Acrylics, Spray Paint and Markers on Canvas
36x48"
Created in my studio in Toronto, Canada. Located in the 401 Richmond building.
Part of the IMMI Series.
To understand one can always be better is a remarkable feat every one of us has the opportunity to experience. Some choose to find the limits of greatness and some are comfortable in the situation they currently are. No judgement here, just assessment.
The $20 per hour IMMI knows minimum wage, he's seen how low it can get. However, he's also seen opportunity, progress, growth. His mind is a bit turbulent but his will is strong. $20 per hour seems low but it's a step above the minimum and that matters to him. He understand the game now and knows that it is up to him to keep on increasing that number.
So, what's your hourly rate?
The word IMMI refers to Immigrants. When I started High School in New Jersey, my first days I noticed that some classmates called the ESL kids "the immis". I guess IMMI is cooler than immigrant. The aim of this series is to portray IMMIs in every stage of their journey abroad.
CIFUENTES' artistic practice is rooted in the visual expression of freedom. He looks to his own experiences as a Colombian immigrant in North America, often marked by instability and restriction. In response, CIFUENTES’ work seeks to break free from convention in order to express emotional havoc. Starting out as a street artist, CIFUENTES keeps with the tradition through his use of spray paint and marker, juxtaposed with acrylic and oil paint. The resulting canvases oscillate between the abstract and the figural, stylistically defying categorization. Freedom of expression in both style and concept is the thread that binds the works in CIFUENTES’ oeuvre.
Born in Medellin, Colombia, CIFUENTES moved to the United States as a teenager. He completed a diploma from Bergen College in New Jersey where he studied Fine Arts. In 2009, CIFUENTES moved back to Medellin where he founded the award-winning clothing brand beFREE. In 2016 CIFUENTES moved to Toronto where he continues to live and work.
CIFUENTES’ work has been featured in fairs and exhibitions internationally, including Red Dot Miami, Florida; Gallery 1313, Toronto; ARTA Gallery, Toronto; Distrito Creativo el Perpetuo Socorro, Medellin; and Monroe Center for the Arts, Hoboken. He is recipient of the Panasonic Creative Excellence Award and a 2019 Refugee and Newcomer Mentorship Grant from Toronto Arts Council.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Let my work be known for manifesting varied visual representations of freedom, these unexpected paintings are a mixture of thick knife strokes with free-hand illustrations on canvas and recycled surfaces. I collect and portray moods that are in vivid, visceral paint strokes, loose lines, deliberate drips and passionate splatters. All this to the novel end of creating an unconventional marriage of fine and urban art.
Drawing from my experience as an immigrant in the U.S.A, and now Canada, my work expresses the authenticity of artistic freedom and the emotional havoc that surrounds it. To be an immigrant is to struggle in life with instability, but this also means embracing the realities of said struggle to grow bold, fearless and free.
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