“Matter is condensed light"

​My work explores the strength of the topography and natural territory, conceived as an energy living mantle constantly moving; Epidermal stratification wrought by time, with a telluric language emerging, pressing, gravitating, revealing through the landscape.

I seek to cover different scales within my artistic approach, from the massiveness of the mountains and rocks, through its decanting process and fragmentation up to the stone as the basic unit.

​I am interested in the matter as condensation of light and its process of transformation and expansion of energy over time, releasing weight to return to the origin.

Mario Rodriguez was born in Mexico city, raised in Medellin, Colombia and is based in Barcelona. We contacted him for this interview because of our love for his work that so much tributes the power and beauty of nature in its most raw forms, reminding us of the Earth’s surface, volcanic rock, glass, different textures and the complex interplay between their light and shadows.

How did you get into the arts?

All my life I’ve been surrounded by a studio as my mother had one, so I was raised immersed in spaces of creation, clay, casts, paintings, fabrics. I started to create very early, and was rolled in different academies. Then I got a bachelor degree in Architecture in Colombia. But I could say that professionally I started my career in 2013 when I decided to go to Buenos Aires, Arg to make a master in Fine Arts; afterwards I came to Spain in 2014 and opened my own studio.

​Greatest inspiration or influences?

Artists such as Richard Serra, Olafur Eliasson, Richard Long, Anish Kapoor, Pierre Soulages, Carlos Cruz Diez, Jesus Rafael Soto among others, but definitely in the contact with nature I find my best way to get inspired.

​Do you think the art world needs to change, and if so how can it be improved?

The art scene is changing a lot, the new medias and social networks are big windows to spread messages and get to know all over the world, we are experiencing a democratization of the power.

Emerging artists have now their own way to connect with another artists with similar visions, collectors, and eventually galleries that help to grow in their careers. Art is becoming more accessible and less elitist, also people are more aware of the power of healing and transformation of consciousness of making and contemplating art.