Pinacoteca Pantitlán Series 1 - 2022

The Pinacoteca Pantitlán is a first series of paintings drawn from Google Street View in and around Mexico City.

Begun in 2021, each of these ten are 20 x 20 cms, oil on panel, framed.

The paintings began during an extensive research project on places and sites of interest for travelers to Mexico City. The frequent need to verify locations, and to answer basic questions, (which side of the street?) led to more and more interesting, curious, or simply attractive images. Many of these were captured and retained.

Never more than an impatient, amateur photographer, I found that the screen caps were likely better than photos I would have taken myself. Google Street View captures people, anonymizes them, and captures places and parts of the city I could only hope to get to. But it’s not really the source that’s interesting.

Even in solitary subjects, I’ve found insightful gestures, telling postures. They’re moments that seemed to deserve better than to be tossed aside with just more digital detritus.

The series continues. Some are bigger. Many are much more time consuming than these, the earliest.

-December 2022