Material Art Fair | Main Section | Ciudad de México, México

In this opportunity Vigil Gonzales gallery is pleased to present the work of José Luis Martinat for the MATERIAL 2023 fair. The trigger for this series by José Luis Martinat is the political, economic and religious beliefs. These are crossed by the mythical concept of progress in Western society and how it has been established in the rest of the world. Martinat uses offset and textile plates as mediums for this purpose.

Offset plates, to which he resorts, are an important element as this printing process has allowed the mass production of precise prints in high quality. The use of the printing press is a central axis since it has been one of the main driving forces of modernity and has played an important role in the dissemination of knowledge and economic development, but it has also been criticized for its use as a tool of propaganda and social control in modern societies. The writings contained in the plates of this diptych are synonyms of the word progress and by the counterpart synonyms of regression. At the same time, both pieces function as a dialogue of antonyms.

The work of José Luis Martinat is part of the collection of the Malmö Museum of Art, the MALI - Museo de Arte de Lima, the Gothenburg City Art Collection and the archives of the Solomon R. Guggenheim and MoMA, among others.