Friday, January 23, 2015

Workplace at Art Los Angeles Contemporary - Hugo Canoilas 'Dinosaur Paintings'

Hugo Canoilas To be read aloud. To be read aloud, 2014, Ink on linen, 216 x 225 cm, 85 1/8 x 88 5/8 in

Hugo Canoilas

Dinosaur Paintings

Booth C14

Art Los Angeles Contemporary

January 29 - February 1, 2015


The Barker Hangar
3021 Airport Avenue
Santa Monica, CA 90405
http://artlosangelesfair.com

 

Workplace are delighted to present a solo booth of Portuguese artist Hugo Canoilas. His series of 'Dinosaur Paintings' are based on paintings and illustrations by the late Czechoslovakian palaeo-artist Zdenek Burian, discovered by Canoilas in a book he bought for his daughter in a thrift store in Vienna where he lives. Epically enlarged and rendered in a more fluid and gestural style than the originals, the imaginary landscapes are populated by Prehistoric creatures apparently in conversation. The dialogue, shown as speech bubbles derived from International Situationist comics, consists of dérives drawn from Canoilas' own readings of text by writers such Wally Salomão, Arthur Rimbaud, Allen Ginsberg, Malcolm Lowry and Fernando Pessoa, along with his own writings.

 

Above all, these paintings show an existential approach, that of Camus in "the Plague", where the people from the taken city start some activities in order to deal with the absurdity of life (i.e. passing beans from one dish to another in order to pass the days, waiting that the plague will come and take his life). Canoilas July 2014

 

Canoilas' work is strongly linked to the art historical evolution of early Modernism, employing a wide variety of media (informed predominantly by Painting) to represent a political and aesthetic convergence that moves towards a sensitisation of the viewer to the sociopolitical undercurrents that influence historical and contemporary culture. These new works continue this focus through a continued exploration of interests including philosophy, poetry and foundational ideologies of the Modernist period whilst simultaneously occupying a challenging position within contemporary painting.

 

Hugo Canoilas was born in 1977 in Lisbon, Portugal and studied at Caldas da Rainha, Portugal and the Royal College of Art, UK. Recent Exhibitions and Projects include: When elephants march in, curated by Mark Kremer at De Appel, Amsterdam, Performance Proletarians organized by Lili Renaud Dewar and Benjamin Valenza at le Magasin-CNAC Grenoble; Mirror Sea Solo presentation by Workplace Gallery at Art Basel Hong Kongg, 'Fierce: Riding the waves fiercely with no fear', Workplace London Spirit of the Air, Wiener Art Foundation, hosted by Kunstbuero, Vienna; Magma, Workplace Gallery, Gateshead, UK; Paradise Birds - 30th São Paulo Biennial - A iminência das poéticas, curated by Luiz Perez Oramas, Tobi Maier and André Severo, São Paulo; A painting is getting its kicks, 1M3, Lausanne; Endless Killing, curated by Chus Martinez. Huarte Contemporary Art Center; Vota Octávio Pato - Ten reasons to be a member, curated by Tobi Maier, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt; Strata, curated by Francesco Stocchi, Sammlung Lenikus, Vienna; Infinite Tasks, curated by Paulo Pires do Vale, Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon. Canoilas lives and works in Vienna, Austria.
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