"PIGMENTO" by Daniel Mattar, is a series that finds itself at some point between the precision
of a camera and experience of a gesture; between the cleanness of printing and dirtiness
of ink; between the mysterious alchemy of colors and its contemporary and global version.

The result challenges us as these almost antagonistic readings overlap, allowing a glimpse
of discarded ideas and choices - like a pentimento.
In 2016, the artist decided to leave the comfort zone offered by his profuse technical
command of photography and initiated a study with colors and gestures, paints and
brushes. He became immersed in abstract painting, transforming his studio into an atelier
and producing large oil paintings. The process was lengthy and gratifying, enriching. The
result, however, did not convince him.

Revisiting the residues of this catharsis /study/research /encounter, Daniel Mattar realized
that something intriguing and powerful was being released by the used paint tubes and
stains; the remains of gestures. He then returned to these vestiges with his eye dilated by
the macro lens and sharpened by hyper-zoom lenses. Thus was born the series,
PIGMENT- Narratives of surfaces.

During this process different layers of images were impelled by the artist´s perception: the
mix of colors stuck on the tubes and the damage, textures and volumes that created a
“planetary” topography on the surfaces of the crushed tubes. Also the alchemic and poetic
legacy of the pigment names: Noir D’Ivoire , Bleu Lumière, Titanium White, replicated
obsessively to attend the demands of globalization: Ombre Naturelle, Raw Umber, Ombra
Naturale, Sombra Natural, Umbra Nature... sometimes even adding other information: Blue
di Cobalto – Imitazione, to make it explicit that the cobalt is no longer there . All these
compulsively stamped with the digital impressions of industrial production, the bar codes.

The final image, printed in large format, subverts the original scale of the objects, creating
an expressive and augmented reality. Produced on C-print, they are mounted on intensely
shiny material. They are precious surfaces for deteriorated surfaces – though worn by the
artistic gesture, which never lacks poetry.