INTERSCAPES: A Solo Exhibition by Tomás Ives
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Artist Statement:
‍Tomás Ives' work explores the intersection of Latin American popular culture, surrealism, and collective memory. Through murals, paintings, and screen prints, he creates vibrant visual worlds populated by symbolic characters and dreamlike scenes that move between celebration and tension.

Inspired by the surrealist language of artists such as Roberto Matta and Leonora Carrington, as well as the bold visual energy of contemporary pop imagery, Ives draws from folklore, political unrest, street culture, music, and everyday life. His work examines how collective experiences—including migration, resistance, identity, spirituality, and public space—shape the visual imagination.

Color plays a central role in his practice. Using saturated palettes, graphic forms, and layered compositions, Ives creates images that feel both playful and unstable, inviting viewers into spaces where beauty, humor, chaos, and social tension coexist.While rooted in personal experience, his work speaks to broader emotional landscapes and the realities of societies shaped by transformation, contradiction, and resilience. Through these imagined worlds, Ives creates paintings that are visually immediate while carrying echoes of deeper cultural, historical, and political narratives.
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Artist Bio:
Tomás Ives is a Chilean multidisciplinary artist whose work moves between painting, muralism, illustration, printmaking, and social art practices.Born in Santiago in 1982, he grew up during Chile’s dictatorship years, in an environment where creative expression was tied to political memory and resistance.
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Drawing from Latin American folklore, surrealism, pop culture, and public space, Ives creates vibrant symbolic worlds shaped by social tension, collective imagination, and cultural identity.His visual language is deeply influenced by early memories of his mother’s work in pre-Columbian ceramic workshops and by the political mural traditions of Latin America.
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After studying fine arts and journalism, he began working as an illustrator and cartoonist in southern Chile before moving into art direction and creative communication for both media and government.During the late 2000s, he worked with Chilean muralist Alejandro 'Mono' González, who encouraged him to expand his practice into large-scale public murals.
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Alongside his studio practice, Ives has developed long-term collaborative work with migrant communities living in marginalized urban territories, using art as a tool for visibility, memory, and social connection.His paintings and murals often emerge from these encounters, bridging personal symbolism with broader political and collective realities.
He has illustrated four children’s books, painted murals internationally, and in 2015 was recognized by the American Illustration-American Photography awards in New York as one of the year’s most notable illustrators.