Bushwick Open Studios wrapped up a while back and this year featured a lot of wild installations, fantastical sculptures, and a return to painting. While I was there, I stopped in Pablo Garcia Lopez’s studio where I saw his work that mixed all of the three. A couple of weeks later, I went back to sit down with him and talk about his practice and transformation into an artist.

Garcia Lopez did not begin working professionally as an artist until recently – his background is actually in neuroscience. He holds a PhD and still teaches classes. One of his published papers on Santiago Ramon y Cajal, known to many in the field as the father of modern neuroscience, plays heavily into his artistic practice. Cajal moved away from the accepted comparison of the mind to machines, and rather pursued the idea of comparing the mind to nature, specifically plants. Cajal said, “The cerebral cortex is similar to a garden filled with innumerable trees, the pyramidal cells, that can multiply their branches thanks to an intelligent cultivation, sending their roots deeper and producing more exquisite flowers and fruits every day.” Writing in the 19th century, his words come into play much later in the silk sculptural installations by Garcia Lopez.

After learning of his background and interest in this matter, I was immensely curious as to how exactly it manifests in the artist’s religiously charged works. He explained that his use of silk relates to the individual fibers of the brain, and Cajal’s imagery of fibers branching out and making a whole. Silk also appears fragile but is quite durable when used correctly – and he told me of a “secret liquid” to mold the silk to silicon casts of religious icons. Once they dry the silicon can be removed to reveal a silk sculpture that can stand on its own without crumbling. It’s especially impressive in his wall-to-wall installation appearing like a burst of smoke and fire.

Those Catholic figures immersed in his cloud-like shapes reference his Spanish background. He saw the divide the Catholic Church created, and the chaos that ensued in Spain. It has a painful but importance place in his pieces. Furthermore, he grew up with a religious father and a scientific mother, thereby underscoring the intersection of science and faith in his work. Yet he adheres strongly to the occult, meaning a belief in that which we cannot see, but can feel.

Garcia Lopez’s works are tactile and dramatic, yet not overbearing given their subject matter. He also touches on art’s search for spirituality amidst dogmatic modernist principles. By attempting to make a statement outside of rigid rules and the dense, intimidating history of art (without ignoring it), his work is relatable and deep. Garcia Lopez perpetuates this generation’s attraction to visual objects that instill an emotional response, while also imbuing his works with our desire to explore ourselves, our shared histories, and forces outside our realm of understanding.