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 third part of a conversation ArtDaily correspondent Liz Marie Gangemi recently had with the artist.


The Three Souls in My Mind (The Soul Army), 2020 .61 x .61 m. Acrylic on panel


dan guz man: All right this one is “The Three Souls in My Mind”, the one that started everything about the soul army. And I painted this one because of my wife, who is this one and my two daughters, (pointing at them) but I didn't want to paint them in reality, and I developed this helmet in order to hide the fact that I was very uncertain on how to.

Liz Gangemi: Represent them…?

dg: Yeah, and I didn't want it to show their real faces. It was just a representation I needed to hide their faces and these helmets were perfect in order to achieve that. And this one's pretty much very, very (Aware) this is the one that I think that does not have anything hidden, like, at least consciously because.

LG: Okay. No messages.

dg: No, no messages or whatever. It's just like other than these, two, and that's it, but

LG: Is the yellow sunshine or not even?

dg: Not even, no, no. It was like a few colors that I wanted to use in

LG: This is not an easy yellow to use. This is Amarillo Cadmio (Cadmium Yellow)

dg: Sì, Cadmio – sì....no rebajado. (Yes, Cadmium – yes, not blended.)

LG: No, I know. I can see it.

dg: Exactly.

LG: And the titles are “The Three Souls in my Mind”

dg: You want to switch to this one?


The End of Saturation, 2020. .61 x .61 m. Acrylic on panel


LG: Yep. Let's continue on. Now. We have here, “The End of Saturation”.

dg: This one is a funny story because I was once with a friend of mine and he is a painter as well. And he told me; we were talking about our paintings. His work and my work we are like, comparing a little bit.

And he goes like, “You know what? I am a big fan of your work. I love your work. But the fact is that when you enter to an exhibition, a big room, a big, big room, your work,” my work “it's pretty much not highlighted by the eye look, you know, because when you get to see the room, your work is disguised between everything. And the fact that you don't paint one thing, that you paint lots of things in small areas makes it very saturated.”

And he was recommending me not to do it in order to paint one thing, just one thing. And I was like, “Oh, you know what? Yeah, I am going to do it.” I thought to myself, yeah, I am going to do it. I am going to paint one thing and I did a painting that it's not here, but it's the result of that conversation.

But the thing is that I said to myself “Prior to doing that one, I am going to do the last one, very saturated, because it's my style. I love saturating things. I love hiding small things here and there.”

LG: Messages.

dg: Uhhuh (affirmation hum , And I named it “The End of Saturation” because it was going to be my last saturated painting. which ended up not being the last one, obviously. I liked it a lot, it's already sold and there's a lot going on here.

LG: Is this you?

dg: No, no, it's not me, I am not here at all,

LG: But it is the only person in the picture.

dg: No, there are several more.

LG: Are there?

dg: Yeah.

LG: Okay. Alright. Oh, I see another person right there

dg: Oh yeah, that's another one. Yeah.

LG: Very good. The ballpoint pen in the nose

dg: Exactly in the




LG: The face and the lips

dg: Exactly.

LG: Now, if we move on

dg: Exactly The Ritual”.

LG: Just a moment ago.

dg: And it's that same face of the system, which is a little bit here, and a little bit in my other paintings, always on the right.

Always looking at the spectator, always present, always hearing, always looking. And this one it's kind of like, it was my own personal way of saying I was painting these paintings and I thought I always make the same ritual. I am always preparing the paints this way. I always prepare my canvases this way. And I am going to do it very different in this one. I am going to try and see if I can pull something out of my head different. And I started using my left hand and drawing well with my eyes closed, you know, in order to achieve something different. And at first, I got to be honest with you, this small body of water and the sky, which is the same paint. The same air spray and at first it was black. And then I got the air spray, I did this and here, (pointing at the inside of the painting) I started with the buildings, and then the face. This was not supposed to be there. (pointing at the pink face, showing at the right of the painting)

LG: But this, like this staff is this, it almost looks like the head of a Jaguar Balam I don't even know. What is it?

dg: It's a panther,

LG: A panther, black panther?

dg: Black panther composed out of formulas.

LG: I was going to say, it looks like the Pink Panther, but in black,

dg: But exactly it is how you say it. It's a black panther only that, it's made out of formulas. And those formulas belong to, mathematical formulas for lines.

Curves and lines, which define the reality that we live in and stuff like that, you know? And so, this detail (pointing at the painting). I would say it is a lantern, this guy handles it to light his way. in order to see where he is going, his path.
it's kind of like me, sort of looking for a ‘truth spade’.

Out of the reality that emerges from this system we live in, because it's the system we belong to, like it or not. And we have to deal we it.

I mean, we want to change the world? Yes. Only you can`t do it using the same system versus the system, because you depend on the system. You know? it's kind of like a paradox and that's what this painting depicts.

LG: Okay, very interesting, very interesting

dg: Thank you very much.

LG: Okay. Now let's move on


Visit Neptune, 2020. .60 x .80 cm. Mixed technique on canvas.


dg: You have this one, which is “Visit Neptune”, and it was like some sort of a flyer From some other planet where if you, I don't know, like if you have this….yeah….this pamphlet of ‘Visit Cancun’ or whatever and there is this picture of the ocean

LG: And these people are wearing bathing suits?

dg: Yeah, and this guy, this is my friend Eugenio the guy that makes the podcasts with me and we have a band together and…

LG: Is he pushing a shopping cart?

dg: Yeah, like a baby.

LG: Oh, okay. A stroller.

dg: A stroller. Exactly.

LG: Okay. I like Neptune. I like the metallic in there.

dg: You got it. Yeah.


"Ancestors Random Beliefs" series, 2020. 32 x .25 m


LG: Very, very interesting painting

dg: These three are my ancestors, my grandpa, grand-grand, dad and I don't know how to say it in English, but

LG: Great-great -grandfather - tatarabuelo

dg: Yeah great, great grandfather. Exactly and I mean, there were regular common people, but I envisioned them as heroes like space CAdets or people that had this, I don't know, more galactical jobs, or more, fun I supose. Like If I was still a kid, you know? Ok, I want to share this with you, I kind of, quit being an adult, in order to “go back” to my early age as a kid and be able to paint this.

LG: To produce.

dg: To produce yes. Exactly, because if I keep being an adult, I will always go like, no, no, no, no. You know, and the kid doesn't give a shit.

LG: That's right, that's right. They have no inhibitions.

dg: Exactly, exactly. This one's called “Everything Was Okay Until I Started Thinking About This”, two the first one, no, actually it's three, because the first one I broke it. It was painted on a pizza box and a friend of mine looked at it and he told me; I love this painting. He looked at an Instagram picture and he was like, how much? And I told him, and he was like, it's mine. And, so he made me a deposit right there.

So I go back to my house, very happy with my wife. “Hey, I sold the painting.” -I said, Yeah great, which painting? She aske me). And then I told her, and she goes like, you destroyed that painting. I was like, what? She told me, “Yeah, remember you were angry and you tore it apart.” I use to do that. I used to do that and not anymore.