Thomas Canto will be exhibiting new work at Atelier des Bains. Geneva. The exhibition titled “Transparent Landscapes” furthers his recent work establishing sculptural paintings that push the concept of painting beyond the 2d. He will also creating an insitu installation at the exhibition to go along with the new work. Below is the artist statement about the new body of work and definitely worth a read.

GF

Solo show. From the 18th of september to the 15th of november 2014. Opening on the 18th.
Requests at hello@atelierdesbains.com
Rue des bains 22
1205 GENEVE

TRANSPARENT LANDSCAPES (Exhibition concept)

In the continuity of his work on urban architecture and perspective, Thomas Canto, goes out of the frame with lines that escape the canvas, creating works halfway between painting and sculpture.

This evolution towards a work with volume, allows him to add more technical details to his already complex graphics works, which permit a deeper immersion for the spectator. By the skillfully cal- culated use of new materials such as Plexiglas and cables, he pro- duces optical illusions, which vary according to the point of view. These experimental boxes are as many windows one can look through in order to discover his universe, where infinity goes from black to white. Thomas Canto’s imaginary urban land- scapes take place in the middle of a limitless space in which orienta- tion is no more possible.

The visual effects proposed by the series of works « Transparent Landscapes » are the resultant of overlapping techniques. Canvases painted with meticulousness, representing an abstract and complex universe, cables tight according to axes that follow or impede the content, supported in an invisible way by boxes of Plexiglas, create mixing and overlap- ping levels of reading. This three dimen- sions’ work allows the artist to play with a new element; the light. The weaving of the cables, by carrying their shadows on the canvas, produces new geometries that vary according to the lighting and the viewing angle. The shifting received from these changeable base lines gives to his works a curiously lively aspect.

The spectator will go out of his depth with this first exhibition entirely dedicat- ed to the 3D work of Thomas Canto, as snatched up by the space in move- ment, which opens up to him, and in which he does not know whether he is above or underneath. He thus experi- ments a sensation of weightlessness and dizziness comparable to the feeling of looking at the summit of a skyscraper from below.
With this new plastic proposal, the artist writes a synthesis of the various move- ments that inspire him. One can find the dynamism of the graffiti, the radi- cal compositions of the constructivists or the supremacists or even the visual and kinetic effects peculiar to Opart. Thomas Canto’s work position, situat- ed at the crossroads between all of his researches, gives him a unique and brand new identity.

SUSPENDED HORIZON

On the occasion of the exhibition, Thomas Canto will also present a work in situ by investing the space of L’Atelier des Bains. An installation that will allow the spectator to literally enter in his kinetic universe by experimenting it from inside, a strange sensation of weightlessness.