Paloma Contreras Lomas: Disco Inferno

Disco Inferno is an exhibition of new paintings, murals, sculpture and a film by Paloma Contreras Lomas, her first European solo show, at the London art space Gasworks. The artist, who studied in Mexico City and is represented by Pequod Co gallery, explores how historic and contemporary violence in her home country has been shaped by popular culture and media narratives, especially the years since 2006 and the Mexican war on drugs. Her immersive, folkloric visual language, which she calls "Mexican Baroque", unfolds through room-scale murals of hellish scenes, a soft plush sculpture of a decapitated figure, and a 15-minute video in which she retells three stories from her friend Fabiola. The exhibition presents hell as a crowded theatre of disappearance, where pre-Hispanic goddesses, witches, rat monks and devils confront and choreograph Mexico's violent past, present and future.