MA9

MA9 
Fine art photography by Marco Aurelio.

ARTIST STATEMENT
Deeply anchored in personal histories and ontological inquiries, I capture candid photography portraits of the individual within site-specific public environments, crafting visual ethnographies that resonate within broader dialogues on concepts of Otherness, belonging, the body politic, memory, and the nuances of history.

Drawing from the painting canon and the Latin American muralism traditions, and applying a Foucauldian Archaeology to the image, I disassemble and recolor the photograph to reinterpret the visible, transforming everyday human experience into layered meditations on being. Influenced by Foucauldian theory, my practice allows me to unearth the underlying power dynamics that construct knowledge and encode the discourses shaping our perception of reality. Within this process, I endeavor not only to transcend conventional photography paradigms but also to posit inquiries into the foundational epistemologies underlying art, human cognition, and being.

Through my lens, I offer a historical primary-source document of the individual—a visual archaeology of our psyche recorded in real-time—for all time. Within this approach, I strive to capture the essence of the fleeting, dynamic nature of everyday human existence, frozen in the permanence of a photograph, and intimately situated within its immediate chronotopical and sociocultural milieu.

I am hopeful my evolving vision enriches contemporary art narratives, inviting the viewer to engage in a deeper, more reflective interaction with the political histories of our shared human experience.

BIO
Born and raised at the foot of the South American Andes within a family of generational farmers, I was exposed to native oral traditions, pre-Columbian indigenous art and cosmologies, magical-realism experiences, and the sociopolitical dynamics of the region. I earned a Liberal Arts degree from New York University, which encompassed studies in European history, anthropology, and Western philosophy. Starting as a self-taught photographer, I enhanced my craft by attending courses at The International Center of Photography and The School of Visual Arts in New York City. Following a strong academic curiosity, I ventured into archaeology and anthropology at The City College at CUNY and deepened my understanding of writing, music history, and anthropology at Columbia University.  Journeys through photojournalism, editorial and portrait photography, combined with interests as varied as ontology, Eastern philosophy, physics, and the metaphysical elements in the fiction of Jorge Luis Borges, continue to shape and inform my fine art photography practice. Today, New York City is both my home and a creative sanctuary.

AWARDS
Man at Sunset photograph from Mask series, Editors’ Picks Competition Gallery, Lens Culture Street Photography Awards 2021.
Los Trabajos y Los Dias, Official Selection, XV Annual Latin-American Documentary Photography Exhibition. Antioquia Museum. Medellin, Colombia, 2009.

EXHIBITIONS
Masaccio's Dream, School of Visual Arts, New York City, 2023 (solo).
Hypertropico, Antioquia University, Nutibara Gallery, Medellin, Colombia, 2008.
Surfaces: Havasupai, Emergence, Yellowstone, School of Visual Arts, New York City, 2006 (solo).
dis [border] solve, Dinnerware Arts, Tucson, AZ, 2006.
H2O, Dinnerware Arts, Tucson, AZ, 2006.
Surfaces: Southwest by NYC, Photography on the Square, Flagstaff, AZ, 2005 (solo).

CONTACT
Email: marco@ma9.co
Tel:     +1 347-772-9370