between the discipline of a strict school, and the warm carefree days of coffee plantations. Her compositions use intricate work to reconcile the tension between pairs of opposites (agony and sublimation, vulnerability and power, black and white).
Cano’s semi-abstract work is influenced by a childhood lived between a city at war (Medellin) and the magic vitality of her grandmother’s farm;
Cano’s semi-abstract work is influenced by a childhood lived between a city at war (Medellin) and the magic vitality of her grandmother’s farm;
between the discipline of a strict school, and the warm carefree days of coffee plantations. Her compositions use intricate work to reconcile the tension between pairs of opposites (agony and sublimation, vulnerability and power, black and white).
ANA LUCIA CANO
(b. 1980, Quindío, Colombia)
Ana Lucia Cano (b. 1980, Quindío, Colombia), before embarking on a journey of self-discovery as a visual artist, studied and practiced architecture in the United States, Austria, Canada and Colombia. She earned a Masters in Architectural Design from Columbia University and opened her own boutique practice in New York City.
Her paintings are among private collections in England, India, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, and the United States:
In 2017, she was awarded first prize in the Annual Viridian Artists Juried Exhibition.
In 2018, she completed a site-specific commissioned mural (30m 2 ) for the
Gurgaon’s Grand Hyatt.In 2021, she received an award at the London Art Biennale.
In 2022, she was selected to exhibit at Gagliardi gallery in London.
Architecture’s influence on Cano’s art can be clearly felt through her composition strategies and line work; one is directed through a visual riddle, lost and found in detail. She makes bold use of formal and thematic juxtapositions that arouse the viewer’s power of imagination.
Writing and drawing are the genesis of Cano’s paintings; she regards herself, foremost, as a storyteller. Her graphic narrations with dizzyingly sophisticated patterns, sensual figures and textures verge on the humorous and erotic.
Each work starts with a series of wireframe sketches in pencil or ink, these hand exercises are displayed on the studio walls and then go through a curatorial process. The selected works get refined and scaled up on canvases that have been prepared with thick layers of paint.
Cano’s haunting characters are depicted in constant movement against busy textures and backgrounds. Bodies, animals, shapes and portraits, either in ink or acrylic paint, are mapped carefully with bittersweet expressions that forge new relationships with her unconscious and her own history.
Ana Lucia Cano’s exhibition was available between the 9th and 30th of March, 2023
Practical answers to impossible questions
The “Practical Answers to Impossible Questions” project started in 2018 as an imaginary conversation between the artist and her soon-to-be-born son. He would ask impossible questions and she would respond with practical, simple answers. Whereas the questions are abstract, serious, philosophical, transcendental, and timeless; the answers are specific, colorful, and quotidian. The questions are meant to be universal and absolute, while the answers are anecdotal. In most cases the answers resonate with feelings and characters that influenced Cano’s life and artwork.
The original “Practical Answers to Impossible Questions” is a compilation of fifteen ideas, which became the point of departure for this exhibition. The artworks presented here can be seen as a kind of itinerary of answers to some of these immutable questions.