Ricardo Mazal
Untitled, 2011, from the “Kora” series
32 ½ × 29 inches
Monotype
Courtesy of Elins-Eagles Smith Gallery

Retail value: $4,500

In his work, Ricardo Mazal work explores the process of visual perception within human consciousness. Untitled, 2011, is from his recent series “Kora,” which was inspired by his three-week journey to the sky burials of Tibet’s holiest summit, Mount Kailash. Mazal explores the passage of time and the mental registration of imagery along the way, such as the striated façade of the mountain, the wooden boxes of pigments in the frontier town Darchen, and the prayer flags streaming in the wind. These themes gave rise to three distinct bodies of work within the “Kora” series: “Kailash,” “Cajas (Boxes),” and “Prayer Flags.” 

Untitled belongs to the “Prayer Flags” subset. The prayer flags of Mount Kailash mark specific points of the Buddhist pilgrimage, Kora, around the mountain. Mazal was fascinated by the flags’ unique and vibrant colors and persistent movement and this group of works are the most visceral and ecstatic. Despite the functional service the flags provide, Mazal presents them as abstract fragments, metaphoric guideposts for an imaginative personal journey.

Mazal begins by taking a photograph, which he then manipulates on the computer into a digital sketch. He then translates the sketch onto a canvas or, in this case, creates a monotype. Conceptually, his process, as well as his art, is itself a journey from realism to abstraction.

Ricardo Mazal was born in Mexico in 1950 and after many years in Barcelona, today divides his time between New York and Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has exhibited extensively in the United States, Mexico, and Spain, as well as Canada, and, recently, Hong Kong. Mazal’s work is represented in public, private, and corporate collections around the world, including the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; Fondation Maeght, Paris; the contemporary art collection of Cirque du Soleil, Montreal; and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona.

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