Charly Arias
Mexico
Where do you locate yourself in relation to the systems you work with?
Where are you heading, and what is pulling you there?
How would you describe the space your practice is currently unfolding in?
Description
Rather than illustrating archetypes as folklore, LoterIA transforms them into contemporary symbols: figures and objects that feel familiar, but slightly displaced—almost like they’ve been pulled from a dream, a meme, a memory, or a headline. The work moves through a surreal everydayness: • iconic characters become fashion silhouettes, street myths, modern rituals • emotions become objects • power becomes costume • the sacred becomes design • and the ordinary becomes cinematic By using artificial intelligence as part of the creative process, the series embraces a new kind of authorship—one where the image is not only “made,” but negotiated through prompts, direction, selection, and intent. AI becomes a symbolic collaborator, but the narrative remains human: the choices are mine, the culture is mine, the stance is mine. Each card functions like a contemporary oracle—a portrait of what Mexico feels like right now: seductive, intense, layered, unresolved.
Process
LoterIA is my reinterpretation of the traditional Mexican lotería—not as nostalgia, but as a living system. A cultural interface that keeps evolving as Mexico evolves. This series is inspired by the Mexico I witness today: a country built on contrasts—beauty and tension, faith and irony, luxury and survival, celebration and uncertainty. Where daily life feels hyperreal, where tradition lives beside technology, and where identity is constantly being rewritten in real time.
Tools
Midjourney - Photoshop - Illustrator
