Al borde de la locura, 2021

Within the thick foliage of the Amazon, coca leaves (acullico) pour forth from the thousands of shrubs that turn green, ocher, and yellow owing to the light penetrating the canopies. There, in the immensity of the shadows, powerful roots emerg...

Within the thick foliage of the Amazon, coca leaves (acullico) pour forth from the thousands of shrubs that turn green, ocher, and yellow owing to the light penetrating the canopies. There, in the immensity of the shadows, powerful roots emerge—plants that, when ingested, cause alterations in states of consciousness, transmuting the perception of individuality, of being, and of the environment, reminding us that both the body’s inside and its outside are perceived and imagined at the same time. In this pictorial ensemble, Miguel Ángel Ríos presents a unique vision of himself via self-portraits that explore a fluid and constantly transforming “I,” which with each layer of paint ends up becoming unrecognizable, blurring the distinction between reality and imagination. In this sense, visual elements such as the face, the hat, and the scarf are configured in an amalgam of artistic styles, without any one element losing its own individual style within a composition that seeks to question the conventions of representation in a world governed by social media, and in which identity is characterized by being fixed and immutable. Apart from the light and shadows in Ríos’s visual landscapes, a range of colors is revealed that goes from dark to pastel tones. Fauna is present through lurking postures, operating as reminders, as with the ant that—with a subtle wink—recalls Operación Hormiga (Operation Ant), which is carried out by hand in order to pass coca leaves from one territory to another in southern Latin America, or with the figure of the scorpion that symbolizes a level of the unconscious, full of imagination and uncertainty. \- Mariana Camargo , Curatorial Coordinator Acrylic and oil on canvas