Exhibition by Gerardo K’ulej
at Espacio MUY
Code: a law; something written-in-systems; symbols; instructions for communicating
Figure: things that represent, communicate meaning, or signify through another symbol.
Maya: cultural invention
1.0: binary code; the mathematical revolution invention (Maya and non-Maya) of zero, upon which digital technology is based.

In traditional Western sculpture, the artist materialized their ideas in the form of stone; whereas the classic Maya wrote on stone as a kind of blank or white support. In contemporary Maya art, and with the work of Gerardo K’ulej, the stone speaks for itself and the artist’s job is to place the object so that the stone resonates through our senses. We may feel that we are ‘hearing” it in its own voice.

As we “hear” the material, we are also hearing the artist. Who is K’ulej? He is a man rich in reflections about being Maya, here and now.
Adventurous: he up and left familiar Ch’ilil at a young age without resources, driven to study the material world, made living: biochemistry.
Smart, with a mission: he completed a master’s degree, not to secure a salary but to appropriate Western science and mathematics to deeply understand – and contribute to – Maya knowledge systems (past, present and future).

Grounded: without ever claiming to be one-who-knows, he formulates (assembles forms representing) his crystalized reflections, often – usually – with seriojocular wit in K’ulejian style. The juxtaposition of materials — the broken comal with her me(n)tal chip — is funnily iconoclastic neo-iconism characteristic of the playful creator.

This exhibition is a semi-colon: a whole proposition carefully curated and a moment in K’ulej’s on-going process-art. He works in series largely defined by the medium: abstract sculpture, conceptual photography, digital visualizations of everyday life and his poetic-philosophical writing (linked to specificworks or free-standing, as found in the show’s catalogue) depict a beautifully cross-eyed Maya person in a world as complexly rooted in a past-present as in a present-future undergoing dizzying acceleration.
If this takes us on a journey through time, it is “backward” — when the stone hearth constituted real space — and “forward” when the hearth becomes real again through computational codes. It is a movement of becoming and returning that vibrates, faster and faster. Just as one feels vibrations, we see-hear a vibrant show of K’ulej 1.0(infinity).

One more important note: Gerardo’s artistic practice is uniquely social to the point that he aliases authorship. He’s in constant consultation with fellow artists (such as PH Joel, Darwin, Margarita) and intercultural intellectuals (such as Burka, Kees, Misgav and others); their conversation is folded into the masa of his conceptual pieces. He is one of the maestros of the collective authorship characteristic of the school of contemporary Chiapanec Maya art. As the art is dialogic in this sense, you as interlocutors are now privleged collaborators. Let Gerardo, and all of us, know what you think.

Espacio MUY
May–June 2026