NATCHITOCHES – Work by graduate student artist Edgar Cano will be featured in an exhibition Nov. 1-8 in Orville Hanchey Gallery at Northwestern State University. The show, “South/Realism/X” will open with a reception from 5-7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 1.
Work by Cano is not easily classified or labeled. He began his artistic journey as a realistic painter in a true academic tradition. His technique and imagery in this genre are flawless. Recently, Cano has chosen to break free of the rigors and limitations of academic realism stating that, “the mastering of a technique is not enough.” He searched and experimented with different techniques, forms, concepts and materials to develop a familiar and yet unique body of work for “South/Realism/X.”
Cano’s new canvases break free of the square/rectangular format. He works on surfaces that have jutting points and rounded humps and are anything but traditional in shape. The imagery he creates is beautifully married to his syncopated canvases. The imagery consists of layer upon layer of realistic forms and geometric lines and shapes that fade back and forth across the canvas surface. Cano creates visual puzzles that defy solution or resolution. The viewer is challenged by the intriguing push and pull of realism and geometry.
Cano’s aim with “South/Realism/X” was to “develop a different work from those that I have previously created.” He has succeeded.
In more than fifteen years of art production, Cano, a native of Mexico, has been distinguished and awarded in various national and international competitions including Acquisition prize of the III Biennial of Visual Arts of Veracruz (2016) two-dimensional category, acquisition prize of the XVII Biennial of Painting Rufino Tamayo (2016), the award for the IX Biennial of Painting Alfredo Zalce (2014), the award for the IV Biennial of the Southeast in Chiapas (2005), finalist in the I International Biennial of Drawing in Tijuana (2006), prize for the XVII José Guadalupe Posada National Engraving Contest (2010) and selected twice by the Takeda Biennial (2008 and 2012), among other mentions.
He has obtained multiple scholarships, in the state of Veracruz for PECDA (2005 and 2009), the FONCA Young Creators scholarship (2010 and 2012), and at the end of 2014, he became a member of the National System of Art Creators of FONCA (SNCA) in visual arts with a specialty in painting, again selected in the edition 2021-2024. In 2018, he received the distinction from the FONCA Promotion and Co-investment Program to carry out the exhibition “El Centro Único” of his authorship.
In 2018 Cano was part of the Selection Commission of the National System of Art Creators of FONCA, in painting. The same year, he participated in the three-member jury board for the XI National Biennial of Painting and Engraving Alfredo Zalce in Morelia, Michoacán.
To date, he has 15 solo exhibitions in Mexico and abroad and more than 45 group exhibitions in various cities within and outside of the country. He has shown his work in Buenos Aires, Argentina, England, Venice, Canada, the United States, Japan, Sweden and Serbia, where he carried out an artistic residency in 2007. Among the collections where his work can be found, the following stand out: MACO Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (Collection of the Tamayo Biennial); Museo Nacional de la Estampa MUNAE, Mexico DF; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Alfredo Zalce MACAZ, Morelia, Michoacán; Engraving Collection of the Instituto de Artes Gráficas de Oaxaca IAGO; José Guadalupe Posada Museum, Aguascalientes, Ags.; Artistic Collection of the State of Veracruz IVEC; Artistic Collection of the State of Tabasco, Mex.; Collection of Visual Arts of the State of Chiapas; Collection of the International Art Studio Radovan Tranavac Mica, Valjebo, Serbia; Artistic Collection of the Lithography Workshop of La Ceiba Grafica, Coatepec, Veracruz; The Luciano Benetton Collection, Italy; Grupo Milenio’s Collection, México D.F.; Collection of the Jagüey Institute, Teotihuacán, Mex.; Collection of the Friday Cottage Art Space, Columbia, S.C., among other private collections.
Hanchey Gallery is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 8 a.m.-noon on Fridays.
