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Ernesto C谩novas: Matisse Bookshelves In Detail Ernesto C谩novas: Matisse Bookshelves In Detail
7 June 2024

Ernesto C谩novas: Matisse Bookshelves

In Detail
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Halcyon's present exhibition, In Plain Sight, boasts new works by sensory artist Ernesto Cánovas. Exploring his everyday environment, Cánovas' works encourage an extra-textual unravelling via readings of ambiguity, nostalgia and the archive. 
 
Discover more about the Spanish contemporary artist below.
 
If you are interested in adding to your collection speak to an art consultant today - info@halcyongallery.com
Ernesto Cánovas (b. 1971) is a visual artist celebrated for his unique approach to the traditional medium of painting. His...
Ernesto C谩novas
Matisse Bookshelves, 2023
Mixed media and resin on wood
122 x 210 cm

Ernesto Cánovas (b. 1971) is a visual artist celebrated for his unique approach to the traditional medium of painting. His artwork navigates a strong archival tendency owing to both his breadth of reference material and his layered practical approach. His repertoire of vintage iconography, sun-drenched photographs, disrupted jolts of bright hue and dynamic compositions evoke a collective emotional response; the works behave almost poetically. His considered application of paint and thorough prior research imbue a rare sentimentality that affects each viewer as if the paintings reflect their own past.

Cánovas explores the concept of appearing and disappearing images, resulting in a transient aesthetic. His multi-layered process hinges on temporality, ambiguity, and nostalgia. He typically begins with a photograph, taken either by himself, or found, or appropriated from the media, then digitally manipulates and decontextualises the photos via intricate processes of reduction, magnification, and cropping. Aina Pomar, London-based art critic and writer, suggests that by using vintage resources in tandem with contemporary ones, Cánovas successfully commandeers themes, even ‘reconstructing the meaning of the original image.’

Following photographic manipulation, Cánovas screenprints the digital media onto either aluminium or wood panels. This process achieves wavering effects due...
Ernesto C谩novas, Black Forest, 2012. Mixed media and resin on wood

Following photographic manipulation, Cánovas screenprints the digital media onto either aluminium or wood panels. This process achieves wavering effects due to the grain of wood or the way each panel is buttressed together. In one of his earliest works, Black Forest (2012), the horizontal grain is especially distinct against its muted background. The deeper incisions and grooves of the wood appear as prominent yellow lines since no paint is absorbed into their crevices. This renders the artwork organic, as though the marks generated are the lifelines of the painting’s surface. These lines form part of the painting’s inherent memory; alongside the source material used and Cánovas’ distortive process, the screenprinting technique results in part of the image being lost, further deconstructing it.  

Thereafter, Cánovas uses a plethora of drawing and painting techniques and begins the process of building up layers of acrylic, ink, and varnish to create a sense of depth, while still allowing an ‘essence of the [original] image’ to show through. Alejandro Martín, art director and curator at the Espronceda Centre for Art and Culture in Barcelona, lauds his capacity to blend ‘noble’ materials like wood, aluminium, marble, and ceramic alongside more industrial ones: plastic, rubber, and miscellaneous metals. He also argues that Cánovas’ work is ‘sensory’ – made so by his ability to expand two dimensional images into three, via his articulation of light within them.

The present work, that features in In Plain Sight, ties many of Cánovas’ previous experiments into one work. Matisse Bookshelves...
Henri Matisse, The Snail, 1953. Gouache on paper, cut and pasted on paper mounted on canvas, 286.4 x 287 cm. Tate collection.

The present work, that features in In Plain Sight, ties many of Cánovas’ previous experiments into one work. Matisse Bookshelves (2023) overtly references Cánovas’ long-held interest in Matisse. Its title prescribes the painting a meaning – this work becomes a portrait, a repository, even an archive for Matisse’s influences. We are invited to fashion our own assumptions about the inclusion of many of its elements, from the maquette of the Farnese Hercules, to the luscious monstera plant reminiscent of his cut-outs. Though denied figure, the painting offers an insight into the fabricated mind of one of Cánovas’ greatest inspirations. Cánovas, having attended the Tate Modern exhibition Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs in 2014, is said to have been taken by Matisse’s interest in colour. He was particularly interested in The Snail, and in colour’s capacity to ascertain composition. Much like in Matisse’s artwork, Cánovas’ Matisse Bookshelves has put many brightly coloured flat areas into his domestic scene. Not only are these intended to enliven the composition, but they also serve as a reminder of the work’s medium and challenge our perception of what lies beneath them. Much like how Matisse’s The Snail constructs a narrative in two-dimensional space, Cánovas works on multiple planes to invite thought and response to his pictorial planes.

 

While Cánovas’ work has a strong and recognisable aesthetic, his creative process has evolved over the years. His series Botanic...
Ernesto C谩novas, Botanic I, 2017. Mixed media and resin on aluminium

While Cánovas’ work has a strong and recognisable aesthetic, his creative process has evolved over the years. His series Botanic is redolent of the photograms, or ‘Rayographs’ produced by Man Ray in the 1920s. Photograms result from light exposure experiments, where light-sensitive material captures the essence of an object’s presence without a camera; objects are placed on the surface, causing light to stain the sheet in areas of the objects’ absence. Man Ray’s Rayograph (1923-1928) shares similar attributes with Cánovas’ Botanic I and Botanic III (2017). In each case, there is a shadowy implied sense of form, coupled with blurred silhouettes that evoke a sense of place. While Man Ray’s experiments are only greyscale, Cánovas incorporates colour, allowing us to fabricate a better understanding of the subject matter. Both artists pay special attention to light in their compositions, comprising areas of piercing brightness, reminiscent of long exposure photography or old grainy film. Their mutual focus examines how light shapes our understanding of space.

Further experiments by Cánovas explore colour-field abstraction, akin to the work of Gerhard Richter or Mark Rothko. Though part of...
Ernesto C谩novas, Botanic V, 2017. Mixed media and resin on aluminium

Further experiments by Cánovas explore colour-field abstraction, akin to the work of Gerhard Richter or Mark Rothko. Though part of the same series mentioned, Botanic V assumes a disparate aesthetic, with its entire aluminium surface constituting a pink-orange gradient. Not relying on figuration in the same way as Botanic I or III, these works instead lean into their process of creation, dictating emotion and sense of place via colour. In titling the work the same as the works listed above, Cánovas offers us one further frame of reference – we are invited to view this work too as a botanical fragment: perhaps a close-up of a flower, or perhaps under the layers of colour there is a photogram waiting to be uncovered.

Other works by Cánovas operate entirely differently, relying solely on imagery from popular culture to create Pop-art style works. To...
Ernesto C谩novas
Vegas Original, 2019
Mixed media and resin on wood
100 x 150 cm

Other works by Cánovas operate entirely differently, relying solely on imagery from popular culture to create Pop-art style works. To this end, Vegas Original (2019) appears like a billboard or poster for a new Broadway show. Overarchingly, Cánovas’ oeuvre has been described as figurative – even in figuration’s absence via his layered methodology and ample source material. His inclusion of flat planes of colour, or in some cases three-dimensional coloured ceramics, confuse the reality of the surface, and thus the narrative. These flat planes disrupt the flow of the composition, reminding us of the work’s medium and forcing our close observation of its tactile elements.

 

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