Bio
Tarik Mendes (b. 1992) is a Brazilian multidisciplinary artist whose work examines the relationship between painting, sculpture and architectural space. Employing layered net and screen based materials, he constructs works that dissolve the boundaries between image and object, replacing the traditional picture plane with permeable, spatial structures. His practice is defined by a sustained investigation of materiality, transparency, and perception, resulting in works that continuously shift in response to light, movement, and the viewer’s position. Mendes’ work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private collections across multiple countries. He is based in New York City.
Artist Statement
My practice investigates the relationship between painting, sculpture and spatial construction through works that challenge the fixed condition of the image plane. Using layered net and screen based materials as both support and subject, I construct surfaces that remain permeable, unstable, and materially active. The works reject the notion of painting as a sealed or static object, instead operating as environments of accumulation, interruption, and suspended visibility.
Each work develops through the repeated layering of translucent netting and mixed media, building a structural field where image and material become inseparable. Depth is not represented illusionistically, but physically embedded within the work through shifting layers that respond to light, shadow, and viewer movement. Surface becomes a threshold rather than a boundary, continuously oscillating between concealment and exposure.
This vocabulary extends into sculpture, where the same net based structures expand into three dimensional form. Across the practice, the net functions as both framework, membrane, and connective tissue, linking painting and sculpture within a shared spatial logic. The works exist between construction and erosion, density and transparency, presence and disappearance.
Through processes of accumulation, repetition, and controlled tension, the practice examines how material can destabilize perception while maintaining formal precision. What appears fragile is structurally deliberate. What appears fragmented is rigorously composed. The resulting works occupy a state of continual transformation, where image, space, and material remain in active negotiation.