Working with 2-D art, Luis Mendez primarily focuses on depicting sporadic cosmological ideas/concepts and social injustice. Each work creates a sense of realization and understanding amongst each viewer, ultimately leading to a unified society. Humanity tends to be separated based on all differences.
Mendez's artwork that focuses on radical cosmology ideas allows viewers to create some connection or connection based on their cosmology. Even though it is sometimes difficult to understand and accept an individual's thoughts and beliefs, this aspect of Mendez's work hopes for viewers to consider taking others' ideas. While creating artworks that focus on specific social issues, Luis Mendez hopes for viewers to understand the injustice that occurs in a minority group. Mendez is inspired by the techniques of Renaissance and Baroque art techniques; the subject matter focuses on supporting marginalized groups with their inequalities being brought to the public eye.
Though art has moved from a traditional style and conservative content to a multidisciplinary focusing on radical viewpoints. However, audience members do face the difficulty of being able to understand and interpret contemporary artist artwork because lack of visual ques. For each artwork, Mendez focuses on using narrative depiction to allow the audience to create an understanding of the visual representations. Utilizing narratives allows all audiences to be able to understand each work with out difficulty. The purpose of Mendez’s work is for all viewers to visualize the work to understand the content and context.
In Mendez's previous works Damnation to Salvation and Seeing Hatred are primary examples of both art focus. Damnation to Salvation is a concept of Hell not being a permanent place. In theistic religions of Judaism, Christianity/Catholicism, and Islam, there is a concept of an eternal place for damned souls known as Hell. Mendez reimagines this religious concept so that instead of being a permanent place instead of Hell, it is portrayed as a temporary place depending on how evil one's life has lived. Seeing Hatred shows an image of an eye that reflects African American, LGBTQ community, and Muslims being verbally and physically harm. During 2016-2018 there was a high recording of assaults against each social group. My piece hoped to show the suffering of each social, ethnic, and religious groups.
Mendez's most recent works, Enlightenment of Humanity and Premature Development, draws on my primary focus in art. Enlightenment of Humanity depicts religious icons passing knowledge to an empty shell of humanity. Through these religions, each one has produced followers that solely live for their spiritual experience. Without faith, some consider there is no point in living. Premature Development focuses on the binary battles of inclusivity and segregation. This artwork determines the influences the infant will encounter through the course of its life. The metallic fetus walks a path between segregated and inclusive colors that will reflect onto itself. A reflection that starts to develop since infanthood baby and cares on for the remainder of our existence.