From digital glitches to mind-boggling distortions, Mexico City-based artist Alexis Mata is interested in how visual information is lost or distorted when moving from one context to another. In his oil paintings, bouquets of flowers and vast desert landscapes spread across the canvas as if merging or expanding into unrecognizable shapes. “If your eyes look at the same thing for too long, your mind changes,” he shares.
Mata explores the relationship between analogue and digital realms and his process incorporates both types of art making. Preliminary sketches fill notebooks that the artist carries with him everywhere, while constantly taking photos and videos for reference.
AI experiments help Mata better translate the strange, confusing results these rapidly evolving tools can produce. But his research is not just visual. “I like to experiment by writing poems or haikus in AI and see what comes out. It’s an exploratory process,” he notes.
Rendered in bold color palettes, the trippy paintings draw connections between digital glitches and the way our brains distort an image, be it in moments of intense concentration, in dream states, or using hallucinatory substances. “I like to think that whole worlds are created in dreams, and those worlds demand to be brought to light,” he says.
Many of the paintings shown here can be seen in The Morgana girl through January 25 at The Hole in Tribeca. Discover more of Mata's work, ranging from stained glass and textiles to drawings and sculptures, on his website and Instagram.
