There are artists who record the world as it is, and those who remind us of what it is losing. Alberto Mathot belongs to the second group. Standing before his paintings feels less like viewing art and more like entering a living place. The humidity, silence, and dense green of the Misiones rainforest seem to breathe from the canvas.

Born in 1962 in Leandro N. Alem, Misiones, Mathot began as a rural schoolteacher. Nature was never scenery to him but daily presence. His relationship with the land is intimate and patient, shaped by long observation rather than idealization. At the center of his work is a single belief: painting can be an act of memory, preservation, and resistance.

His lifelong project, Oxígeno, is less a series than a manifesto. Beginning in 2001, it focuses on endangered trees and fragile ecosystems. In Oxígeno II, Mathot takes us inside the forest—without sky or horizon—layering green, mist, and shadow. He paints fog green because, in Misiones, it is alive. Oxígeno III emerges after devastating fires, where beauty becomes a quiet warning.

Methodical and devoted, Mathot studies the forest for years, revisiting places, traveling alone at dusk, and working with durable materials meant to endure. His accuracy is emotional as much as visual, inviting viewers to step inside the atmosphere he protects.

Though internationally exhibited—from Buenos Aires to New York and Rodeo Drive—Mathot remains rooted in Misiones, painting slowly and honestly. In a world driven by spectacle, his work asks us to look longer and care deeper. He does not document the forest. He defends it.