Martín Soto Climent

Proyectos Monclova presents for the first time in Mexico, a new series of drawings and pictoral work by the Mexican artist Martín Soto Climent that makes up his exhibition Hay una palabra para nombrar la hora de la noche en silencio.

The exhibition, whose title refers to a meditative state in order to be more perceptive of the environment, includes paintings, drawings and panels made with materials that have a strong symbolic charge. For example, the artist uses carbon, a mineral obtained from the combustion of wood, as a pigment in his drawings, which allows him to explore the monochrome and find other possibilities of color. His monochrome black pieces are born from this material experimentation, in which he makes use of some techniques typical of drawing and painting, such as the superimposition of layers, sgraffito, dripping and soft brushstrokes.

Soto Climent also uses graphite to make drawings on canvas or wood full of sensuality; curved lines that evoke organic forms and allude to life. It is also possible to find eroticism in the pieces made with torn stockings, a material that refers to the female body and that has previously been used by the artist to form diptychs, triptychs and complete installations. The stockings are placed on linen panels to contrast the texture and color of the superimposed fabrics in such a way that generates in the spectators an impulse of touch, a search for caresses.

The works that make up the exhibition by Martín Soto Climent are the result of a meditative experience.

The artist reflects on the vital force that exists in matter and the way in which, in the words of the Taoist painter Shen Tsung-ch'ien, "the artist must reflect at all costs the vital rhythm or movement of each line." This philosophy constantly appears in Soto Climent's practice, since his work addresses the origin –beginning and purpose– and tries to be an honest representation of an order that is expressed in everything. Like a sort of moving meditation, this artistic practice has led him to create a position in front of the world.

— Proyectos Monclova