Paintings made with the stroke of a spatula

 

The sculptress Mónica Canzio exhibits paintings in dialogue with her volumes in glass and Wood at the Otto gallery.

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The elegant text written by the plastic artist Eduardo Stupia for the exhibition Sensitive Matter gives us the initial kick to address the pictorial works, the main protagonists of this exhibition by Mónica Canzio in Otto’s Gallery: “Alert to the chromatic relations of a very elaborate and subtle palette, and to the dynamic counterpoints of the well-tempered partition of the plane, Canzio lets painting grow and breath showing herself with her body made with strokes of a spatula and not from a brush, as if they were reconstructing, under the shape of silent geometric poems, the atavistic residues of colorful stucco and plaster, of calcareous surfaces that recall the palpitation of the fresco, of worn walls in the outdoor, while a fragmentary reflection of the informalist stony aridity resonates in the lyrical roughness of fabrics and papers”.

The description does justice to a plastic work in which the presence of paintings as a material by itself –and not as a mere vehicle that enables the possibility of giving life to the abstraction of her works– shows that the artist’s reflection on the elements that make up her Works follows a common thread, which runs through not only the canvases, but also the sculptures, objects and papers, with the same intensity. In the sensitive Matter, it is the materials that draw the guidelines, beyond a specific format, discipline or aesthetic. They are the ones who demand the support that will contain them and the way they are going to charge. Corporeal, dense paintings, where the fine brushstroke is lost and in its place those energetic strokes of the spatula that Stupia (CONFIRMAR SI ES SIN ACENTO) spoke. Abstract and irregular planes, passionate and dramatic dialogues between the contained colours by the margins of the canvases, waging internal battles, and unique, that harmonize with the set of Works that are in the room. Accompanying these paintings, the volumes are also present in medium and small format. Through these geometric sculptures, the elegance and subtlety of glass and the forceful organicity of ivy and quebracho wood establish a new channel for dialogue. Creating for the viewer a proposal of interesting visual contrasts and textures.

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A curious detail is given by the presence of the artist’s workbooks full of sketches, which are shown in the exhibit. They synthesize the logical connection between the pictorial planimetry and the three-dimensionality of the sculptures. The coexistence –and its complementarity– between weakness and strength are constant concerns in Mónica Canzio’ work. The artistsays: “if I had to define my work, I would say it is precisely the material, the sensitive, whichdefines it. In my career as a sculptress the theme and its representation through different materials show the various facets of each series, its strengths, weaknesses and subtleties. In this exhibition, oil is my great love from the beginning, from the making itself. It is the grinding of the pigment, almost like someone repeating a mantra, which allows me to think the palette and define its contrasts. The spatula allows me to be a sculptress of my painting. The fresh on fresh defines the textures. In this series, the glasses were made in parallel, representing a sort of rest for my eyes, but not for my body, because –although subtle– they require a complex balance structure that demands a lot of physical tension. I think that in this exhibition oil has found me and I have loved it”.

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The works of Sensitive Matter are the result of more than a year of tireless production. But the formal, decisive and aesthetic solidity of the works, and the fluid and natural passage between the different supports, materials and plastic languages, have required decades of work, and are representative of a body of work that is sustained by its own weight. An entire life of work in the search to articulate a plastic whole in a harmonic way. The exhibition at Otto Gallery reflects an exquisite synthesis of that process, up to date.

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MARÍA CAROLINA BAULO

28/03/2018 -  Clarin.com Revista Ñ Arte

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