RIO DE JANEIRO.- Machintla, La Sombra El閏trica de Las Cosas, Abraham Gonz醠ez Pacheco’s (San Sim髇 el Alto, Mexico, 1989) first solo exhibition in Brazil combines sculpture, drawing, and painting in an exploration of material history, archaeology and cultural transformation. By reworking the visual codes and social signifiers of Mexican history, his practice destabilizes tradition, from muralismo and its political implications to pre-Hispanic iconography and its ritual associations, opening up pathways toward speculative imaginaries.

The show features new works composed of construction materials such as concrete layered beneath images of hybrid, mutant beings, landscapes and icons. The artist begins by applying pigments onto a flat surface to define basic shapes and forms. Bottle caps are then placed around the composition to support a metal grid slightly above it, leaving a narrow gap between the two layers. Concrete is poured into this gap, and as it sets, it absorbs the pigments and shapes beneath. The resulting works are not painted in the traditional sense; their appearance emerges from the material interaction between pigment and concrete These pieces evoke ancient wall paintings while simultaneously embedding themselves in contemporary urban textures. Built from industrial scrap metal and hardware, these enigmatic objects extend the artist’s dialogue with matter and construction, exposing the entanglements between ruin and possibility.

By positioning monumentality and precarity in constant tension, Gonz醠ez Pacheco offers a language of forms that challenges canonical narratives and insists on alternative futures. His work reframes the residues of history not as static relics but as active agents in the construction of meaning today. In this way, the exhibition foregrounds an artistic vision that is at once deeply rooted in Mexico’s cultural heritage and engaged with global conversations around memory and visual and collective identity.

Among Abraham Gonz醠ez Pacheco’s recent shows are Monopol韙ico Suspendido (Nuestras nuevas ruinas), Museo Experimental el Eco, Mexico City, Mexico (2024); La lumbre de las serpientes, Espacio Doble A, Toluca, Mexico (2022); Texcal, Machete Galer韆, Mexico City, Mexico (2022). Gonzalez has also participated in the group shows Plaza p鷅lica, Centro de Creaci髇 Contempor醤ea de Andaluc韆 (C3A), C髍doba, Spain (2025); Otrs Munds, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (2025); Hist髍ias Ind韌enas, Kode Bergen Art Museum, Bergen, Norway (2024); MASP – Museu de Arte de S鉶 Paulo Assis Chateauriand, S鉶 Paulo, Brazil (2023).