Of cats and mice: an installation on the non-linearity of the concept of predator and prey with regard to geopolitics

The Highest Product of Distraught Bourgeois Self-Consciousness: Surrogates for a World Gone Mad.

For Tokyo Gendai, Manuel Ocampo painted a series of works reflective of our fragmented, chaotic world. Paintings that reek of psychological violence through cartoonish depictions of animals and drunken clowns. Predominantly paintings of cats, mice, and fowls, the paintings explode into a kaleidoscope of color and form. Ocampo weaves a chaotic narrative inviting us to contemplate the conflicts happening in the world around us and the frustration of our helplessness in doing something about it. But at the same time, the very act of painting symbolizes resistance to this existential inability to act. The works express a delicate balance between the banality of life and death. Like the surreal landscapes of Salvador Dali through the eyes of Grandma Moses, they challenge us to confront our deepest fears and desires.