FIVE LATIN-AMERICAN ARTISTS EXHIBIT
Opening Reception
Thursday, December 05, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
Five Latin-American artists present their work at Gallery 1313 in an exhibition titled Veins of the Earth. They explore nature and our unstable sense of reality in mixed-media works that address fanciful dilemmas with humour and fortitude. At times they plumb the depths of existence with philosophical melancholy and then with hilarity. Our natural world is in dire peril and displaced people wander the earth, ironically seeking refuge from the colonizers of the past. Strange beasts rub noses with our skeletal remains.
Nahúm Flores merges many transparent layers on canvas and plexiglass that express the granite face of nature, marred by human emotion. Pre-Hispanic mythologies live on in his work. There is a sense of transcendence as his figures extend into the landforms, unbounded by conventional objectivity. Lines are independent of form and become expressive veins conveying the natural life force that endures beyond human exploitation. Flores is originally from Honduras.
Marcelo Suaznabar, from Bolivia, paints strange and contradictory scenarios that present hybrid creatures in costumes partaking in bizarre rituals. There is an element of absurdity in his work, like a horse with two heads facing opposite directions and walking away from the centre. He evokes the subconscious in these surreal dreamscapes.
Miguel Deras is a Mexican ceramic sculptor who gives form to unseen natural phenomena like viruses and seeds. He conflates these with cultural items and utensils. His work expresses growth through hand-built forms that suggest roots, trees and people intertwining.
Ilyana Martínez is interested in the conjunction of nature and humanity. She creates drawings that present architectural forms within natural forms like a leaf, implying the containment of human nature by the natural world. She contrasts the natural urban landscape with geometric structures that suggest an ethereal supernatural symbolism. Martínez was born in Toronto and grew up in Mexico and the US.
Erik Jerezano employs magical transformations in his black and white drawings. Animals are positioned in outlandish combinations that show the fluidity of time and reality. They are like subconscious dreams communicating layers of experience, as elegant lines ebb and flow over the forms. He uses solid black shapes contrasted with white and geometric structures to articulate their mythological strangeness. Jerezano was born in Mexico.
Flores, Jerezano and Martínez also work together in a collective called Z’otz* and have created many murals in Canadian galleries and museums. Each artist collaborates in a free flow of consciousness, altering and adding elements to the whole.
The five artists in this exhibition have shown their work very successfully throughout Canada and internationally, garnering numerous awards and recognition.
Contact Artist: Nahúm Flores
http://nahumflores.com
Tel: 416 531 2813
Email: nahum_flores@hotmail.com
Gallery 1313
1313 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON
Contact Gallery 1313: Phil Anderson
T: 416 536 6778
E: director@g1313.org
Hours:
Wednesday – Sunday 1:00 pm – 6:00 pm