Being Human Today: A Chapter by Chema Mendez

In the increasingly saturated landscape of contemporary digital art, few artists manage to maintain an authentically personal voice while working within a shared visual grammar. Chema Mendez, a self-taught artist based in Spain, is one of them. His new collection, composed of five works, takes the form of a poetic and lucid investigation into three central aspects of the contemporary condition: technology, mortality, and emotion. These are not merely themes, but narrative agents, forces in tension that move through his digital collages like archetypal presences in a dream.

A conversation with mendezmendez

Chema Mendez is a digital collage artist based in Spain. Since 2009, he has been creating mixed digital media works that merge classical painting with contemporary iconography, resulting in surreal and layered compositions. His visual world is shaped by a wide range of influences: the precise geometry of M.C. Escher, the polished surrealism of René Magritte, the emotional and dreamlike atmospheres of Miles Johnston, and the nostalgic, textured aesthetics of Eduardo Recife’s digital collages. These references converge into a distinctive style suspended between dream and visual memory. After years of perfectionist work, meticulously refining each detail for weeks, Mendez embraced a more fluid and spontaneous daily art practice in 2024. Today, he allows each piece to unfold naturally, sourcing material from public domain paintings and illustrations, photography, 3D renders, AI-generated imagery, and his own sketches. A self-taught artist, Mendez has built his path through consistency and curiosity, rather than tools or trends. At the core of his practice is the creative process itself: showing up every day, experimenting freely, and trusting that each work, whether brilliant or imperfect, is a step closer to the art he is meant to create.