Zona Maco 2023: Mexico City

“When we talk about how ideas are constructed, I would say for me it is the architecture of my thoughts. It is about the process, reducing forms to basic elements. The interplay between the additive and subtractive, the making and unmaking, constitutes the essence of my work. Using materials such as paint, sand, cement and plaster, working through a process where deconstruction and reconstruction of the surface goes beyond the subjective form of the original image, I appropriate paint conceptually as my “own paint”. The value of a monochrome painting becomes a strategy or a technique where Its self-imposed limitations are often regarded as demanding or difficult, I find it makes my work quite alive and accessible” -Anne-Sophie Øgaard

“Odalisque, is one of the feminine-form representations in Academic painting of the 19th century, as we see for example in Dominique Ingres. We can be surprised that his most famous Odalisque was commissioned by a woman, Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister. Women commissioning this kind of nude was something common at that time. Contrary to what we may think, women’s nudes were reflections of powerful women. I (dare) to compare to the FEMEN, feminist protesters of today. The Odalisque in its time, being probably bolder than FEMEN or nudes in contemporary happenings. Dominique Ingres’ The Grand Odalisque itself was not well understood (even accused of archaicism) in his time but revindicated by 20th century modernity.” -Lino Lago

“Years ago I had the opportunity to visit and stay with a small group of indigenous people who live in the Mididi rainforest near the border between Bolivia and Peru. For the past 10 years or so since my visit to the Mididi, I have titled my paintings after extinct or nearly extinct languages to celebrate and champion the different ways people see the world – through the lens of their culture, and their experiences.” -Donald Martiny