Commanding in size, striking in detail, Fabio Mesa’s paintings require both a distant view and a close up look to take in the visual impact of human mass movement. Always intrigued by crowds of people walking, running, working, dancing, laughing, the painter is a master at creating anonymity out of great numbers, multitudes of Dreamers as he calls them, making their way out of darkness toward light. The artist's references are nonstop. Fueled by violence, government oppression and economic deprivation, 300-million-plus people will leave or flee their homes in 2025. Those numbers are up again, continuing troubling growth in recent years. Trained at the Instituto de Bellas Artes in Medellín, Mesa lived through part of his country’s long drug war born of the narcotics trade, guerillas and the government. With a nod to the powerful street protests searching for an end to the violence, he found a distinctive visual way to express what is his essential message: collective engagement is critical to individual success. Among Colombia’s top artists, Mesa’s penchant for surreal expression gives us all too real societal issues. A pacifist who says he defines peace through art, his language translates into thousands of minute human beings, moving from darkness to light. They are en masse, and they are all individuals. The impact is staggering. “My large multi-figure works are inspired by rallies and protests against oppressive governments. Rather than focusing on the chaos of these situations, I opt to portray a sense of organized human determination.” That determination – to go from dark to light – is universal, and not limited to one people, one nation, Mesa says.“In my work, crowds march toward common goals, which revolve around dreams that human beings share as a society: the search for peace, the struggle for a better life.” And the artist always paints himself into the scene. “Every piece I create is a self-portrait. I am on every canvas, part of the people, united with them searching for an exit,” Mesa says, adding “all of my dreamers are anonymous. There is no race, age, or gender.” But there is, of course, this important commonality: all dreamers are tireless in their search for something better.