BEN MATA

Ben Mata (b. 1969, San Antonio) was raised on the Southside of San Antonio. He studied painting at Southwest Texas State University (1997-2000) and at Palo Alto College in San Antonio (1993-96). During his studies, he was a resident artist at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Annex Building.  

In 2000, Mata co-founded Circle Infiniti Studios in San Antonio. Since then, he has worked on aluminum panels using artist oils and power tools to manipulate the surface. The luminous metallic surface allows him to create a variety of textures and depths. Mata claims that this allows for a process of discovery; he is led by intuitive responses to the surface which guide him in the execution of the work.  

Mata has exhibited at Blue Star Contemporary Art Center; Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center; Galería Ortiz, Anarte Gallery; San Antonio, Art House Gallery, Houston; and Martinez Gallery in Troy, New York. His work has appeared in Domino Magazine (2007), Brilliant Magazine (2005), and San Antonio Magazine (2007). In addition, he has been involved in several community-based projects. In 2000 he created a mural with South San Antonio High School students, and through the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Juntos en Arte program, assisted inmates from the Comal Detention Center in the creation of a portable mural (2000).

Individual projects include a forty-foot mural at Kluzos Martini Bar; San Antonio(2008) and a mural for the Mary, Mother of Priest Chapel in Rome, Italy; commissioned by Rohn and Associates Design Inc. in 2010. Mata's work is in the University of Texas at San Antonio Art Collection and many other private collections.

WORKS