MONTERREY.- Located in ‘Barrio Antiguo’, which is the heart of the artistic district in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and just a few blocks from the Museo de Arte Contemporario and Museo del Noreste, the art gallery Armario 916 possesses within itself an exquisite personalization of it’s own architecture and interior with its unique blend of Mexico’s old ‘barrio’ and new industrial architecture styles under just one roof.

The artwork within the current exhibition,"The Rise of the Observed", hanging on their walls reflects artist dan guz man's very personal view of his paintings.

Considered to be of international renowned ever since guz man (manguzdan) was recognized by the Chinese 2019 Modern Art World Exhibition, he now represents Mexico’s talent as a Modern artist.

Below is the second part of a conversation ArtDaily correspondent Liz Marie Gangemi recently had with the artist.

dan guz man: Okay. It's the,

Liz Gangemi: Is this the series of three right here?

dg: This series of three. I painted them at the same time, you can tell because of the color palette and the first one is named “The Ibarguengoitia´s Rug Ended Up Being Magical”, but in Spanish it's “El Tapete de los Ibarguengoitia Resulto Que Si Era Magico” and you can see that there are a lot of things going on, that chimney by the way, it's a chimney that I have built three in real life, which is a metal tube with a big rounded chamber, and you can see the woman who tossed the tray to the floor with all sorts of things, the chair and everything, because is one of those rugs, you know! The idea was sort of an Arab flying carpet.


El Tapete de los Ibarguengoitia Resulto Que Si Era Magico, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 50 cm


LG: So then is that the actual carpet? The red,

dg: Yeah,

LG: Square up there. It's not a bed, it's a carpet with somebody on it, riding it. Okay.

dg: Exactly, exactly. All right. And now the next one it's called how do you say (guardar) ?

LG: I saved?

dg: I saved, yeah. ”I Saved One of Your Kisses in My Underwear Drawer”.


Guarde un Beso Tuyo en mi Cajon de los Calzones, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 50 cm.


Exactly and the thing is that I found a small paper tissue in my studio, actually. It had the lipstick lips on it, (you know) that extra lipstick that women sometimes perceive that they have, and then they grab a paper or tissue and they take off the extra lipstick? And it’s her (lips) and it was trash or something. So, I looked at it and instead of throwing it away, I thought, “I am going to save it because it's a kiss”, it's a kiss from my wife. And then I went to my drawer, the one I use for my underwear, and I was opening it (to save it). And when I was putting it down, for some reason, I looked up and I thought, “this is a painting”… So it was in that moment, when I thought “this is a painting”, then II made the draft and then the painting.

LG: And are you inside a closet? Are those suitcases?

dg: Yes.

LG: Things kept all around you, all right.

dg: Exactly, exactly.

LG: Okay. Now the lower one, the television set again,

dg: Again.

LG: Recurring theme.

dg: Again, and in this is Farrah. I wanted to paint Farrah Fawcett and Bela Lugosi in their most unusual way, which are persons (that I believe) never met. And that, for some reason, it was important for me that they were together at that moment and watching a game. So you can see through the TV set, you can see a soccer match. And they are having some munchies to eat and some red wine and some Cheetos. And that's it, it's a very simple representation of a sketch or a rough draft. I dig a lot the idea of doing it and when I was doing the other two, I already had a lot of paint made, so it was like, “I will use it”…I have never liked letting fresh paint already prepared get to dry and throw it away. Instead I rather pour it over another canvas or so.


Farrah y Lugosi Miran el Partido por la TV Abierta, 2022. Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 50 cm.

LG: well, they are very nice. I like the color.

dg: Thank you very much.

LG: Farrah Fawcett would love it.

dg: Farrah Fawcett would love it. I don't know if she's still alive.

LG: No, she passed away.




dg: Oh, really?

LG: Yeah. She passed away. same day that Michael Jackson did.

dg: That was the reason why nobody remembers because Michael Jackson took all the attention.

LG: She was from Texas,

dg: Really?

LG: Farrah Fawcett yeah. She wasn't even trying to be a movie star. They just discovered her. She was a cheerleader.

dg:: Oh, really?

LG: Yeah. Okay. Now let's start over here with this one.


Keep Toluca Weird I, 2020. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 80 x 80 cm.


dg: Alrighty. This one's called Keep Toluca Weird 1 (I did two versions of the concept and this is number 1)

LG: Keep Toluca weird 1

dg: This (painting) is mocking Mexican people, (not everyone of course) but directly to a certain group because, when during a certain period in my life, I used to ride a motorcycle. (That was my transportation vehicle.) I started to make friends with guys that were in motorcycles as well. Good friends! And we started traveling to Texas to attend shows and music concerts, you know, having a good time. Guys and motorcycles. But then I discovered the lack of identity of Mexican people, you know? Because …me… being Mexican and knowing how Mexican people are, how we think, how we talk, how we, everything, I see that these (other people) are trying to imitate people, from the US (mainly) or from other areas or places. And it's kind of disappointing at certain point that we, as Mexicans are trying to copy or, you know imitate other cultural behavior. Typically nasty behavior.

LG: Practices, ideas, beliefs.

dg: Exactly. It’s kind of like that

LG: And what is weird in Toluca?

dg: Nothing. The thing is that Austin, Texas has this very famous saying, it's a a very, very famous thing. You can see a lot of t-shirts or stickers, that read, “keep Austin weird”.

Because Austin, Texas, it kind of like a “weird” city because it's filled with universities, colleges, etcetera. And it's a city filled with college people, but keep Toluca weird. It's… me mocking at my own, Mexicans (with a lack of identity) trying to copy behavior and cultural preferences, you know, how it works. It's kind of like stupid. Because, Toluca was never weird, you know, and (maybe) it will never be, it's a very regular Mexican city, I grabbed the first name that came to mind, it could have been Saltillo, or Puebla, it could have been whatever city, Toluca was the first name I thought.

So I am wearing my helmet, which is a motorcycle helmet, my personal helmet. And as you can see, it's kind of like the themes and things

LG: Is this like a bean bag chair?

dg: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, a bean bag that I wanted to resemble some sort of Pac-Man. Remember the Pac-Man?

LG: Oh, yes. I remember.

dg: I wanted it to look as if a Pac-Man seat is eating the person. (Sitting on it) mixed with a race car seat, with this kind of yellow upholstery. You know, very, very nice leather stuffed like that. Well, and this drink? I always represent drinks, you know? Glasses with water or wine or whatever liquids. It's just like some sort of part off the mockup.

LG: Very light, little color in this picture as compared to your other pictures. I see what? Four or five colors?

dg: Very much. Yes. Yeah.

LG: Okay. Now let's move on because here are some, more colorful paintings. Well, first let's look at this one.


El Regreso, 2018. Acrylic on panel, 1.0 x 1 m.


dg: This one is from 2018, it's called The Return and I made this one because I (kind of) wrote, I am saying “kind of”, because we never finished (a friend of mine and myself) a screenplay of a short film. And it was a science fiction fantasy. And we had these characters, which are “The Math Woman”, which is this one, and “The Time Captain” which is this one.

“The Math Woman” travels in this spaceship (pointing at the painting) and “The Time Capitan” travels in this plane, representing freedom, sort of like animal wings, like a bird wing.. or an insect . It’s not important.

LG: Look, it's very shiny. What kind of material is it? This town here? What is this? Is this the surface of a planet or…?

dg: Well, it’s the surface of the world, the surface. And in my idea, this is the sky and this is the ground, but the painting lies over a photograph.

LG:Ah, I thought so.

dg: It is photographic paper, because first I took the photo, and the photo is a composition of metal objects, and then I Intervened the photo with my painting (acrylics) over that surface.