Statement

I view painting as a container for expression, labor, historical references, and the formal and conceptual relationships between its components. Throughout my career, I have developed a visual language that, while engaging with the pictorial tradition of hyperrealism, moves away from its purely mimetic approach by incorporating strategies of concealment, fragmentation, and the decomposition of the image.

Through my painting, I seek to expand the boundaries of our perception of reality, challenging conventional notions of representation and creating images that invite contemplation and questioning.

My process is based on the construction and reconfiguration of images derived from photography, and at times digitally altered, resulting in paintings that function as conceptual and formal pathways with multiple layers of meaning.

I am primarily interested in objects charged with personal, historical, religious, or popular symbolism, which I portray, and at times distort and/or envelop, in order to question their meaning and value and evoke a metaphysical dimension. My paintings oscillate between the hyperreal and the uncertain, the natural and the artificial, raising questions about faith, identity, and perception.

Resume

Mexico City, México (1976)

Javier Peláez is a contemporary Mexican painter who lives and works in Mexico City. He studied Architecture at Universidad La Salle and has developed, over more than two decades, a distinctive visual language exploring the boundaries between illusion, materiality, and the perception of reality.

His work has been exhibited extensively in Mexico and internationally, including at the Museo Tamayo, Museo de Arte de Sonora, Museo de la Cancillería, Casa Wabi, and William Turner Gallery in Los Angeles. He has also participated in artist residencies at Vermont Studio Center (USA), Casa NaNo (Tokyo), and Casa Wabi (Oaxaca).

In 2025, Peláez was awarded the XX Rufino Tamayo Painting Biennial, one of Mexico’s most important recognitions for contemporary painting. His work is held in significant institutional and private collections, including Fundación Casa Wabi, Museo de Arte de Sonora, Museo de la Cancillería, and the Bulltick Bank Collection.

He has participated in major international art fairs including Untitled Miami, Art Miami, Zona Maco, Art Chicago, Dallas Art Fair, and Positions Berlin, and his work has been featured in publications such as Los Angeles Times, Art in America, and American Art Collector.