ANTONIO MEZCUA LÓPEZ

–Granada, Spain–

About the Artist:

Antonio Mezcua López earned his undergraduate degree in Art History from the University of Granada in 1999.  Thereafter he lived in China for four years on a Spanish government scholarship studying the techniques of ancient Chinese painting and the use of mineral pigments on paper.  He dedicated his studies to ancient Chinese landscape, gardens, and poetry.  He received his doctorate in Art History from the University of Granada in May 2007.  He was a visiting scholar in The Centre for Visual Art at Oxford University from 2008-9 and from May to July in 2011. He currently lives in Granada, Spain.  His work as a visual artist is based upon a deep investigation of the possibilities of ancient Chinese philosophy and art within a contemporary context that includes painting, poetry and performance. He is deeply influenced by Buddhist Theravada Vipassana meditation and by Daoist philosophy of the Dao De Jing and Zhuang Zi. For him, art is a method for purifying the mind of the defilements of ignorance and a way to flow according to the infinite process of the Dao.

About the work:

“The video-painting Aerial was created during a performance held on December 2, 2011 at the inauguration of my solo painting exhibition at the University of Granada, from a pouring of cream, milk and colours (acrylics, watercolours and Chinese mineral paints, and ink). The painting is developed in time and space following the spontaneity of the moment and formal requirements of the moving structure. Like the Dao, it is a painting that is always different and transforming into surprising new forms. The name “Aerial” is based upon the similitude of the forms with aerial photography of the earth.”

– Antonio Mezcua López

Antonio Mezcua López, Aerial (detail still), December 2, 2011, video painting. © Antonio Mezcua López