Gabriel de la Mora’s first solo show at London’s Timothy Taylor Gallery

Emma O'Kelly, Wallpaper, 26 May 2017

For his first solo show in Europe, artist Gabriel de la Mora scoured the printing presses and flea markets of his native Mexico City. He then transformed his ‘finds’ into 11 works that go on show at today at London’s Timothy Taylor Gallery.

From a distance, they look like abstract painted canvases but closer inspection reveals them to be collages. Some are made from rubber blankets salvaged from old printers and stained with traces of black, cyan, magenta and yellow ink. Others are made from aluminum plates, salvaged from the same printers and sliced meticulously into graphic segments. A final work is made from antique stereoscopic glass slides that have been cut into the gallery walls.

De la Mora was an architect before switching to art 20 years ago. He works with functional materials that are almost obsolete, ‘at the point where they’re really close to being trash. I like to see them change from being the end of one thing to becoming the beginning of another.’