The  Many “Phases” of  Daniel Pontet
Pamela Gowland

Times change and in the name of progress,  art reacts in its irrepressible urge to absorb new technologies and perpetrate itself in the “new order’ of globalization.
The spectrum of the digital universe is incalculable and anything and everything is valid.
Daniel Pontet was not born to the digital era yet, this 53 year-old visionary artist from Uruguay was able to complement his studies in Fine Arts with design, computer studies and photography in the days when the TV was still black and white. His imagination thrived on technology driving him to experiment new creative processes where he managed to bring together traditional and more academic art with the virtual world on the Internet.
His particular approach to life places him in a category that he defines as that of  ‘creator’ of a language which allows him to capture his feelings rather than illustrate them and,  he resorts to a variety of techniques as his instruments of expression in order to conjure up a universe of multiple artistic tricks.
Today, he features amongst the one hundred most influential Latinos in Miami in a project developed by “Fusionarte” in Madrid, an organization seeking to acknowledge Hispanic immigrants who have made a significant contribution to molding the face of the multicultural community of Southern Florida.
After the body of work on “Candombes&Boliches” which left its mark on the city in the form of an attractive mural sponsored by the Heineken brand of beer, and his subsequent ‘metamorphosis’ phase evoking a more spiritual, introspective period, Pontet escaped to the ironic and irreverent world of cartoons.

Following the recent World Cup fever, he opened a show with a series of soccer cartoons at the Museum of the Americas, a timely event that coincided with the 2011 Copa America which his homeland team Uruguay proudly took home last July.

A passionate football supporter, Pontet grew up thinking that life revolved round the pitch so it is not surprising that he wants to make us reflect on a world that the argentine writer Eduardo Sacheri* described as “a metaphor of life, a field where humanity places its values, its goals and its dreams.”

His cheeky interpretations of Messi, Maradona and Forlan can already be enjoyed in the newspapers of the United States and Uruguay and it was Gol TV, the US-based soccer channel that has given life to his drawings challenging him to a new adventure in a multi-faceted career: one which combines the art with the animation.

*Author of “La Pregunta de sus Ojos” on which the Oscar winning film “the Secret in their Eyes” was based.