2023 Ricardo Mondragon

BIOGRAPHY

Ricardo Mondragon was born and raised in Mexico City (1984). Ricardo is a Chicago-based artist who graduated with a Post-Baccalaureate in Music Composition in Chicago, IL. He has given Artists Talks at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the MCA Chicago. He has also collaborated with the Louisville Orchestra and has shown at the Design Museum of Chicago. Today, Ricardo has been granted the Artist-in-Residence at Fermilab, America’s particle physics and accelerator laboratory.

 

ARTIST STATEMENT

My artistic practice consists of creating art that reflects the deep harmonic design of the universe. A world that may seem detached and far from our everyday social experience is revealed with coherent fashion and high-quality materials. Playing with the boundaries between the visual and musical is an old game. From Pythagoras to Kandinsky, harmonies have been explored. However, the advancement of new technologies has enabled me to create sculptures that were inconceivable at any other period in time. By designing algorithms to recreate natural vibrational phenomena, I can fabricate aesthetically pleasing, multilayered, and multidimensional forms. Frequencies, vibrations, particles, modulations, and resonance are the motivation for my work. Each artwork represents harmonic content such as 3D Chladni/Cymatics, musical chords, rhythms, intervals, electron patterns, and standing waveforms. I work with nature’s readymades by mixing and intermingling its frequencies to create unique harmonic structures. The potential of my work is boundless, given that my subject matter has infinite possibilities for expression. My work is directly tied to high-end fabrication and intricate processing due to the complexity of the models and materials. My firm belief and passion for the arts help me understand more about the universe and the soul. From cosmic music and the great Pythagorean theme: “The Music of The Spheres,” I present: Harmonies into Matter.