{"id":162881,"date":"2025-09-27T02:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T02:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/162881\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T02:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T02:58:09","slug":"omar-mendozas-natural-pigment-paintings-radiate-the-power-of-ancestral-knowledge-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/162881\/","title":{"rendered":"Omar Mendoza’s Natural Pigment Paintings Radiate the Power of Ancestral Knowledge \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since ancient times, artists and craftsmen have drawn upon natural pigments<\/a> for creative use. Extracting dyes from organic sources is an art in and of itself, deeply rooted in various cultures across the historical Mesoamerican region. Although many traditional practices\u2014like pigment harvesting\u2014have been threatened by external factors such as colonialism, artists continue to keep these processes alive today.<\/p>\n

Mexico City-based artist Omar Mendoza<\/a> taps into the persistence of ancestral knowledge for his newest series of paintings in Serpiente Solar \u3030 Noche Obsidiana, or Solar Serpent \u3030 Obsidian Night, at Povos<\/a>. Conjuring hues from native plants, tree bark, and flowers collected from his father\u2019s hometown, supplemented with pigments sourced from local markets, the existence of Mendoza\u2019s works are themselves a symbolic form of resistance.<\/p>\n

\"detailDetail of \u201cLluvia florida\u201d<\/p>\n

Visually, the artist\u2019s compositions evoke cosmic power and sacred rhythm. As Mendoza reaches toward the sanctity of time-honored cultural wisdom, he connects both celestial and earthly forces, depicting multitudes of intuition and insight through motifs such as stars, planetary objects, snakes, eagles, vines, and more.<\/p>\n

Victoria Rivers\u2019 curatorial text shares:<\/p>\n

Omar Mendoza creates these works from a cosmovision in which everything is alive and in relationship: water, stone, plants, fire, night. In that web of sacred correspondences, painting becomes an act of reciprocity with the earth and its cycles.<\/p>\n

Symmetry flows through several of Mendoza\u2019s paintings, calling to the mirroring of two worlds. Nonetheless, tactile washes of pink, blue, violet, and yellow atop hand-prepared canvases sumptuously intertwine, presenting a transcendent sense of harmony across Mendoza\u2019s series of works, calling once more to the cyclical energy that courses through them.<\/p>\n

Serpiente Solar \u3030 Noche Obsidiana opens on October 4 in Chicago. In the meantime, you can find more from Mendoza on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cEspejo obsidiana\u201d (2025), mayan blue, mayan green, indigo blue, brazilian wood, mexican honeysuckle, jonote, zacatlaxcalli, kina, charcoal and blue wood on handmade cotton surface<\/p>\n

\"deatilDetail of \u201cCamino a casa\u201d<\/p>\n

\"detailDetail of \u201cInvocaci\u00f3n\u201d<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cLluvia florida\u201d (2025), mayan blue, mayan green, indigo blue, brazilian wood, mexican honeysuckle, zacatlaxcalli, kina, charcoal, turmeric, beet and beeswax on handmade cotton surface<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cSerpiente de jade\u201d (2025), mayan blue, mayan green, indigo blue, brazilian wood, mexican honeysuckle, jonote, kina and turmeric on handmade cotton surface<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cEclipse\u201d (2025), mayan blue, mayan green, indigo blue, brazilian wood, mexican honeysuckle, kina, turmeric and obsidian on handmade cotton surface<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cCantares\u201d (2025), mayan blue, mayan green, indigo blue, brazilian wood, mexican honeysuckle, zacatlaxcalli, kina, charcoal, turmeric, beet, alder and beeswax on handmade cotton surface<\/p>\n

\"a\u201cCielo roto\u201d (2025), mayan blue, mayan green, brazilian wood, mexican honeysuckle, zacatlaxcalli, kina, charcoal, turmeric, beet and beeswax on handmade cotton surface<\/p>\n

\"detailDetail of \u201cEclipse\u201d<\/p>\n

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