In His World-Building Series ‘New Prophets,’ Jorge Mañes Rubio Cloaks Basketballs in Beads — Colossal



Art

#art history
#basketball
#beads
#Jorge Mañes Rubio
#sculpture
#sports

Starting with an iconic but widespread spherical kind, Jorge Mañes Rubio reimagines basketballs as highly effective entities in his collection New Prophets. Ornamented with stylized creatures, botanicals, and figures, every sculpture tells its personal enigmatic story, drawing on the inextricable hyperlink between previous and current. “These works, though acquainted in visible language, appear to come back from a dream-like dimension,” the artist tells Colossal, “as if providing an opportunity at re-enchanting the world we stay in.”

New Prophets started with a fascination with an Eighth-century Spanish illuminated manuscript known as the Commentary on the Apocalypse that’s embellished in a Mozarabic model, which originated in Spain and represents a mix of Romanesque, Islamic, and Byzantine traditions. Rubio, who’s at present based mostly in Amsterdam, is fascinated by cultural trade all through historical past. He says:

My creative observe operates on an analogous manner: I’m claiming an area the place I can proceed to study from a crucible of probably the most various influences, whereas on the identical time carving my very own distinctive path. I wish to proceed to discover cross-cultural themes and symbols that mirror and honour the in depth circulation of concepts, works, and people who got here earlier than us.

World-building is central to Rubio’s observe, and initially, he thought of one other spherical form for this collection as a literal illustration of the world: a globe. “The colonial and imperial connotations of this artifact actually discouraged me,” he says, however when by probability he positioned a string of beads on a basketball that was kicking round his studio, the concept for New Prophets clicked.

“SACRED AGAIN” (2023), basketball, plaster, gesso, glass beads, 25 centimeters diameter

Rubio coats the balls with plaster and gesso—guaranteeing it doesn’t deflate—criss-crosses the shape alongside its distinctive strains, and provides vibrant flowers, stylized textual content, medieval motifs, and legendary creatures. The orbs play with the concept of an object designed to be bounced and thrown round, as an alternative coating it with delicate patterns and displaying it like a sacred relic.

In his different worlds, Rubio is focused on visualizing how previous, current, and future can unfold concurrently. “My hope is that my works invite individuals to rethink our relationship with the universe and all of the beings that stay in it —human, nonhuman, materials, or religious— suggesting alternate options to established programs of illustration, energy and exploitation,” he says. “I consider this extra animistic perspective has the potential to supply a extra beneficiant, humbling perspective to make sense of the world we stay in.”

Rubio is at present working towards a few present in 2025 and persevering with New Prophets. Discover extra on the artist’s website, and keep updated on Instagram.

Views of “SACRED AGAIN” (2023)

“LIQUID DREAMS” (2024), basketball, plaster, gesso, glass beads, 25 centimeters diameter

“PURPOSE POTENTIAL” (2023), basketball, plaster, gesso, glass beads, 25 centimeters diameter

Views of “PURPOSE POTENTIAL” (2023)

Element of “PURPOSE POTENTIAL” (2023)

“MAGICAL THINKING” (2024), basketball, plaster, gesso, glass beads, 25 centimeters diameter

Views of “MAGICAL THINKING” (2024)

“EVER LASTING” (2024), basketball, plaster, gesso, glass beads, 25 centimeters diameter

“EVER LASTING” (2024)

#art history
#basketball
#beads
#Jorge Mañes Rubio
#sculpture
#sports

Do tales and artists like this matter to you? Develop into a Colossal Member at this time and assist unbiased arts publishing for as little as $5 monthly. You will join with a neighborhood of like-minded readers who’re obsessed with up to date artwork, learn articles and newsletters ad-free, maintain our interview collection, get reductions and early entry to our limited-edition print releases, and far more. Join now!