When artist Gabriel de la Mora was in kindergarten, he took home a school assignment asking him to practice writing the letter “m.” He wrote it, in eight rows, a total of 152 times. When he was finished, on the opposite page, he did the same thing with his left hand, writing the letter in mirror image.
In 1973 in Mexico City, the artist didn’t yet know what dyslexia was or that it was the reason why letters sometimes flipped or scrambled in front of him, more like shapes on a page than words. But that same tendency to invert, rearrange, and transform has stuck with de la Mora his whole life. Now, at 57 years old, this homework assignment registers as the beginning of a lifelong interest in materiality, reflection, and visual illusions that push the limits of human perception.
The artist’s latest show at Perrotin in New York, “Repeated Original,” is on view through April 11 and iterates upon the same ideas that preoccupied him more than five decades ago. “The show’s title is a contradiction because repetition to me doesn’t exist—there are always differences,” says de la Mora.
The exhibition makes use of just two materials, fragmented eggshells and shards of curved reflective glass, glued meticulously in geometric patterns that shift subtly depending on the light and where the viewer stands. Each piece takes its name from the exact number of fragments that comprise it. De la Mora can account for every second it took to glue each one.
As his pieces grow larger, he has brought on a small team of assistants to help. He did so after he calculated that a two meter by two meter work would take more than four years to complete alone. (For those worried about the waste produced to compile all the eggshells, fear not—de la Mora sources them all from Mexico City restaurants and churches that provide large free meals for people in need.)
“Repeated Original,” with its monochromatic palette and limited array of materials, is an exploration of what is possible within confines, but it’s also a rejoicing in radical self-acceptance. In August 1996, de la Mora made the leap from a stable career in architecture in Colima, Mexico, to the unknown art world of New York. “This exhibition celebrates, in a way, 30 years of my career,” he says.
He points to the ways that his dyslexia and autism, which made school and writing a challenge, ultimately helped shape his visual aesthetic and build a thriving artistic community. “I’m sure that many people have different levels of autism, but it’s not a disease,” he says. “Neurodivergence, that term from the late ’90s that I just discovered a little late now, is a different way of thinking and a different way of looking at things.”
Prior to the show at Perrotin, he closed a major career survey at Museo Jumex last month, one that built unexpected bridges between his pieces and viewers. While it’s common for artists to provide guided tours to curators or collectors, de la Mora hoped to engage viewers outside of the art world, so he made a post on Instagram inviting his followers to the museum for a talk. When more than 200 people tried to register for the 35-person tour, he realized he had hit upon something bigger.
Over the show’s six month run, he led 79 tours, as many as four per week, for everyone from seasoned art lovers to deaf children, with the help of an interpreter. For de la Mora, leading these tours helped uncover a new community and open doors to new artistic breakthroughs.
“The Museo Jumex exhibition is a before and after. There are many new things that are coming now,” he concludes. “For me as an artist, I always want to see that my best work is what I’m doing now and what is next, what is coming.”
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