Short Bio
I am a Mexican artist living in California. My parents were jewish refugees who fled the Holocaust. These events strongly affected me, setting my life into a search for meaning. I have been a scientist and an artist and my quest has been to try to understand the connection between creativity and the dark side of human nature.
Statement
I am a Mexican artist residing in California. I am trained as a scientist (Ph.D., Biophysics) yet my fundamental interest is in the mysterious forces that propel the creative process. I became a practicing artist because it affords a better opportunity for exploring the underbelly of human nature. I came by these interests naturally as a son of holocaust survivors.
The subject matter of my work deals with the struggles of otherness and belonging, with how to honor individuality while belonging to a collective.
The recurrent themes can be described as relational. What interests me is the issue of relationship: power, acceptance, rejection, competition, accommodation. Forms -abstract or otherwise- share space, push into each other, conform to each other, intertwine, or overlap. These visual representations provide opportunities for the metaphoric exploration of human interactions.
The specific form the work has taken over the years -be it flowers, bodies or abstract shapes —has varied, but always expressing multiple interactions where forms ‘vie’ for space, each demanding its rightful place within the collective. In its complexity, the work strives for the emergence of beauty out of apparent chaos.
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Biography
I am a Mexican artist residing in California. I am trained as a scientist (Ph.D., Biophysics), yet my fundamental interest is in the mysterious forces that propel the creative process. I became a practicing artist because it affords a better opportunity for exploring the underbelly of human nature. I came by these interests naturally as a son of holocaust survivors.
Growing up in Mexico was interesting in that it entailed, simultaneously, growing up in a warm and welcoming while experiencing a sense of otherness simply by being ethnically and religiously different.
My elementary and secondary educations were a mix of general subjects and Jewish studies. In our jewish studies we dealt with the history and languages of the jewish people. We studied Hebrew and Yiddish, with special interest in pre-holocaust Yiddish literature, a great source of inspiration. This was a hopeful body of literature created under dire circumstances (‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is an example of this body of work).
It is said that immigrants often have a new perspective on their adopted culture, placing them, both, inside and outside of it, often times becoming keen observers of their reality.
The combination of my parents history as refugees and of the very recent events of the holocaust as well as growing up Jewish in a catholic country sensitized me to search for meaning. Growing up I sensed a connection between the dark side of human nature and creativity. My interests in creativity drove me to become a scientist: I studied Physics and Mathematics at the National university and then pursued a Ph.D. program in Biophysics at the University of California at Berkeley all the while, implicitly, developing a theory of creativity. I am in the process of writing an essay on a theoretical framework that ties our disappointment with our mortality with our creative impulse
Resume / CV
Born in Mexico City
EDUCATION
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D., Biophysics
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, B.Sc., Physics
ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2019 Drechsler Collection, Los Angeles, CA
2018 Public Art Commission, Pilot design for nation’s first
parklet /bus stop. Albany, CA Excellence in Design Award, 2018, California Parks and Recreation Society
2010 Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2004 Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2000 Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1994 Poliforum Siqueiros, Mexico City
1993 Step Gallery, New York, N.Y.
1991 Back to the Picture Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1989 North Light Gallery, Gualala, CA
1987 Bluxome Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1986 Introductions ‘86, Bluxome Gallery, San Francisco, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011 Glorious Century: 1910-2010 Modern and Contemporary Art, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA
2010 Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert, CA
2007 Gallery Artists, Galeria Cibeles, Mexico City, Mexico
2005 Neo Mod: Recent Northern California Abstraction, Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA
2004 Neo Mod: Recent Northern California Abstraction, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
Small Works, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland CA
2003 Gallery Artists, Dolby Chadwick Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Celebration of Art and the Art of Celebration, Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland CA
2002 Turf: West Contra Costa Artists
Bay Area Currents 2002, Oakland , CA
2000 72nd Crocker-Kingsley Exhibition, Sacramento, CA
1995 Gallery Artists, Patricia Correia Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1994 Bienal de Pintura Mexicana y Chicana del Pueblo de Los Angeles,
Traveling Exhibition, Los Angeles, Mexico
14th Annual Faber Birren National Color Award Show, Stamford, CT
Passion, Riverhead, N.Y. and Albany, N.Y.
Expo XIII, Huntington, N.Y
Works on Paper, Instituto de Artes Visuais, Palacio Pombal, Portugal
Noho Gallery, New York City, N.Y.
1993 New Directions ’93, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Bay Arts 1993, Belmont, CA
1988 Gallery Artists, Galeria Eliseo, Mexico City, Mexico
1986 Fifth Year Anniversary Exhibition, Bluxome Gallery, San Francisco
New Space, New Art, Bluxome Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1985 Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame, Artists’ Gallery, California
College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA
1983 Bay Arts 1983, Belmont, CA
RESIDENCIES
2006 American Academy in Rome, Italy, December
2005 American Academy in Rome, Italy, October
AWARDS
2010 Image Selected for year-long public relations campaign for the Monterey Museum of Art, Monterey, CA
1994 Honorable Mention, Bienal de Pintura Mexicana Y Chicana del Pueblo de Los Angeles, CA
Award of Merit, 14th Annual Faber Birren Color Award Show