Metamorfosis (Espejo Roto) 1962

Manuel Rivera made this artwork, Metamorfosis (Espejo Roto), using wire mesh. You can see him feeling his way into form; each line feels like a decision, and a correction, so the thing ends up with a very particular, strange geometry. The texture is so present, right? It's not just about what it represents, but about the way the light catches on the mesh and the shadows it casts. See how the color’s kinda muted, earthy? It makes you think about raw materials, the stuff the world is made of, and maybe that's Rivera’s point. There's something deeply physical about this piece, like he's wrestling with the very idea of form. Look at the way the mesh is bent and stretched; it's almost violent, but also really tender. This reminds me a little of Eva Hesse's sculptures, the way she used soft materials to create these kind of ethereal but also kind of disturbing forms. It's like Rivera's trying to capture something that's always changing, always just out of reach.