For his first Italian solo show Still Lifes of Space Time, Thomas Canto is creating a site-specific installation at Wunderkammern and hoping to take the audience into a more participatory experience of dimension. Using video projection mapping the planes intersecting and turning will produce a 3 D effect inside the gallery that may evoke how a pedestrian experiences the navigation of an urban environment. Though not explicit in the show’s description, you will see similarities to the current Street Art movement some are calling graffuturism.

Thomas Canto. Still Lifes of Space Time. Wunderkammern Gallery, Rome, Italy. (photo © Wunderkammern)

Canto told Alessandra Ioalé in Street Art Attack last year that he learned about color and gesture through graffiti and by looking at the work of graffiti artists like Futura 2000, Lokiss, Mode 2 and other American graffiti legends. “Quickly developing interest for other tools and techniques, I was soon to deviate, switching from spray-can to brushes, from wall to canvas whilst keeping urban themes drawn from graffiti, “ he said.

“The oversized shapes of the tags will mutate in vortexes and abstract universes and the walls will turn into infinite cities.” In addition to his early graffiti influences he says he draws influences from Constructivism, Suprematism, Op Art and Urban Art.

The linear construction process: The artist in action on the wall for a client (photo © courtesy Robin Soulier Consulting)

Canto’s abstractions and entangled framed planes work well outside as much as the gallery and he created installations last year for the Nuit Blanche in Paris the Outdoor Urban Art Festival in Rome. The French artist will also present new mixed media artworks of painted wood and canvas incorporating nylon wires and plexi-glass boxes and a limited edition lithograph will be released along with a critical essay by Achille Bonito Oliva.

Thomas Canto. Still Lifes of Space Time. Wunderkammern Gallery, Rome, Italy. (photo © Wunderkammern)

Thomas Canto. Still Lifes of Space Time. Wunderkammern Gallery, Rome, Italy. (photo © Wunderkammern)

Thomas Canto. Still Lifes of Space Time. Wunderkammern Gallery, Rome, Italy. (photo © Wunderkammern)

Thomas Canto’s Still Lifes Of Space Time is currently on view at Wunderkammern Gallery, Rome, Italy. Click HERE for more information.

 An earlier project from the artist called Parallax Immersion

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