LA TIERRA
by Mexican-Lebanese artist BEATRIZ MORALES is a site-specific work conceived specifically for Casa de los Leones in Mexico City. The work responds directly to the physical, social, and historical conditions of the site, transforming and celebrating a Mexican material and tradition into a contemporary work of art. The piece is based on agave, the same raw material from which tequila and mezcal are distilled.
“La Tierra” delves into Beatriz Morales’s artistic technique and style and is made of hand-dyed agave fiber, using primarily natural materials worked with pre-Hispanic techniques and recipes.
IN MEXICO, the Earth is viewed spiritually as a living, feminine, and sacred being that gives life, food, and sustenance, connecting past, present, and future, and being the center of existence and community, not an economic resource, but an organism interconnected with the human being, requiring care, respect, and reciprocity through rituals to maintain cosmic and personal balance.
Agave fiber, which in Mexico is also known as henequen, is derived from the cactus-like agave plant, has been a vital resource in Mexico for thousands of years, until it was replaced by synthetic materials during the industrial revolution.
Morales’ reinterprets this plant fiber—an ancient resource of huge importance to all pre-Columbian civilizations like the Aztec, Maya and Inca — as an artistic raw-material with which she creates paintings, installations and objects. “I am drawn to the archaic power of this fiber, and use it to create cascades of color that are like three-dimensional brushstrokes”, she says. Morales’ work is a symbiosis of "fiber art," with its facets of craftsmanship and local tradition, and a compositional gesture that also aligns with painterly practices like abstract expressionism. Her approach remains fundamentally that of a painter, and her fiber artworks are paintings that reach into space.
Reflecting the core of Beatriz Morales' artistic practice, "La Tierra" (The Earth) is a symbol of respect, a celebration, and a tribute to the Mexican land. The land gives identity to those who work it in all its forms, to those who inhabit it. It nourishes us and provides context for our lives, realities, dreams, and aspirations. The work is an invitation to cultivate awareness and gratitude for the Mexican cultural context, which fosters an exceptional, powerful, and inspiring spirit, recognized and appreciated throughout the world.
BEATRIZ MORALES
Born and raised in Mexico City, Beatriz Morales left her native country in 2001 to pursue largely autodidactic studies in painting and fashion design in Europe. Morales combines an investigative, abstract-expressionist approach with textile art, fibre art and conceptual components, often realized in monumental installations. As a central part of her practice, the artist incorporates traditional, pre-hispanic weaving and dyeing techniques, both in her work with plant fibers as well as when painting on canvases.
Beatriz Morales made her major art fair debut shown at Zona Maco in 2018, followed by multiple appearances at Dallas Art Fair, Zona Maco, Art Karlsruhe and others as well as exhibitions in numerous galleries across Europe and North America. She presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Rufino Tamayo Mexico City and Oaxaca as part of the Mexican Painting Biennial 2017. Recent exhibitions include Bienal Sur in Mexico City, solo exhibitions at Praxis Gallery New York, Circle Culture Berlin as well as an intervention of the iconic Edith Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe in Plano Illinois. Other notable museum shows include a solo exhibition at the Chancellery Museum in Mexico City and the Museum of Contemporary Art MACAY in Merida (which dedicated its main exhibition hall to a large scale installation by the artist), the group exhibition “The King is Dead, Long Live the Queen” at Frieder Burda Museum, Baden Baden, Germany and Art for the Oceans at Sotheby’s, London (May 2025).
Beatriz Morales published her first major monography “Color Archaeology” on Kerber Publishing in December 2021, available internationally.
Her paintings and installations are held in institutional and private collections in Mexico, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Canada and the USA, and were featured in numerous print and online publications. Beatriz Morales lives and works in Berlin and Hidalgo, Mexico. Recent acquisitions by institutional collections include the Perez Collection, Miami, Groeninghe Collection Belgium and Eckelmann Art Collection, Hamburg.
CONTACT
For all enquiries about Beatriz Morales’ art, please contact
Benjamin Zombori | Zombori Art Media
WhatsApp: +43 664 4242 489
Mobile: +49 176 433 90212