Hugo Canoilas, Oh witches, Oh misery, Oh hate., 2014

His series of 'Dinosaur Paintings' are based on paintings and illustrations by the late Czechoslovakian palaeo-artist Zdenek Burian, discovered by Canoilas in a book he bought for his daughter in a thrift store in Vienna where he lives. Epically enlarged and rendered in a more fluid and gestural style than the originals, the imaginary landscapes are populated by Prehistoric creatures apparently in conversation. The dialogue, shown as speech bubbles derived from International Situationist comics, consists of dérives drawn from Canoilas' own readings of text by writers such Wally Salomão, Arthur Rimbaud, Allen Ginsberg, Malcolm Lowry and Fernando Pessoa, along with his own writings.

Above all, these paintings show an existential approach, that of Camus in "the Plague", where the people from the taken city start some activities in order to deal with the absurdity of life (i.e. passing beans from one dish to another in order to pass the days, waiting that the plague will come and take his life). Canoilas July 2014

Canoilas' work is strongly linked to the art historical evolution of early Modernism, employing a wide variety of media (informed predominantly by Painting) to represent a political and aesthetic convergence that moves towards a sensitisation of the viewer to the sociopolitical undercurrents that influence historical and contemporary culture. These new works continue this focus through a continued exploration of interests including philosophy, poetry and foundational ideologies of the Modernist period whilst simultaneously occupying a challenging position within contemporary painting.

Hugo Canoilas

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Hugo Canoilas