In literal and quite abstract ways, Southern California-based Jaime Muñoz has always explored machines. He paints with an airbrush machine, his works are a comment on the way we move labor through the use of cars and looks at how industry and democracy coexist. In our interview in the Summer 2022 Quarterly, Jaime spoke about the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, a freeway system often considered LA's biggest monuments reflective of racism and gentrification. So he isn't new to exploring how the machine, or the mechanism of industry are influencing his works.
Now he is exploring a whole new industry intended to suppress in his new body of work, Machina, on view at François Ghebaly in NYC. This particular show is dedicated to different real-life scenarios where the robot is used to intimidate or entertain us, where robotics in law enforcement or even robots in film. As the gallery nores, "In this vein, Muñoz’s work acts as a sort of equalizer, between the domains of high-speculative fiction and unflinching social realism, all the while operating in the hazy in-between space of so-called “real life.” What will ultimately occur there is perhaps the exhibition’s tallest gesture: in When Do Robots Rebel? (2023), Muñoz finely prints the titular phrase along the vein-like contours of the Terminator’s hydraulic tubing. Whether human or machine, it’s an imperative latent in each and every one of Machina’s brave new worlds."
Muñoz is at fascinating and truly fantastic stage of his career. He is taking concepts that is has explored for years and broadening while simultaneously expanding. With a touch of fine art design, printmaking and the airbrush, he is exploring new aesthetic directions and setting himself apart. —Evan Pricco
