Portholes Series, 2026

Jose Margulis  

Jose Margulis digitally design 3-D objects and compositions, and cuts them in slices from different types of plastic sheet materials. These slices are then fixed to a rigid canvas, a pedestal or held together in space.

Most of his work is done using acrylic sheets with different levels of translucency in a range of colors, graphic patterns, textures and photographic images directly printed on the sheets' surfaces. The bright and fully saturated color palettes to which he instinctively gravitates to, is heavily influenced by the traditional Mexican arts and crafts which made a great impact on Jose during the time that he lived there. Jose treats his three-dimensional pieces as light traps or secret blueprints, in which by controlling the placement of its components, he is able to create intriguing 3-D containers. Their designs are then fully revealed by applying or “pouring” light into them. In a sense, light becomes the ink that reveals the design by following a 3-D template. The light source may vary from natural to one or more fixtures, placed on precise locations in relationship to the subject, with specific power, color temperature, angle and proximity.

These exposed patterns and designs are not absolutes or unique, because as the viewer changes his point of view, the work expresses a different narrative that is completely new within its own essence. It intrigues and fascinates Jose how the object mutates in front of him, with no other resource but a simple change of perspective. Going back and forth naturally, Jose tries to synthesize and integrate different perceptions that coexist as different facets of an object. Every time, he find himself trying to lock that seemingly unreal angle in which we are able to contemplate the amazing connections among complex layers of facts, prejudices and beliefs; that “sometimes surreal” frame in which we discover how easily we could be absolutely wrong and misjudge everything that surrounds us, while tragicomically posing ourselves as proud holders of truth and owners of higher grounds.