Mexico City-based artist Alexis Mata, has been drawn to distortion throughout his creative career. He has explored this visual concept across a wide array of media, including collage, sculpture, and installation, allowing him to ponder beauty and perception. But instead of going deeper, he has chosen to part with it, opening new creative channels and offering a lesson in spiritual renewal.
“There’s beauty in [mirages], in how the mind decodes what it wishes to see, almost like magic,” Mata previously told My Modern Met, when his series Fata Morgana was on view at The Hole in New York. Now, he’s getting a full circle moment, as his latest endeavor, titled Sublime Paraíso (“Sublime Paradise”), is exhibited in his hometown at Maia Contemporary gallery.
For his latest exhibition, Mata lets go of the melancholic atmosphere of his previous work to go on a journey of self-discovery. To do so, he explores natural landscapes from a warped lens, as if looking at them through a broken glass. The plants and skies that inhabit his compositions are more than nods to their earthly counterparts; they signal to an inner oasis among the emotional desert that can sometimes surround us.
Mata describes these new compositions as visual poems, where innovation and growth take the shape of blooming cacti and meteors breaking through the atmosphere. Here, the alluring psychedelic aesthetic is not a way to disguise reality, but rather to take it all in and see what could be beyond it.
We recently spoke to Mata about his creative process, the allure of illusion, and the meaning of bringing his work home. Read on for My Modern Met’s exclusive interview.
What draws you to the glitch motifs that appear throughout your work?
I’m drawn to visual errors. I feel there’s a certain beauty in them, and I’ve explored that idea in my body of work from the very beginning. I’ve tried to refine it up to where I am now. However, in this exhibition, there’s a part where I move away from the glitch and the error, to begin a new stage.
What inspires your compositions and the themes in the works that make up Sublime Paraíso?
In this series, Sublime Paraíso, I’m reflecting many intimate things—a deep dive inward, an inner landscape, so to speak. It’s a very surreal series, playing between dreams and reality. There’s a part where cacti intertwine with skeletons, but in reality, it’s a very beautiful visual poem. I tried to represent the moment when a cactus blooms—that instant when it dies to give new life to another—and that sparked much of the exhibition: life and death as a cycle.
There are also sculptures I’ve been drawing for many years. I even have them tattooed as amulets, and in this show I let them take form as sculptures for the first time—something very new in my practice.
There’s a cloud with thorns and a lightning bolt that I dreamed about long ago, a cactus with a snake ascending, which gives me the idea of moving forward, of rising, and meteorites falling as symbols of change, detonation, and explosion.
I feel these represent three stages of the series—speaking of a paradise. I think it’s a very mystical body of work, at least from my perspective. I tried to make each painting feel like a poem.
How did your creative journey begin?
In this exhibition, I revisited ideas that I’ve carried with me for a long time, letting out my more mystical and spiritual side. It’s a very mental show.
I struggled quite a bit with color—I changed the entire palette compared to my previous exhibition. I was also reading a lot about symbols, archetypes, and Bosch. I felt identified with The Garden of Earthly Delights; these works carry a lot of layered information.
What does your creative process look like?
It really varies. Some days, I sit down and make sketches while listening to music, and time just disappears. I try to connect to that world called “the idea” (haha).
I love walking and riding my bike; those are very intimate moments with myself, and I feel that’s when good ideas are born. I’m in a phase of my life where I can spend hours watching a sunset or a landscape without rushing, and that sparks all kinds of ideas —and, of course, imagined landscapes.
Having experimented with different media, what draws you to oil painting?
I’m fascinated by the experimentation with pigment and how it changes when you mix tones, colors, and varnishes. It’s a challenging medium.
I love painting because my process often begins digitally, and bringing it into the physical, analog world feels like giving it life.
That’s also why I experiment with other media—I still believe ideas can travel through different formats. Recently, I’ve made sculptures and paintings, and now I want to return to working with stained glass, ceramics, and textiles.
How does it feel to have your work exhibited in your home country compared to abroad?
I was very nervous—it’s my home, my country. It had been three years since I last exhibited in Mexico, so I wanted to give it my best. I felt very supported by my gallery in Mexico City and by my assistants, who are also an essential part of the process.
Mexico is a place full of artists and culture that continues to grow. Because of that, the level keeps rising in every aspect, and as a Mexican, that motivates me to work harder and raise the quality of my production.
What do you hope people take away from your work?
An adventure, a game, mixed emotions. Honestly, I don’t like to expect anything—I like to feel that anything can happen.
Of course, we all hope people enjoy the work, that it’s seen in more places, that it reaches museums. But these days, being in Europe for a residency, it feels really good to see so many people visiting the gallery and sharing stories. I’m so grateful to all of them!
Exhibition Information:
Alexis Mata
Sublime Paraíso
From October 25, 2025
Maia Contemporary
Colima 159, Roma Norte, Mexico City, Mexico
Alexis Mata: Website | Instagram
My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Maia Contemporary.
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