GABRIEL DE LA MORA (b. 1968)

The concept of function performs a central element within Gabriel de la Mora’s oeuvre. By employing a variety of destructive strategies (cancelling, erasing, scratching, inverting), the artist grants a heterogeneous selection of materials new functions. In Lucíferos, de la Mora explores the household match, its ability to generate and consume energy almost immediately, as well as their even more potent ability to ‘consume’ flammable materials more widely. In Lucíferos, de la Mora denies this function to the material. To produce the piece, the artist lit up and quickly extinguished thousands of matches. After this process, the artist is left with the spent matches and striking papers, each imprinted with an action, which collectively, are an indexical record of a gesture repeated at an almost mechanical pace. Arranged on a surface, they produce a formal quality akin to minimalist paintings, particularly those of Frank Stella. De la Mora’s interest in creating paintings outside of painting, through the actions and processes of cancellation, is once again made manifest in this series.