Profiles of Contemporary Art and - ARTisSpectrum

Raul Cantu
El Nucleo Giclee Print on Canvas 24” x 38” Raul in his Studio
Mexican digital artist Raul Cantu
creates stunning abstract vistas
full of spectacular explosions, smooth
textures and otherworldly colors. While
some of his works are incredibly sleek,
with clean, aerodynamic lines and
gentle gradients in tone, others are
thrilling mixtures of three-dimensional
forms pooled in complex clusters. The
artist confounds distinctions of scale
and direction, with some compositions
evoking microscopic chemical processes
and infinitesimal sea creatures while
others resemble immense astronomical
events like bursting stars or colliding
galaxies. Cantu’s fractal, digitally
manipulated landscape-like works
combine his interests in digital graphics
and computer systems with a painterly
sense of composition. Colors evolve and
transform along sinuous, brushstrokelike
lines; bright tones in striking, shifting
shapes emerge from a strong, flat base
hue.
Cantu triumphs at a challenge with which
so many digital artists struggle: that of
how to harness the medium’s powerful
set of tools to create astoundingly
complex works that nevertheless do
not appear mechanistic or artificial.
Working with computer programs and
digital images, he crafts giclée prints
that elicit undeniably organic, natural
associations. Certain pieces, despite
Nace un Sol Giclee Print on Canvas 24” x 48”
their palettes of searing reds, hot yellows
and rich burgundies, portray plant-like
forms and foliage, like forests of fire. In
other pieces diluting, concentric lines
give an impression of submersion, of
pure color seeping into sand and water.
Occasionally he forgoes such epic vistas
for more intimate, sparse and sensual
forms with gentle, curving lines that call
to mind the flowers of Georgia O’Keefe
and the smoothed textures of Constantin
Brancusi’s sculptures.
By exploring this compelling territory
between artificial means and natural
forms, Cantu explores the increasing
hybridity of our contemporary condition
while generating visually bewitching and
undeniably attractive artworks. Though
he hardly relies on familiar images
and tools, his deployment of paint-like
gestures and photographic precision
eases viewers into his tantalizingly
foreign environments of popping colors
and extraordinary forms. Cantu draws
an intriguing, computer-generated line
connecting previous modes of artmaking
and viewing with advanced
digital tools and futuristic worlds.
www.raulcantu.mx
www.Agora-Gallery.com/Artistpage/
Raul_Cantu.aspx
45 ARTisSpectrum