ROSA MARÍA SÁNCHEZ LARA
We often draw in our imagination the strokes we see on the moon, we chisel in memory the volumes of the clouds. Without much thought, we see faces in the veins of marble or onyx. Though different for each of us, they are there, in the depths, in their geological formations. They are nature's fortuitous designs. Psychologically, this is called pareidolia.
Peñalta not only observes these forms, he analyzes them, recreates them. He delves into them through a perceptual process. For him, the rocky formations are more than an accident; they are part of a material evolution, of a geological movement that results in figures and faces, beings born from imagination. From there, he rescues and translates them into oil paintings, following what comes to him, incorporating them into a new sense, transforming them. The stone structures are the support, the veins he finds, his inspiration.
Nature returns forms to us with which we play and fantasize; perhaps we have seen them before, we do not know, maybe they passed through our gaze without stopping us. Peñalta discovers them and removes their silent veil. He recounts: once, he observed a marble floor closely, characters and faces appeared. "I always carry a graphite pencil with me," he continues his narrative, "I started drawing the profiles, they were no longer just stains, random lines, I kept going and going... and that's how I found my dialogue with the rocks.
His ally is science, the ecosystem he found on his walks through the mountains, in the request of space, in his relationship with the environment. A lawyer by training, he veered away from laws and followed the voice within him. He became aware that "art is the most powerful and effective of all forms of human communication" and decided to stay on the path of the visual artist since 2017. To date, he has exhibited in different museums, including the Museum of Geology in 2018 and recently, at the UNAM Institute of Geology, with the installation of the piece "Medusa's Wink."
Regarding the exhibition at the Museum of Geology, Peñalta comments:
"The connection with the quarry of each of the pieces was immediate. Geologist Juan Carlos Cruz Ocampo conducted a petrographic study and then obtained photomicrographs that were enlarged and exhibited in lightboxes next to each piece. The spectacle was wonderful because one could find color ranges: violets, blues, or reds, in a rock that appears gray to the naked eye.
And he continues his narrative:
"There are unfinished faces that I would like to complete; however, there are occasions when the conditions of the rock do not allow me to do so, and I understand that I must give up and give their place to the millennia-old veins, always seeking harmonization with nature."
Works like Peñalta's make it clear that art and science can complement each other, even though their means of expression are different. Both are the result of a way of seeing and approaching things. The process follows the rules and the method itself in each case. We have seen aesthetic experiences where space is the support, the environment where the element we call art emerges, the means are given through light, water, energy. Its handling results in form, aesthetic value, the gaze that surprises us in such a way that it is not possible to fragment nature, the spiritual aspect of the feats of intelligence. The adventure of finding cosmic order is followed by the integration of mind, spirit, and body.
Sources consulted:
Dialogues between humanity and nature, exhibition at the Vlady Center, May, June 2022, Canal 22 Report, accessed 06/19/2022
Visual artist Peñalta will present the exhibition "Stone Revelations" at the ISSSTE Gallery, accessed 06/18/2022
Interview Laura Barrera with Alan Peñalta, https://www.penalta.mx/.../10/1/entrevista-en-canal-22-2018, accessed 06/18/2022
Macmasters Merry, In Medusa's Wink, Peñalta's monumental oil on marble, science and art coexist, La Jornada, May 23, 2022, https://www.jornada.com.mx/.../en-el-guino-de-la-medusa.../, accessed 06/19/22
Peñalta, https://www.penalta.mx/home, accessed 06/19/2020
Interview with Master Luis Espinosa Arrubarrena, director of the Museum of Geology, June 18, 2022