H2O to go
Santiago Pérez Garci | 2026
In the intimate and personal aesthetic experience, nature speaks to us, and we understand it. It holds a meaning for us. It is certainly not a discourse, yet it speaks to us: its "speech" is a form of showing—a striking process of transformation—that stands in contrast to the extensive, accumulated degradation we have witnessed. It speaks to us of this, then, and it also speaks to us about ourselves.
Román de la Calle
The landscape is, by nature, transient and subject to constant transformation. What we observe today is the result of multiple processes of change—whether gradual or abrupt—stemming both from the evolution and adaptation of living organisms over geological time and from the intervention of various agents that contribute to the modification—and deterioration—of the natural environment. From their respective epistemological standpoints and through their interdisciplinary intersections, the arts and the natural sciences have contributed significantly to the documentation, description, and study of the landscape’s evolution—both natural and artificial—as well as to the history of ecosystems.
Building upon traditions of naturalistic and symbolic landscape representation—rooted in movements such as the Enlightenment, Naturalism, Positivism, and Romanticism—as well as contributions to scientific illustration, this genre remains relevant in contemporary artistic practice, now embracing a renewed ethical and aesthetic commitment in the face of environmental crises and their local and global repercussions. It is, therefore, no coincidence that this field encompasses various aesthetic approaches aimed at reflecting on the ecological and civilizational crisis of the Anthropocene and its impact on the natural environment. Within these lines of inquiry, one can identify some of the principles that guide the work of Julieta Barrios (Toluca, 1985), as well as the points of reference that shape the visual repertoire presented here.
With a background rooted primarily in printmaking and engraving, Julieta Barrios brings a strong experimental drive to her artistic process. This allows her to employ a wide array of graphic techniques—such as monotype, intaglio, relief printing, collagraph, *chiné collé*, and lithography—while simultaneously extending her practice into other disciplines, including ceramic sculpture, installation, drawing, and painting.
The visual repertoire presented by the artist—who has lived in Cancún, Quintana Roo, for nearly a decade—stems from a contemplative, experiential, and experimental practice deeply connected to the natural environments she inhabits or traverses, particularly the tropical landscapes of the Yucatán Peninsula. Moving beyond mere naturalistic representation, her process begins with the close observation and documentation of the landscape and the plant species that inhabit it. In this sense, her work brings into view a variety of botanical fragments—leaves, flowers, and bark—discovered either by chance or through intentional searching. Their organic forms are either physically manifested within the work or evoked through the imprints they leave—directly or indirectly—upon cotton substrates.
If we consider the vast body of imagery bequeathed by the natural sciences and the scientific Enlightenment, the naming of species—found in florilegia, herbals, pharmacopoeias, treatises, and other illustrated botanical records—transcends the merely technical or descriptive. To name is to confer identity. This act entails deciding which traits are prioritized, which differences are acknowledged, and through what system of order nature is rendered intelligible. Thus, the act of naming establishes a bridge between language and image, between science and representation. Far from being neutral, this bridge serves as a fertile conceptual terrain in the work of Julieta Barrios, who articulates a visual syntax rooted in the relationship between morphological identities, biological nomenclatures, and geographical contexts. It is a formal and nominal operation—simultaneously epistemological, ethical, and symbolic—aimed at constructing a contemporary record of the ecological identities of the landscape, which are always subject to preservation, transformation, or disappearance.
The collection of imprints that constitutes this exhibition also points toward a paleobotanical dimension, linked to a rigorous process of artistic research and a phenomenology of graphic art. Metaphorically, these works can be understood as a repertoire of fossils or sedimentary vestiges that evoke memory, the passage of time, and the ephemeral, unstable nature of the landscape. Is a print not, in a sense, a form of fossilized imprint—the trace of a gesture or process previously inscribed into the matrix?
Just as fossils document the history of life on Earth, climatic shifts, and the interactions between organisms, the graphic materialization of nature in Julieta Barrios’s imprints engages the viewer, inviting them to reflect on the traces that our own presence will leave as a legacy for the future of the planet.