Oscar Camilo de las Flores at Justina M. Barnicke Gallery

Wednesday, 06 December 2006 08:39

Toronto - Educated and formally trained in the field of printmaking at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, artist Oscar Camilo de las Flores presents a selection of recent works at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery.  The exhibition will close on December 21st, 2006.

Oscar Camilo de las Flores’s work is deeply rooted in a multifaceted history of Latin America and its cultural legacies.  In particular, the artist has been interested in the way in which the continent, in his words, has been the experimental board for a continuous wave of transmigrations and exchange, a sort of great collage of the world where universal understanding has long paraded its virtues and tribulations.  Such cultural complexity is evidenced in de las Flores’ densely interwoven images, layered surfaces, and multivalent references to the intermixing of cultural traditions.

As a new Canadian growing up in an increasingly multicultural scene, de las Flores sees his work as following in the continuous artistic traditions of Western and Latin American art.  At the same time, his recent paintings seek to “directly portray that which is inhuman and immoral in society as well as that which is compassionate and true” in order to awaken in his viewers a sense of social awareness of injustices and turmoil.

Born in Santa Ana, El Salvador, de las Flores is now working and living in Oaxaca and Mexico City, where he is collaborating with the upcoming Oaxacan artist Demian Flores in establishing an international artist residency in an old leather tanning factory in Jalatlaco, the city’s oldest neighborhood.  His work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions primarily in Argentina, Mexico, Canada, Egypt, France, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Columbia, Japan, the United States, Poland, Macedonia, and Brazil.  In addition to receiving numerous awards and grants, de las Flores is recognized for founding the ‘La Trinchera’ art collective, a non-profit Latino Canadian Cultural Association.