Catalina Bu

For years, simple strokes and imprecise lines have rested across the pages of Catalina Bu’s comics and graphic novels. Spaces and figures have narrated the darker side of everyday situations with a kind of sordid humor, unfolding within the panels of her drawings. As part of the Biombo* exhibition program, this show highlights, through its process of scene construction beyond the confines of linear narrative, a methodology rooted in distraction as a mode of study: waiting at the desk for something to happen, walking, watching films, reading. The dead time of sitting in front of a blank page, devoting oneself to thinking, seeking silence, and somatizing noise. This context is framed by a world saturated with visual stimuli: screen time.

In the face of the vertigo of information and the endless reproduction of images, Catalina Bu engages in the practice of collecting visual fragments—like someone trying to piece together a puzzle. Acknowledging the haze between attention and exhaustion, the artist presents an archive of digital noise composed of: an in-situ intervention on the walls and windows of MAZ’s reading room; a previously unseen series of paintings created specifically for the exhibition; and an audiovisual work in zapping format, featuring brief entries from her daily visual archive—images that appear as if one were frenetically changing channels or endlessly scrolling through an interface.

Tiempo en pantalla reflects an intimate and ambivalent relationship with screens. On one hand, it addresses the impact of overexposure to information and stimuli on her mind, body, and practice; on the other, it expresses a generational sensitivity: people who are exhausted, yet still driven to observe, to be fascinated, and to search for meaning among the clues, patterns, and signals of digital chaos.

* Biombo is a program of the Zapopan Art Museum (MAZ) that supports the expansion of artistic practices grounded in writing, publishing, and editing, through works that are not limited to the book format but nonetheless require reading in order to be understood.

Catalina Bu is a Chilean author and artist. Throughout her career, she has developed a style defined by simple and imprecise lines, crossing disciplines such as drawing, painting, and illustration. Her editorial work includes her first comic Diario de un solo (Catalonia Chile, Tusquets Mexico, Sesi-SP Brazil, La Cafetière France), En Blanco (Catalonia Chile, Almadía Mexico), and her most recent graphic novel Nadie como tú (Fulgencio Pimentel, Spain).

She has participated in various international book fairs and has exhibited her work in South Korea, Italy, China, the United States, and Mexico. She has collaborated with organizations such as the UN, Amnesty International, and World Vision, as well as with brands like Netflix, Vans, Google, Moleskine, H&M, and Sony Music. She currently works independently from her studio in Santiago, Chile.

— Zapopan Art Museum