Partners in Art is proud to support the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence’s project Origins & Endings: Sebastian Portillo’s Search for Light, taking place September 12 – October 5, 2025. This project features photography by Sebastian Portillo, as curated by Helen Yung.
Origins & Endings: Sebastian Portillo’s Search for Light is a timely and urgent exhibition that speaks directly to our current moment of environmental crisis, personal isolation, and cultural transformation. As communities worldwide grapple with ecological anxiety and social disconnection, Portillo’s stunning work offers both a mirror for our collective concerns and a pathway toward understanding and renewal. The exhibition features photographic works by Mexican artist Sebastian Portillo from two collections: “El DÍA QUE DESTRUÍ AL MUNDO/THE DAY I DESTROYED THE WORLD” and “APUNTES DE BIOLOGÍA/NOTES ON BIOLOGY.” These works, shown together for the first time, explore profound themes of absence, apocalypse, and regeneration through both personal and universal lenses.
“El DÍA QUE DESTRUÍ AL MUNDO” examines three aspects of The End: The Personal End of the World, The Mystical End of the World, and The Natural End of the World. Through Portillo’s lens, these universal anxieties about mortality and environmental collapse are transformed into visceral visual narratives that resonate across cultural boundaries.
“APUNTES DE BIOLOGÍA” presents an intimate dialogue between the artist and his absent father’s biology notes, written before Portillo’s birth. Through 21 scientific prompts—including “The Protosun,” “The Origin of the Seas,” “Silicon Oxide,” and “Modern Man”—Portillo creates a visual exploration of origins, from the birth of the universe to the evolution of human consciousness and technology.
Together, Origins & Endings offers a powerful meditation on cycles of creation and destruction, personal loss and cosmic renewal. The shipping container operated by the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence in Scadding Court Community Centre’s Market 707 provides an ideal setting for this exhibition, as the industrial.
