¿Cómo pinta?
September 7 - December 14, 2024

Cuarto de Servicio
2a del Mercado #6, Col. Industrial
M Potrero, MB Necaxa, CDMX, México

Exhibition Statement:

Zespo is an artist living and working in Chicago. Of Mexican descent (his parents are originally from Santiago Papasquiaro and Nuevo Ideal, in Durango), his childhood was spent between borders, cultural and physical. ¿Cómo pinta? his first solo exhibition in Mexico, presents a group of paintings inspired, on one hand, by observations made from his experience of organizing popular dances of regional mexicano groups in the United States Midwest. On the other hand, from his recent trips to Mexico City, where he found cultural gestures associated with devotion, patience and the observation of light, which associates his interests with those of José María Velasco, with whom he is particularly interested. 

Zespo's work is traversed by the strangeness and familiarity that implies being del otro lado (the other side) or on this side, by light and shadow, by what is near and far, by the notion of fragment and totality. The idea of cut is seen as an extension of the hand or the act of framing, and invites the viewer to consider the symbolic gestures along with the materiality of painting and the construction of the image by the painter. This can be seen in the works to be shown at El Cuarto de Servicio, where the presence of the hand is always foregrounded, and includes the figure of the bull rider, the penitent, the town square, the knife and the painter. Presenting them in the north of Mexico City, near the Tepeyac hill, an ancient sacred altepetl (sacred mountain), at the foot of which the Basilica of Guadalupe is located, and from where José María Velasco painted many of his emblematic works, adds an ingredient to the territoriality of the content. ¿Cómo pinta? invites us to squint and recognize the images, based on their formal construction and contextual framing.

Focused on painting, Zespo has developed a painting approach centered around working from direct observations, compositional drawing, and a personal archive of images he has taken with his iPhone. He has exhibited at Hyde Park Art Center, Denison University and MAYFIELD. In addition to his practice, Zespo is Program Administrator and Curator of the Open Practice Committee in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago, and the Chicago Director of Visual Arts for the binational festival Lit & Luz.