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"Tomas Pineda transmits through his paintings because they not only represent our yearning for a more sharing and tolerant society but also to sybolize an integrity that has not been completely lost." Excerpt taken from Jorge Pech Casanova, "De Tierra Y Agua Somos", Tomas Pineda Catalog, 2007.
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Born in Oaxaca, Mexico, Tomas Pineda Matus composes his paintings with the qualities and characteristics recreated from the ancient world. He put us in a place where life can be a celebration of harmony, friendliness and sensuality - a ritual of relationships in a conflictive society. His pictorial compositions add a modern element to those ancient stories of giving and receiving which help to anchor these ideas of old into our current way lo life. Tomas acquired his iconographic legacy from the Museum of Natural History in the United States. The artist assimilated his discovery and transformed it into his personal expression upon returning to a land that is the melting pot of cultural expressions, the Istmo of Tehuantepec. Located in Oaxaca, Mexico, Istmo is a land where the modern and ancient flow together with very diverse imageries of the globe. Tomas Pineda does not fail to point out his indebtedness to the remote iconography of ancient Egypt, Nubians, Sumerians, Minoan and Greek culture. He is inspired by rituals that even predate the history of art. He faithfully recreates these societies on canvas that were once connected by generous and symbolic exchanges. The atmosphere of mutual benefit and comradeship prominent in his pictorial representations refers to one of the more personal elements that the artist witnessed during his stay in Tehuantepec: the material exchange of goods which culminates in a form of spiritual transaction or exchange of essences. Based on this observation Tomas depicts scenes where women with their fine features and elongated bodies offer cloths, plants and other articles to symbolize an offering only relegated to females. Due to the intimately ritual characteristic of many of his paintings, Tomas iconography is totemic which he expresses by repeating bull-like forms and marine figures in his paintings as well as the masks which proliferate his other works. To have rituals you must have totems and symbols and Tomas paintings use both to invoke representations of the rituals of harmony and conformity which were the foundation of ancient times. As a consequence, the telluric elements, (the bull), the marine elements, (the fish) and ceremonial elements, (the masks) are included and subtly emphasized in his paintings of the life of these female creators and maintainers of peace and alliances. Excerpts from "De Tierra Y Agua Somos", Tomas Pineda Catalog, forward by Jorge Pech Cassanova, 2007, translated by Arion Diaz.
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Universidad Mesoamericana, Oaxaca, Mexico
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