Mx Watson
Mx Jo Watson is an Argentine artist who identifies as non-binary. They established a successful artistic career in Argentina through their series Ciudad Automática and later became an entrepreneur with the Augmented Reality app WatsOnArt, which operated from 2017 to 2019.
They are currently based in Berlin, where they are developing their series Zeitgeist auf Holz. Their practice has shifted from technology-painting media toward wood as a primary material, with a focus on environmentally conscious processes and materials.
Curriculum
Mx. Watson is an Argentine painter and art director whose visual language was shaped by the profound impact of a childhood accident at the age of two. For them, painting is a means of returning to that pivotal moment—reconstructing memory through emotion and image. Their distinctive use of black and white stems from the visual impressions and sensations evoked by that early experience.
They began their artistic training at the age of 11, when they joined the Sepia Group and studied oil painting. Soon after, they started exhibiting their work and connecting with fellow artists. By age 16, they had developed a drawing-painting technique they titled Automatisms, inspired by Dadaist automatic writing and the aesthetic of East Asian sumi-e painting.
In 2011, Mx. Watson gained public recognition with their series Automatic City, which achieved record sales at Nuevos Aires, an auction platform for emerging artists in Buenos Aires. By 2016, their works were being auctioned alongside established names in the Argentine contemporary art scene.
In 2017, sponsored by Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires, they expanded the Automatic City series with Augmented Reality technology, creating an interactive exhibition that was showcased in the Hall of Honor at the Palace of the Buenos Aires Legislature.
The following year, supported by Fedespa (Federation of Spanish Societies in Argentina), they were awarded a scholarship to study Cultural Heritage Preservation at the University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF). This experience deepened their understanding of the importance of preserving cultural identity by fusing heritage with emerging digital art forms.
Parallel to their painting practice, Mx. Watson worked as an illustrator and animator for the marketing and video game industries. These experiences led to the creation of their personal art brand, WatsonArt®, through which they were sponsored to participate as a solo exhibitor in Google's Tilt Brush Art Contest in London in 2019.
In 2020 they began developing a new body of work titled Zeitgeist auf Holz. This series features a unique technique combining painting and printmaking: carved and painted wood bas-reliefs painted, reassembled with wood chips, soemtimes mixed with other materials. In this same year they were invited to undertake a sponsored studio at the Monopol Cultural Center in Berlin, and therefore applied for an artist visa to develop their art in Germany. As a result, the series debuted in a solo exhibition at the Argentine Embassy in Berlin in 2022.
Today, Mx. Watson lives and works in Berlin, where they continue to explore with wood and direct the art project "Bandoneon", a tribute to the bridge between Germany and Argentine. Their work is held in private collections across Argentina, Hong Kong, Canada, the United States, and Germany.
Mx. Watson at "Automatic City: Zeitgeist", solo exhibition at the Argentinean Embassy in Germany.
30. September 2022, Berlin
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