Jose Sotelo Yamasaki - Artist

San Antonio born and based artist, Jose Sotelo Yamasaki, has been active in the arts since 2006. Moved to paint while studying design and photography, Jose was able to complete his first series of paintings for artist and curator Alex Rubio in 2008 for a show named Nueva Generación. It featured up and coming artists from across Texas and was a source of encouragement to continue developing his painting by using references from the harmonious symmetry found in Mexican textiles, and the sacred geometry of Mesoamerican flat stamps.

The importance of placement and equilibrium became an underlying thread in his work.

 

In 2014, as Jose Sotelo Yamasaki continued to travel throughout Mexico to deepen his understanding of his ancestral lineages, he began to create work rooted in those experiences resulting in the series called “Cherry Blossom Marigold”. It has a strong influence in Mesoamerican design, Mexican folk art, and Japanese Zen art. These popular works are complex monochrome mandalas birthed from a period of profound self-reflection and healing.

 

From this exploration of mediums, Sotelo Yamasaki began a large-scale series of graphite drawings entitled “Dreams Are for Those Who Sleep” which uses symmetrical placement to express the parallels in nature and humanity. With a graphite pencil and the practice of a Zen-like self-control, Sotelo Yamasaki hopes to make a visual code whose mapping of symbols and placement is akin to the knowledge transfer systems found across the globe from hieroglyphs to contemporary art. 

 

As Jose Sotelo Yamasaki’s art continues to evolve, a unifying thread is his effort to parallel and interpret the natural world by bringing together the primordial human tendency to harmonize and balance.