El Sol Detrás: Diego Melgoza
By Brenda Tan
Originally from Mexico City, Santa Barbara based artist Diego Melgoza, aka Melgo, is a painter, graphic designer and musician working across media. His upcoming show at the Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop, slated for April 2022, is a study in the theme of “progress through knowledge.”
Of Mexican heritage, Melgoza’s practice incorporates concepts drawn from different indigenous cultures with an aim to promote a collective culture that values nature and seeks connection with the Earth. He is inspired by indigenous cultures and the efforts led by indigenous peoples to protect the land and natural resources.
One can see the emergence of these motifs in Self-creation of Flora and Fauna (2019), in which Melgoza depicts a creation story through abstraction. Fragments of living, anatomical shapes – muscles, bones, and organs – are presented as flat two-dimensional objects on a color plane. Imbued with living qualities, the objects are alchemized into one another as they come into being. The piece speaks to the idea that energy cannot be destroyed, only transformed.
El Sol Detrás del Sol (2020) incorporates the concept of sacred geometry to consider the presence of spirituality in painting. The precise measurements and shapes reflected in the representation of celestial bodies as well as the non-representational shapes on the left side of the painting balance the composition in a way that mirrors the harmony of geometric shapes found in all organic matter – from the shapes of molecules to the symmetry of a leaf.
Diego Melgoza, Obliterate the Beast, oil on canvas
When painting Obliterate the Beast amidst the political upheaval of 2020, specifically the George Floyd protests, Melgoza says he felt angry. Rather than creating meaning through abstraction, in Obliterate the Beast, Melgoza embedded lines of text, such as “Profit for War” and “Profit for Incarceration” to make his statement of protest clear.
“I felt the need to create something brutally honest,” Melgoza says. “I feel that a lot of people in the US have the privilege to look the other way when social injustice or tragedy occurs. I think people need to know the harsh truth of this country, to recognize and see how we operate as a nation, in order to progress. It’s up to each individual to do their part to make a better society/world. The macro relationship begins by seeing each other and hearing one another – to take into account other individuals, life forms, ecosystems, etc. To change our relationship with the land and all living things.”
Melgoza will present a solo show of his work, Progress through Knowledge, at the CAW, 631 Garden St. Santa Barbara, April 7-8.
Cover Image: Diego Melgoza, El Sol Detras del Sol, oil on canvas.
This article was originally published in Lum Art Magazine Issue 05.
Art feature sponsored by the Lisa McCann Group.
