same principle as the button sculptures: many small, precise, repeated elements adding up to one system.
Exhibitions
2025 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2025 Palm Beach Modern+Contemporary, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
2024 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2024 Palm Beach Modern+Contemporary, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Palm Beach, FL
2023 “Beyond the Mundane – Buttons In Art”, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Naples, FL
2023 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2022 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2022 Los Colores De Miami, Hartvest Project at Pinecrest Gardens, Pinecrest, FL
2021 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2020 Art Palm Beach, The Directed Art Modern, Palm Beach, FL
2019 Art Context, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2019 Scope Miami Beach, The Directed Art Modern, Miami, FL
2019 Pinta Miami, Ignacio Irazoqui Gallery, Miami, FL
2019 Market Art+Design, The Directed Art Modern, New York, NY
2019 All That Glisters Is Not Gold, Laundromat Art Space, Miami, FL
2019 The Palette Project, Lowes Art Museum, Miami, FL
2019 “Bear/Bare With Me”: Altered States, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL
2018 “Homo Faber. Poetics Of Daily Life. Recovered Paths. Weaved Nature.” Hartvest Project at Pinecrest Gardens, Pinecrest, FL
2018 Rocking Chair Sessions 1-50 exhibit, Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, FL
2018 “It’s Hot Miami”, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL
2018 Art Boca Raton, Irazoqui Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
2018 “Fragile Nature”, Hartvest Project at Pinecrest Gardens, Pinecrest, FL
2017 Art Miami, “Fragile Ecologies II”, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL
2017 Art Aspen, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Miami, FL
2017 Multiple Shapes of Air, The Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, FL
2017 Palm Beach Modern+Contemporary, Luz Art Space, Palm Beach, FL
2016 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery, Miami, FL
2016 Art Wynwood, Now Contemporary Gallery, Miami, FL
2015 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery, Miami, FL
2015 Art Southampton, Now Contemporary Gallery, Southampton, NY
2015 Art Wynwood, Now Contemporary Gallery, Miami, FL
2014 Art Context, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2014 Never Upon a Time, Now Contemporary Gallery, Miami, FL
2014 Art Wynwood, Now Contemporary Gallery, Miami, FL
2013 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery, Miami, FL
2012 Scope New York, Now Contemporary Gallery, New York, NY
2012 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery, Miami, FL
2012 ArtBo, Now Contemporary Gallery, Bogota, Colombia
2012 Art Southampton, Now Contemporary Gallery, Southampton, NY
2012 Art Wynwood, Now Contemporary Gallery, Miami, FL
2011 Melange, Now Contemporary Gallery, Miami, FL
2011 Scope New York, Now Contemporary Gallery, New York, NY
2010 Art Miami, Now Contemporary Gallery, Miami, FL
2010 ArtBo, Now Contemporary Gallery, Bogota, Colombia