Gabriel de la Mora: FRAGMENTXS

About

Variously composed of organic and synthetic materials, the twenty-nine paintings on view merge the visual language of modernism—monochrome, geometric abstraction—with patterns and effects drawn from the natural world. Subtle and precise, De la Mora’s paintings illuminate the transformative potential of his materials and the ever-shifting nature of perception.

Works from the Lepidoptera series (2021–) feature delicate fragments of butterfly wings arranged into patterns that mimic those found on the wings themselves. The resulting mosaics glimmer in the viewer’s eye, which moves between the intricate details of each wing and the larger gestalt of the composition. The paintings in Neornithes (2018–), inspired by the vivid ornamentation of birds’ plumage as well as pre-Columbian traditions of feather art, achieve a similar effect. In both contexts, the feather communicates status, desire, and power. To make these paintings, De la Mora extracts sections of painted turkey feathers and composes them in sharply defined, tessellating images that recall the forms of Op art.

With the painting-sculpture hybrids in the series In between what I reflect and what I see (2019–), De la Mora incorporates kinetic and durational elements into his work. Hewn from convex and concave segments of mirrored blown glass spheres, these undulating surfaces reflect shifting images of the viewer and their environment, creating unpredictable and distorted visual experiences.

Each of these series departs from the style of CaCO3 (2013–), which features monochrome paintings incorporating fragments of eggshells in various hues of white. Here, De la Mora draws on the ethos of the postwar ZERO movement, seeking to achieve a “degree zero” of painting, in which the medium exists in a state of pure potential. These meticulously arranged and refined surfaces generate dynamic plays of light and shadow.

The paintings in FRAGMENTXS are the result of a repetitive and deeply meditative process, in which De la Mora tests the aesthetic and conceptual properties of found materials. As Patrick Charpenel, Executive Director of New York’s El Museo del Barrio, observes, “The mimesis of these paintings implies a strategic adaptation: they are the movement of a body that seeks to integrate, dissolve or become invisible in its context.” Synthesizing art history, scientific research, and perceptual experimentation, De la Mora’s new works are at once elemental and complex.