Matthew Liu Fine Arts is pleased to announce a major solo exhibition of new and recent works by French artist Thomas Canto, running from May 14th through July 3rd, 2016, with an opening reception on Friday, May 14th from 4-7pm. As the Paris and Geneva-based artist’s first solo presentation in Asia, Gravitational Transparencies will bring together a rich collection of his remarkable sculptural paintings and a site-specific installation created specifically for this exhibition. Forming geometrical patterns that evoke unspecified yet familiar architecture, city landscape and universe at large, Canto’s works are expressions of his unique views towards contemporary urban life and the notion of globalization and cosmopolitanism in different regions as he experiences it.

 

Started his artistic career in 1995, Thomas Canto has been fascinated to and influenced by graffiti art. Pursued art history in high school, he began his practice and started his career as a professional artist as early as 18 years old. The ways in which Canto formed his idiosyncratic styles, techniques and artistic languages can be seen as an exceptional personal and empirical social research. He gained and developed a majority of his knowledge and techniques through interacting with his fellow artists and by his repetitive labor intensive practice. Different from the typical graffiti artists that seek to express their emotions and perspectives through figurative images, Canto’s works are minimalistic and abstract in nature, and exhibit deep influence from early Constructivism, Optical Art in the 1960s and Conceptual art in the 1970s. Employing lines, geometric forms and light, Canto incorporates his thoughts and experiences into his works, creating spectacular optical illusions that speak individually to each viewer depending on their angles in relation to the artworks. With bright colors and recurring patterns, Canto’s works often depict a cosmic blast bursts from the center to the peripheries, radiating intensive energy. In his artist-in-residency at the Bains Douches in 2013, Canto extended the optical illusions he created on the painted surfaces into three-dimensional space, producing a magnificent installation that simultaneously engages and penetrates space and time.

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Gravitational Transparencies, the artist's first solo exhibition at Matthew Liu Fine Arts, features 12 highly abstract works and an installation that exhibit the artist’s continuously interest in exploring and visualizing space and time as a way to step into the territory of unconsciousness and universe. In sharp contrast to his earlier works with vibrant colors and representational compositions, this new body of works are rendered exclusively in black, white and chrome. Quasi stellar radiosource (2016) shows a series of concentric circles organically expand into space, creating a beautiful kaleidoscope. In Continuum superpositions and Reflective perspectives (2016), Canto introduces mirror into his work for the very first time, thus further incorporates the surrounding environment and viewers into his space. Also on view is the dazzling diptych Inertia radiances (2016), in which two semi-symmetrical stars burst into illuminating radiation. The entangled lines, squares and circles form a series of abstract patterns that channel the microworld and macrocosm. Resembling a window on the wall, these works open up another dimension on the wall that infinitely expands the interior space they reside in.

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Born in 1979 in Venissieux, Thomas Canto is a self-taught artist that has been actively exhibiting his works worldwide since the early 2000s. His major solo exhibitions include, Gravitational Transparencies, Matthew Liu Fine Arts, Shanghai, China, 2016; Still Lifes of Spacetime, Wunderkammern gallery, Roma, Italy, 2015; and Transparent Landscapes, Atelier des bains, Geneva, Switzerland, 2014. His works have been featured in Art Central Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2016; BUND 18, Magda Danysz Gallery project, Shanghai, China, 2015; Volklingen art biennale, Germany, 2015; Nuit Blanche, Magda Danysz Gallery project, Paris, France, 2014. Past group exhibitions include: Artistes à la une, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France, 2015; K11 Foundation, Wuhan, China, 2015; Fabien Castanier gallery, Los Angeles, U.S.A, 2014. His works are included in prominent private and international collections, including the collection of Gunther Sachs, Germany and K11 Foundation, Hong Kong, among many others. The artist currently lives and works in Paris and Geneva.

 

For further information, please contact info@mlfinearts. com or +86 21 6315 1582.