"I believe the people who appear in our dreams are echoes of encounters we never fully saw, but our mind remembers."
Born in Mexico in 1990, the Santiago Pani lives and works in Leiden, The Netherlands. Raised in an artist household, with his father Knut Pani as an established practitioner, he developed an early and intuitive relationship with making. He studied at La Esmeralda (ENPEG) in Mexico City, where he began shaping a visual language rooted in memory, perception, and the subconscious. His practice centers on the human figure as a fragmented presence, hovering between recognition and abstraction, informed by fleeting encounters, dream imagery and unconscious recall. Working across painting and ceramics, he explores the threshold at which form dissolves and meaning shifts, embracing both control and chance as generative forces.
Since the outset of his practice, his work has been driven by a sustained inquiry into pictorial language beyond stylistic trends. The human figure functions as a recurring presence, approached as a fragmented memory rather than a fixed identity. These figures draw from fleeting encounters, dream imagery and subconscious recall. They appear momentarily, suspended between familiarity and anonymity, resisting narrative clarity.
Recent works move further toward abstraction, focusing on the unstable boundary of perception. The practice asks what constitutes a face and how much information can be removed before recognition collapses. These questions guide both concept and process, positioning the work within a space where form begins to dissolve without fully disappearing.
This investigation extends into his ceramic practice, where material behavior and chance play a central role. Working with clay introduces immediacy and unpredictability, allowing gesture, stain and accident to actively shape the work. Across media, the tension between control and surrender remains central, reflecting a broader inquiry into agency, perception and the conditions under which meaning emerges.
His work has been presented widely in both solo and group exhibitions across Mexico, the United States, and Europe, including Spain, Italy and The Netherlands. He has participated in major international art fairs in cities such as Mexico City, Madrid, New York, Milan, Amsterdam and Hamburg. Alongside his exhibition practice, he has initiated and contributed to a range of artist-led projects, residencies and collaborative platforms, positioning his work within a sustained international context shaped by exchange, mobility and long-term artistic inquiry.