GLOWLAB

Glowlab presents:
Jason Cantoro, New Works

Exhibition dates: November 13 – December 14, 2008
Opening reception: Thursday November 13, 6–8pm

Glowlab is pleased to present “New Works,” an exhibition by emerging multi-media artist Jason Cantoro. Cantoro takes North American urban cultural memory as a starting point for densely layered landscapes that push the limits of printmaking through a unique combination of painting, silkscreen printing and drawing. Remixing images of the past and present in nostalgic yet unsettling compositions, his mixed-media works portray spaces charged with potential where abandoned urban structures, characters from past eras and found, forgotten ephemera merge with delicate patterns and visual textures. 

Cantoro’s new series represents a technical and creative breakthrough in silkscreen printing, from works  on paper to multi-layered, screened collages on wood panels. Using special inks, Cantoro has discovered and developed a new means of printing images directly on wood to create texture and depth with a stunning, atmospheric quality. Glowlab Director Christina Ray states, “Jason’s latest works reflect influences both old and new where the dreamlike fluidity of the Impressionist movement meets the sampling, repetition and sonic layering found in DJ culture.”

From the studio to the street, Cantoro has been most recently exploring new techniques, mediums and venues for his work. Earlier this year, he received a Quebec government grant to produce a large-scale outdoor installation at street-level in Montréal which incorporates video both to document and animate the  work. Along with artistic collaborator Alice Jarry, Cantoro recently completed a large and complex mural commissioned for the new uptown Manhattan location of chef Zak Pelaccio’s Fatty Crab restaurant.

Jason Cantoro was born, lives and works in Montréal. He holds a bachelor of visual arts from the University of Québec. He has participated in more than 20 group exhibitions in Canada and the United States over the past five years. In 2004 Cantoro and fellow printmaker and mixed media artist Alice Jarry co-founded Sérigraphie Cincqunquatre in the Centre-Sud neighborhood of Montréal.