June 1st ~ July 31st 2023 – 7pm

Tiago Mena, Luanda, Angola. I work in merging very active drawing and photographic practices with (slower) film making and animation processes. I take pleasure in thinking of most of my pieces as short stories from (usually) undefined anthologies linked by themes of the absurd, of the fantastical, the supernatural, and science-fiction genres and with elements from the textured post-colonial Angolan social and historical context in which I grew up in, along with the many cultural influences specific to that same context. There is a cartoonish quality to most of my drawings and paintings that comes from a consistent relationship with graphic novels and animation. cinema and literature are also profound influences in my thought process and my approach to the structuring of my work. I tend to challenge myself by “drawing as a filmmaker” or “making films as a painter” and other playful prompts of that nature. I find them to be very helpful and to bring enjoyment and a sense of surprise to my work process. Finally, having always classically (or in very clichéd manner) felt like an outcast in my own country and anywhere I’ve had the pleasure to live, I’m enamoured with processes of translation and with the notion of spaces in between, be them physical, metaphorical or social-cultural. I aim for tension, contradiction but also accumulation and a sense of wonder in my process and my final work