Raymundo López

San Andrés Larráinzar, Chiapas, México, 1989.

Raymundo López (Ray López) is a young visual artist. He studied visual arts at the University of Sciences and Arts of Chiapas (UNICACH), where he graduated in 2017. Both he and his family have actively contributed to the social transformation of indigenous peoples, also identifying with the Zapatista movement.

In his artistic practice, elements referring to his own personal life and the life of his community are mixed with new intercultural readings that speak of a Mayan postmodernity.

The series on which he has worked with the greatest dedication is titled The Games of Life, shown at the Destiny and luck (2017) exhibition. In it, Ray López reflects on life in traditional communities, and he does so with a reflection, in turn, on the game – poker, chess, puppet theaters, dice, or the Mexican lottery. His cycle of paintings constantly represents men and women of San Andrés Larráinzar in the double role of player-pawns; at the same time, as subjects and as objects of history. One of the main canvases of the series, The Social Division (2016), depicts the segregation between different inhabitants of San Andrés. It presents all the participants on a checkerboard floor, like a chess board; on one side, the Zapatistas, on the other side, the partisans.

In another canvas, The Captain’s Prayer, “the divine owners of the mountains, the caves, the waters, and the sacred land are invoked; they are asked not to lack daily sustenance, peace, and happiness of the inhabitants, to ward off diseases, bad times, and to ask for good harvest times.” His works are usually full of symbols. In this case, the mountains appear referred to on the horizon of the canvas; the good fortune that is requested from the gods is symbolized in the four cards of aces, carried by the riders, identified with traditional characters from the San Andrés de Larráinzar carnival.

Exhibitions

• Painting childhood memories, Galería MUY, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, 2021. 
• Mayan and Zoque interpretations of the (In)visible pandemic, virtual exhibition, Galería MUY, 2020.
• Spoxil Ch’ulelal (Medicine of the soul), multidisciplinary exhibition, Centro Médico Siglo XXI, Mexico City, 2019.
• Fate and luck, Galería MUY, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas,  2017.