Jou Morales & David Zafra

Extracted earth

Controlled water

Reserved air

Contained fire

Damp earth to attain mud

Water to bind, to knead the clay - to make it malleable / workable

Air to dry the clay object

Fire to burn the clay object

Campeche presents Mobile Suit, a collaborative exhibition by artists Jou Morales and David Zafra, including a new series of paintings and sculptures that question the excessive use of technology in today’s day and age. Taking as a starting point the extraction of natural resources for the construction of machines, the artists return to the pure harmony of the four elements, to create a body of work that refers to a mechanized future, and thus understand that the greatest refuge and protection is the principle of manual / artisanal creation.

Jou Morales (b. 1990, Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico) received a BA in Plastic and Visual Arts from the Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez in Oaxaca. His most recent exhibitions include Llanero, Residencia 797, Guadalajara, Mexico, Atlas de la Loma, kurimanzutto, Mexico City, Mexico. Carroñero, Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca (IAGO), Oaxaca, Mexico. He also received the Jóvenes Creadores grant 2020-2021 from the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA), as well as a grant from the Patronato de Arte Contemporáneo in 2019.

David Zafra (b. 1992, Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico) received a BA in Plastic and Visual Arts from the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado La Esmeralda in Mexico City. His most recent exhibitions include This (Supposedly) Must Be The Place, Beverly's Gallery, Visa projects, New York, USA, 30 years of engraving art in Oaxaca, Sangfer Studio, Somers Gallery, London, UK and Loma bonita, kurimanzutto, Mexico City, Mexico. Zafra has been a faculty member at the Universidad Benito Juárez de Oaxaca since 2019.

Morales and Zafra both live and work in Oaxaca and are co-founders and active members of YOPE PROJECTS SPACE.

— Campeche