MONTERREY.- Located in ‘Barrio Antiguo’, which is the heart of the artistic district in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and just a few blocks from the Museo de Arte Contemporario and Museo del Noreste, the art gallery Armario 916 possesses within itself an exquisite personalization of it’s own architecture and interior with its unique blend of Mexico’s old ‘barrio’ and new industrial architecture styles under just one roof.

The artwork within the current exhibition,"The Rise of the Observed", hanging on their walls reflects artist dan guz man's very personal view of his paintings.

Considered to be of international renowned ever since guz man (manguzdan) was recognized by the Chinese 2019 Modern Art World Exhibition, he now represents Mexico’s talent as a Modern artist.

Below is the fifth part of a conversation ArtDaily correspondent Liz Marie Gangemi recently had with the artist.

dan guz man: Yes, well, this one is “The urban orange number three” 2022 and pretty much it's the same language, the same thing. Number one, and number two, as well, I am trying to paint, the Monochromatic life of urban atmosphere.

Pull the brakes on growing our cities in terms of surviving as humans first. instead of a concrete block, use bricks. All that pollution situation.

My thing is that, to be honest with you, this one and the other one are like me. I did them very, very fast and very monochromatic. I was at first, not very pleased with them and I wanted to intervene them and paint saturated a little bit more. And then I thought that it was going to be some like, stupid decision. I like them that way. And it has been like an acquired taste because they have grown on me, it's from 2022. I kind of like them more and more progresivly.



Liz Gangemi: Well, I have seen, I also see that the colors are one their themes that are used.

dg: Yes. Well, my guys here, Mike, and yeah everyone at the gallery, decided about advertising and what painting would be the “main theme” representative painting. So, yeah, they love this one “Urban Orange 2022”

LG: They are very nice.

dg: I agree. Thank you very much.

LG: You're welcome and this one such different coloring with the greens, the yellows

dg: I think this is the oldest painting of mine here.

LG: The oldest ?

dg: Yes, is named “The cloud factory” and I painted it. once I was driving with my 4 year old girl (at that time) and she said to me, look at that, I looked to where she indicated and there was this polluterd cloud on top of a chimmeney that belongs to a factiory. It’s a “cloud Factory” she said. and it was in fact a factory that was polluting with a lot of smoke, but the innocence of the thought of the child that sees something good in the bad, you know, it was divine.

LG: Symbolic

dg: Symbolic, yeah.

LG: And it sad actually, really is sad

dg: And kind of like that, the terminated, the inspiration in order for me to start painting it as a matter of…

LG: Protest?

dg: Yes, but in the kind of like, when we inherit cultural beliefs into our children minds. If we don't believe anymore in whatever this (or that) company is producing, eventually we won't buy it, and as a result of that, they will stop producing it you know, that's pretty much the meaning of it. Cutting the wanting process out of ourselves, reduces to zero the pollution, because that wanting obeys to a mental frame given or offered by the outside, you know.



LG: A mentality consumerism mentality.

dg: Yeah. But it is inherited from our parents.

LG: That's right.

dg: You know, it has a lot in it, it has a lot of small landscapes on the inside, you know?, for example, I can point for you one small of them, right over here…

LG: I see, the small child, the small existence.

dg: Correct! And he's like grabbing something in his hand. He has like some sort of a balloon, but that balloon has the face or head of his father. You know?

LG: It's very eerie. The color green is eerie is the word scary ominous making me think about

dg: Ominous. Yeah, and for example, that representation of this head as a balloon carried by this small child, and this being the face of his father that maybe, works inside, here with formulas and math that it's needed in order to run a, you know, a factory, a big, big factory, like this one.

LG: Like the green ball point pen in this one.

dg: Exactly. Here's a small landscape that it's lost there and there's another one here you, see?

LG: Yes. I can see it with parrots

dg: Two birds, exactly

LG: Seagulls, maybe not

dg: Exactly, it's kind of very, very dark it's not that happy, but we are talking about pollution. We are talking about factory. We are talking about monochromatic. We are talking about industrial. This is reality, this is a slap in the face and this is my art.

So, it's not supposed to be decorative. It's not supposed to have a job of lifting our hearts, but mostly like showing reality and making us think about it.

LG: Enlightening thought provoking

dg: Exactly. Okay.

LG: Very nice.

dg: Thank you very much.

LG: Now, move on to the next room. Start with this one right here. Keep Toluca weird II,

dg: Pretty much. It's the continuation of Keep Toluca Weird I, with a little twist, in this one, we have two characters that are like having these conversations about identity, about being Mexican. But in this one you can see the cityscape and the background. Same thing that they are indoors, same thing maybe, inside other building in the same neighborhood.

LG: But in this one they have a pool. They are on the roof top.



dg: Yeah, exactly.

LG: A covered Roof top!

dg: Exactly. So, there's a lot of luxury going on there in certain way, you know this guy's a musician, like I am, he has his instruments there, the drums, the amplifiers,

LG: What does the rug say?

dg: It doesn't say anything; it was just like kind of…

LG: Pattern?

dg: Yeah. A pattern that started as a good accident because I deliberately wanted to paint the carpet first white and then do something else. But I don't know. It started for some reason, with this balls, like if they have represented themselves there, and I left it like that. I liked it that way. Because I wanted to have this glass table with the Ashtray, and because this guy's smoking, you know.

LG: Yeah. I see it.

dg: And the fact that we have that amplifier for the guitar and the pedals, you know, the effects and, the light, the energy, electricity, exactly.
Well, if you touch this one, you can feel here the, or here, the fact that I told you that I scrape a lot my canvases. Like here, you know?

LG: No, this is another one in your pinball series; this is the first one?

dg: Yes, this is the first one.

First one and I wanted to pursue the vertical mode of the painting. Not horizontal, but vertical in terms of having a Pinball like the star of the night, and everything hanging around it, going as a backdrop, the Cityscape. And the technique it's acrylic on Canvas.

LG: And once again, you have a pinball machine with a theme and the theme is your…?

dg: Soul army.

LG: Very nice!



dg: The buttons to operate those “flaps”, and here you have the button that you pull, in order to literally toss the ball to start rolling on top of the surface of the board.

LG: Now, it's like all of those different situations that we talked about earlier, where you hit one and you Rick-cochet to another one, and sometimes it's from good to bad or from bad to good.

dg: And that is life.

LG: It is. And sometimes it just sends you right back at the starting point, and there's nothing you can do, so the flaps try to stop you from falling from grace, happens in life too. And you don't have any choice, but to start all over!

LG: With money and electricity.

LG: That's right.

LG: You need to plug it to the system, in order to start playing. And there is where the paradox resides. Think about it.

LG: That's right.

dg: So, the system, again!