Jesu Moratiel

Jesu Moratiel is an spanish multidisciplinary artist, currently residing in Barcelona. In his work he combines installations, sculptures, and digital art in the form of 3D animations and apps, with an eclectic body of work but formulated from certain aesthetic guidelines such as the importance of textures and patterns as a conceptual language, the constant use of symbols, the tendency to verticality or dealing with sensitive and even aggressive themes from its surface. 

Moratiel’s main series highlight some of the main issues of contemporary thought: life and death in the era of the biotechnological avant-garde, new contemporary beliefs and our behaviors as social and sentient beings in the digital age. In some of his large format works, he uses resin pieces to encapsulate and isolate from the degradation of time organic matter with a deep symbolic charge such as chicken embryos or thousands of dead bees, which serve to establish reflections on the essence of life and inter-species social relations. In the case of embryos, he uses them as a symbol of the intersection between scientific and religious thought, to question the meaning of life, the role of the human being as spiritual narrator, moral judge and scientific researcher. 

As for the digital work, he is interested in its artificial and ephemeral aspects, the relationship between the meaning of bodies as contingent but at the same time consumed content in the virtual ecosystem, the fluidity of digital space, its interactive character and how we relate to the new digital aesthetics.

In his eagerness to always push the boundaries of art, Moratiel has opened a new line of research within the digital field, synthesizing his works in the format of a mobile app. With this new format halfway between 3D animation and video games, using technologies from both sectors but positioning himself in the middle ground between them, Jesu seeks to generate a sensitive experience that brings the user closer to the work of art, expanding the way in which the user relates to it. They are, in short, interactive works of art.

His works can be seen in numerous private collections and he has realized projects in international galleries such as Benjamin-Eck projects (Munich), MTArt (London, Paris and Monaco), Cerquone Gallery (Madrid), Gallery Red (Mallorca), Haimney Gallery (Barcelona), as well as curated projects in world-class NFT marketplaces such as Crypto.com and Foundation.