Mahara+Co & ArtSpace 305 are pleased to invite you to the first solo exhibition in Miami by artist Gabino A. Castelán on Saturday, December 2, 2023. 5- 9 pm

“The Dream of Ometecuhtli” is a journey through Castelán’s pictorial universe, where everyday life, mythology, and the Nahuatl concept of “Nepantla” merge to generate colorful, geometric, and dreamscape imagery. This exhibition profoundly explores liminal space, where dichotomy and transition converge—manifested through powerful images that intertwine personal memories, literature, and art history and bridge stories of subjugation from different times and places. 

Ometeotl, the dual god comprising Ometecuhtli and Omecihuatl, is the supreme creator deity of the Aztecs, who resides in Omeyocan, the place of duality. In this visual journey, Castelán pays tribute to this polarity and the conflicts and desires of the human experience. His paintings and works on paper dive into “Nepantla,” a concept representing the space between two worlds where one’s psychic, spiritual, and material points have potential transformation. In these works, the tangible and the abstract unite in a harmony of color and form.

Castelán depicts the worker as a phenomenon immersed in an epic journey of metamorphosis through the layering of drawing, painting, and collage. The tragedy of economic exploitation intersects with the fundamental truths of humanity: hunting, gathering, work, love, death, birth, marriage. In this body of work, the laborer is revered as the creator of the goods that sustain modern life. These works are not only a visual testimony of histories of agony but also of joy and self-determination. For Castelán, what’s important is how these stories echo through generations and what we can learn from them.

“The Dream of Ometecuhtli” is an exhibition that anchors us in our humanity and reminds us to accept ourselves – our own life stories. Through the ambiguity and mystery meticulously incorporated in each work, Castelán visually invites us to reflect on our own transformation as individuals and as a collective.