Tony Moxham and Mauricio Paniagua

Mauricio Paniagua and Tony Moxham live and work in Mexico City. Moxham (from Australia)
has worked extensively as an art director and journalist for clients such as Andy Warhol’s
Interview, The Face, Versace, Levis, and Deitch Projects Gallery (NYC). Paniagua (from
Guatemala) is a painter who also studied industrial design through diverse practices
ranging from carpentry and screen printing to toy design and furniture. He and Moxham
met in New York’s East Village, and moved to Mexico City in 2005.
Together they work as artists, albeit within the design industry, and with a focus that is
rarely on regular design problem-solving. More commonly they focus on intangible issues
when designing objects—from sexuality, to history, to magic, to ritual, etc. Because of this
much of their design work is treated as sculpture regardless of function.

This collection of unique ceramic funeral urns and other vessels directly references
pre-Hispanic culture- specifically that of the Maya of the Yucatan peninsula during the late
classic period (which developed parallel to civilizations of Europe´s dark ages). On the
Yucatan´s gulf coast there is a small island called Jaina which served as a small figurative
sculptures. Details of these figurines- including their exaggerated, bulbous jewelry and
often clownish poses and proportions- informed both the central forms of the collection´s
pieces, as well as their decorative elements. Additional to this is our use of spikes which
traditionally depict the importance of the Maya of the spike ceiba tree as a ladder between
spiritual levels

Submitted by ADN Galería