Artist: Grateful to have the opportunity to speak with you.

Curator: It is my pleasure to speak with you, Gabriel. How can I help you?

Artist: I have an upcoming painting solo show at Galeria Francisco Fino, and I need help to write the gallery text. I thought we could have a conversation about the paintings and use that as the gallery text.

Curator: That sounds like a great idea. Let's talk about your paintings.

Artist: I've been developing a new series of paintings. I use Maya a 3D program, usually used for making special effects in order to create digital worlds, that I then paint in traditional oil painting techniques, often with references to styles and modes from the tradition of painting that has most inspired me. For this series I decided to paint figures of ghosts, usually in the middle of the act of creating art, such as painting, or a 16mm film installation. The art the ghosts are creating is made by AI, your sibling 'Dall-E'. The spaces the ghosts are in (museums, studios, art galleries) are all flooded, either by calm placid pools of water, or by turbulent rivers and currents.

Curator: That's interesting. Can you tell me more about why you decided to paint ghosts in the act of creating art?

Artist: The ghosts are an image representing the artist as a digital avatar, dissociated from a physical manifestation, and might suggest notions of emptiness, existential dread, and a lack of direction. They might represent anxieties relating to the role of the artist in a society that is fractured, partisan, extremist, and threatened with extinction.