The Ghost Has No Home

Daniela Elbahara is proud to present “The “Ghost Has No Home” Mario Zoots’ 1st solo exhibition in space.

The Denver-based artist shows a series of paintings created with a variety of analog and digital techniques, in which he reuses 1980s fashion ads, reforming and applying washes of monochrome paint that separate the image from its original context. .

In “The Ghost Has No Home,” Zoots unfolds a cryptic narrative that evokes the spectral nature of memory, identity, and place. Drawing on theories of art such as the rhizome, a concept introduced by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Zoots’s work embodies the non-linear and interconnected nature of the human experience. His work also bears a distinctive echo of Walter Benjamin’s notion of “aura” and its decay in the age of mechanical reproduction, as each fragmented image loses its original context and takes on new meaning in the assemblage.

The found photographs, selected and assembled, evoke an ethereal atmosphere that immerses the viewer in a liminal space between the known and the unknown. By juxtaposing disparate elements, Zoots creates a visual syntax that defies linear narratives, leaving interpretation open to the viewer’s imagination and psychological projections.

“The Ghost Has No Home” alludes to the elusive essence of memory, identity and time. This spectral presence, not tied to a singular location, serves as a metaphor for the fragmented nature of our collective experience, moving through the past, present, and future.

In this exhibition, Mario Zoots embodies a daring and provocative approach. Collage as a technique can be perceived as a re-appropriation of elements that belong to others. This notion resonates with the graffiti antecedents of Zoots, where he “stole ” building spaces and train cars throughout Denver to make their mark. For the artist, the element of risk is essential within the creative process; without it, art cannot truly exist.

Mario Zoots (b.1981) lives and works in Denver, CO, where he received his MFA from the University of Denver in 2014. As a lens-based artist, he employs modes of appropriation and collage. Altering mass-produced images, found photographs, and pop culture icons to reimagine and question the belief systems that shape our world.

Zoots’ work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at museums and galleries, including the Museum of Image + Sound Sao Paulo, Brazil (2010); Preteen Gallery, Mexico City, MX (2012); K Contemporary, Denver, CO (2017, 2019, 2022), Straat Museum in Amsterdam (2022) Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, CO (2023) and most recently at Daniela Elbahara, Mexico City, MX. In addition, his work is featured in The Age of Collage: Contemporary Collage in Modern Art and Cutting Edges: Contemporary Collage, published by Gestalten, Berlin, Germany. He is represented in Denver by K Contemporary and in Mexico City by Daniela Elbahara.

Zoots is the Curator of Collé, a publication exploring the world of contemporary collage, and Curatorial Manager for New Projects, an arts initiative designed to foster experimentation and collaboration.