Antonio Tercero

Tercero presents a new series of paintings that explores the natural and architectural landscapes of a territory shaped by the presence of both locals and outsiders, where its economic development—rooted in the tourism industry—impacts the history of the environment, the socio-cultural evolution of Los Cabos, and the emotional state of those who inhabit it.

Through a deeply emotional approach to painting, Tercero appeals to the notion of “vision,” not only in a physiological sense but also through the lenses of fantasy, the phantasmagorical, and blurred boundaries between past and present. He invites us to focus on the uncertainty of the landscape.

His paintings evoke a zero hour in which it is unclear whether it is dawn or dusk, whether the image is current or part of a photograph from 25 years ago when Los Cabos was not yet the luxury tourist destination it is today. It becomes difficult to discern whether they depict a postcard-perfect place for visitors or a space that once held the promise of a generation now disenchanted with the notion of progress. His images are inhabited by uncertainty, by memories of abandoned spaces once taken as refuge or claimed by locals for their emotional, rather than exotic, significance; and by the small corners that migrants—whether national or international, low-income or retired—adopt as their own version of a utopian paradise.

The “visions” that make up this new series invite us to experience, through a gaze that is both intoxicated and confused, the different territorialities that surround us. They encourage us to become aware of our mesopic vision—that is, the eye’s ability to see under minimal light conditions—as a provocation to question whether we are truly able to see beyond sunlight, beyond the lights of marinas and headlights, the forms of life that exist alongside us.