Eduardo Terrazas

Eduardo Terrazas 626

Eduardo Terrazas is one of the leading artists of the Mexican contemporary art scene. Through the years he has worked within design, art and architecture, but also in fields such as museology and urban planning.

Terrazas began experimenting with geometrical patterns in the 1970s, inspired by abstract art, De Stijl and architecture. These were later merged with the visual language and techniques of Mexican folk art. Together these different elements create a unique and attractive blend of contemporary art, the European avant-garde and older South American craft traditions.

The piece “1.1.149” is highly typical of Terrazas' art. In it he has worked with geometrical shapes and patterns, bright colours, and techniques developed for centuries by the Huichol people, part of the Mexican indigenous population.

The technique, where coloured wool yarn is arranged on a wax-covered board, creates an exciting relief effect, which in combination with the graphic patterns gives the work its distinctive character. It is a complicated technique favoured by Terrazas not only for its aesthetic qualities but also for the meditative aspect it lends the creative process.

Eduardo Terrazas is represented by Timothy Taylor Gallery in New York and Nils Stærk in Copenhagen – where this particular painting was shown at a solo exhibition of Terrazas’s work in 2015. “1.1.149” is part of a small group of paintings in the series “Possibilities of a Structure”. The subgroup to this series is called “Cosmos series” where, like a kaleidoscope, the artist breaks up strict lines to displace the symmetry of the motif.