The spiritual qualities of the color violet have obsessed Ricardo Mazal since an artistic breakthrough in 2016. The Violeta series marks a radical departure for the artist, in that, for the first time, his source material is not a specific geographical site, but rather the universal “non-site” of a single color. Violet is the color most regularly associated with mysticism and spirituality throughout the planet. The invisible, the unknowable, and the meta-physical are often represented by this august tone.

Mazal speaks of these paintings as “coming from within” as opposed to the earlier series that found their sources outside, in the material world. Part of Mazal’s purpose in focusing on violet has been to explore variations on the spiritual effects of the color as it passes from warmth to coolness, goes through various tonal emanations and chromatic saturations in order to create what has been described as a visual equivalent to contemporary classical music.