Last March, Carlos Cruz-Diez, one of the most important figures in the world in the optical and kinetic art, opened the doors of his workshop Articruz to four young street artists: Felipe Pantone, 1010, Cisco Merel and Nelio.
The result of this residency is shown at SPECTRA an amazing exhibition at Marion Gallery in Panama.
Every form of art is, somehow, experimental. A true artist proposes, takes risks and tries to push to the limits. Making art is to invent art. In contemporary art, with the declared intention of rupture that characterizes it and with its focus on individuals beyond schools and groups, this becomes evident. Each artist has its proposal and performs a research of its own.
Spectra gathers the proposals of these artists who despite having shared concerns, express them through clearly structured and differentiated speeches as a result of a deliberate process of exploration and experimentation that gives shape to a structured visual language that in the end will work in any given surface.
1010, Cisco Merel, Felipe Pantone and Nelio have a common background. All of them were trained in design, and arose from the world of graffiti and street art. Their visual vocabulary was forged on the street and in murals, with the particularity that they have focused their interests on abstraction, geometry and perception, creating languages from pure forms and colour.
Now they are all in a transition process between urban art and conventional works on permanent surfaces, between the outdoor walls and the walls in the galleries. This is the reason why we have coordinated a collaboration with Articruz so that these artists can experiment with the various possibilities that the workshop provides them. Thus, this transition in support, from the wall to the frame, can be more effective and adapted to the needs of each artist’s speech.
The result is Spectra, a combination of technical and discursive solutions, which interact with each other and are now being shown to viewers and visitors of the exhibition.
The exhibition runs through May 21 at Marion Gallery located on Calle 70E, Panama City.
Video © Selina Miles
Images via Marion gallery
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
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