Provenance: Provenance: Private Collection, Brazil

ABOUT THE WORK

Manuel Ocampo’s works are generally reflective of present-day culture, often giving off an unsettling and shocking effect to the viewer. He believes that an artist’s duty is to his or her creation and maturity shows when one is not much preoccupied anymore about what people think or how they explain a certain work. Instead of being drawn to sole meaning, he is driven by the urge to create, to deliver. He unconventionally depicts cultural and religious figures and symbols as seen in this work, Chacas Finas. In an interview, Ocampo mentioned choosing images “indicative of our current obsession with the grotesque and cringe-worthy.” In Mexican Spanish slang, the “chaca” pertains to an unrefined, tasteless person. The used term “finas” in the title means “fine,” which gives an ironic tone to this particular work in bright colors with a grotesque figure holding a bottle, wrapped around with chains, and surrounded by other dangerous elements such as the axe.