MATEO
Biography / About
The art of Mateo is at the frontier of Urban art & Ancient cultures.
Questioning the perception of traditional craft in our contemporary societies.
Born in France in 1985, Mateo is a world citizen based in Montreal. He is best known for his baroque street art inspired by ornaments from around the world, as well as for his striking oriental carpet paintings, resulting in a mix of urban art with the heritage of ancient cultures.
His signature painted rugs feature striking feminine portraits adorned with ancient patterns, forcing us to question our cultural identity in an unrelenting system that pushes for uniformity in contemporary mass culture.
His carpet paintings reflect an amazing way to pay homage to diversity in human cultures, claiming that uniformity is detrimental to our history and memory.
After 20 years of painting in the streets around the world, Mateo has studied and used the art of ornamentation in most of his works. From walls to ceramics, fabrics and rugs, patterns blend into the paintings creating a cohesive bridge between his street and gallery work.
He’s now exhibited in galleries worldwide along with famous artists Obey, MrBrainwash, JonOne and grandmasters like Basquiat, Haring, Warhol, Miro, Picasso, Dali…
We can see his Murals in France, Argentina, Canada, USA, Spain, Mexico, Colombia…
The design and symbolism of an oriental carpet often leave the western amateur puzzled.
Across the East, ornamental patterns whose origins date back to the oldest past. Certain pieces are obviously loaded with a carefully formulated philosophical message as well as totemic, tribal or spiritual symbols.
By adding a human element to a traditional carpet, these works touch our deep being, our universal consciousness, they question our cultural identity which is currently cannibalized by standardization and mass culture. We can call this the loss of tradition in Western societies, we lose the link with the ancestral knowledge, the wisdom of our elders and the transmission of their knowledge.