Work in progress | SOON to be released l Zona Maco Artfair l 2025 l Mexico City

In Lotería de los Muertos, Aldo van den Broek transforms discarded fragments of Mexico City into visceral explorations of resilience, fragility, and renewal. Using materials such as cardboard, wood, fabric, and soil—scarred by time and neglect—Van den Broek reconstructs these remnants into layered works that embody cycles of destruction and rebirth. Each piece, created in a consistent 50 x 40 cm format, evokes the intimacy and universality of a card game, positioning these works as archetypes of human struggle and survival.

“Living on the margins teaches you one thing: nothing is permanent. The city spits these materials out, and I rebuild them—not to save them, but to show how little control we really have,” Van den Broek explains. For the self-taught artist, creation emerges from destruction. His process of layering, scraping, and rebuilding leaves every surface raw and alive, mirroring the city’s rhythms of decay and reinvention. The scarred textures of his works reflect both personal histories and collective struggles, transforming discarded matter into objects of reflection and renewal.

At the heart of the exhibition are archetypes inspired by Mexico’s lotería and Día de los Muertostraditions. Figures such as El Rebelde (The Rebel), a crowd surging in protest, and El Conquistador(The Conqueror), a lone figure on horseback, explore cycles of rebellion and power. La Muerte (Death), represented by a haunting pile of skulls, speaks to the inevitability of mortality, while La Ofrenda (The Offering), a bouquet of salvaged flowers, symbolizes resilience and remembrance. Other works, such as La Revelación (The Revelation), where a figure is illuminated by otherworldly light, and El Exilio (The Exile), a solitary man with a bottle of mezcal in a desolate landscape, capture the tension between loss and the search for meaning.

The consistent format of the works draws directly from the structure of lotería, the iconic Mexican card game, where archetypes and chance reflect universal struggles. “It’s like a global lotería now,” Van den Broek notes. “The cards keep turning up worse: death, rebellion, conquest. And the deck feels stacked against us.” Each piece operates as both a fragment of a larger narrative and a standalone meditation on survival and transformation.

Van den Broek’s practice positions him as a chronicler of instability and endurance, drawing from the cultural and historical fabric of Mexico City while addressing global fractures—political unrest, ecological collapse, and the fragility of human systems. Yet, his works also suggest moments of fragile renewal. Their scarred, weathered surfaces transform spaces into immersive reflections on what remains when systems fail—and how we might begin again from the ruins.

By embedding the concept of lotería into his practice, Van den Broek creates a seamless connection between cultural specificity and universal resonance. Together, these works form a profound meditation on collapse, renewal, and the enduring human capacity to rebuild from the fragments of a broken world.

Homecoming Gallery
DUO presentation with Johnny Mae Hauser
Zona Maco Artfair, 2025, Mexico City, Mexico
February 5 until February 9, 2025