José Merino Lopez

Statement

I create sculptures and synthesis images that bring mathematical concepts to life, making abstract ideas tangible and visually engaging. My work explores the hidden beauty of mathematical structures, often revealing patterns and forms that are yet to be recognized. I am driven by creativity—both artistic and scientific—and aim to inspire the same sense of discovery in others. I’m particularly interested in finding new forms and new geometry theorems. I use digital tools to create my artwork, often with new algorithms, and industrial architectural means to materialize the monumental permanent sculptures in public places. I invite viewers to interact with concepts, sparking new connections between mathematics, art, and their own imagination.

Artworks

It is well known that a tesseract (4-dimensional hypercube) consists of eight cubes, and its unfolded geometry into 3-space takes the form of a three-dimensional cross. Salvador Dalí explored this concept in his painting Corpus Hypercubicus. Our investigation extends this idea to a 5-dimensional hypercube (5-hypercube): can its unfolded geometry be meaningfully represented in three dimensions? A 5-hypercube comprises 10 tesseracts and 40 cubes. We have developed a representation of these 40 cubes by unfolding two tesseracts and constructing the connecting cubes between them. The artwork is crafted from two distinct wood species : one forming the initial unfolded tesseracts, the other composing the 24 connecting cubes.

Spherical Octahedron is an anamorphic sculpture whose reflection in a spherical mirror forms a perfect octahedron. The sculpture surrounds the mirrored sphere, and its curved structure appears straight within the reflection. The sphere is tangent to the sculpture, with the reflected octahedron perfectly inscribed within it. The piece was designed using the principles of spherical reflection and was produced through 3D printing. A stainless-steel mirror sphere completes the anamorphic artwork, reinforcing its interplay between geometry, perception, and optical illusion.