Portals Origin of the Void

Escat Gallery Trafalgar presents Portals Origin of the Void, a solo exhibition by Mexican
artist MAREO (Mareo Rodríguez, Mexico City, 1981). The exhibition opens on January 27,
2025, and will be on view until February 28.
MAREO is a multidisciplinary artist born in Mexico City, raised in Colombia, and currently
based in Barcelona. His practice encompasses painting, sculpture, installation, and digital
media. Over the past decade, he has presented 16 solo exhibitions and participated in
numerous international art fairs, festivals, and artistic projects across North America, Latin
America, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.
The title of the exhibition, Portals Origin of the Void, refers to the beginning of a process of
transformation: the transition from one state to another. The portal is not conceived as a
literal door, but as a symbol of a shift in consciousness—a threshold of deep connection, the
experience of passing through something. The void, meanwhile, is not understood as absence,
but as a living, silent space charged with potential. It is the state reached after crossing the
portal: a territory of pause, shelter, and possibility where inner transformation can take place.
The exhibition proposes a dialogue between installation and works on canvas, constructing a
journey in which both practices complement one another and generate a unified experience
around the two concepts that articulate the show: portals and voids.
The show is structured around two light fissures four meters high, with circular sand bases,
which function as central presences from which the rest of the work expands. These fissures,
the core pieces of the exhibition, act as energetic presences, almost like columns of light, that
structure and organize the space, radiating toward the surrounding works. Beyond referencing
consciousness and the ethereal, they also evoke fundamental patterns found in nature, such as
lightning, rivers, mountain ranges, or cracks in rock formations. Meanwhile, the paintings

begin with a dark, monochromatic palette that gradually becomes illuminated. These circular-
form works belong to the Void series and explore the void as a space for contemplation.