A Conversation with Mareo Rodriguez: Matter is Condensed Light

Mareo Rodriguez

Barcelona-based and Colombian-bred sculptor, painter and architect.

Mareo Rodriguez’s work is filled with the grittiness of natural territory: mountains, rocks, waveforms and lava. His work is inspired by nature, the ever-changing topography of mountains, the condensation of light, and the process of transformation and energy expansion over time.

Mareo’s work is constantly moving, like a tectonic plate, and depicts powerful and beautiful earth forces spanning an array of scales within his artistic approach. He has exhibited internationally in Spain, Italy, France, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Emirates, and England among others.

How did you get started as an artist?

My first approach to art was through the appreciation of the sublime of the landscape. I was always surrounded by the Andes mountain range, which is the mountain range that gives the axis to the South American continent. I grew up in Medellin, a city built in a valley surrounded by majestic mountains.

Eventually, I went deeper and took more aspects of the landscape that fascinated me. There, on the smallest scale, I found textures, lava, natural phenomena inherent to the mineral kingdom, and of course the stone as a fractal unit and memory of the earth.

How would you describe your artistic approach?

My work is a tribute to nature and with it, many questions arise, concerns about physical phenomena, geological formations, the physical laws that govern it, the states of matter, and their transformation.

There is a component that interests me that the spectators feel and it is the divine presence, and the connections and memories of the soul through that sublime that is felt in the contact of nature; I am interested in a relationship of recollection, introspection, immersion, I am interested in touching the soul of people through my art and transmitting light to them.

What inspires you?

My greatest influence is undoubtedly nature, contact with the landscape, natural forces, and the mineral kingdom; everything I need to learn is there.

“My greatest influence is undoubtedly nature, contact with the landscape, natural forces, and the mineral kingdom; everything I need to learn is there.”

On the other hand, the influence of architecture is also very present, using in some cases geometry as a tool to understand space, section the territory, the ability to abstract and minimize the essence of the concept I want to explore, the choice of materials, and the subtlety of how they are used, constructive systems for the installations – all this mental aspect is undoubtedly marked by 15 years of experience in architecture. It is also complemented by the organicism of my relationship with nature – that is the emotional, visceral and spiritual part.