Ricardo Cardenas, arises by merging his large blocks of concrete with good painting, influenced by the prominent muralist movement of his homeland, Mexico.
His paintings, he states that “they express my feelings and passion for art”. That’s right, they are work pieces combining cubist, abstract and figurative strokes, giving strength to the characters of everyday life. The variation of colors of their culture.. the exuberant flora and scenes of urban life are a source of inspiration for this young Mexican artist. Likewise, Ricardo has managed to cope with exquisite pictorial distress in their concrete, putting his knowledge of civil engineering to provide the perfect solutions methods to mount his heavy artwork on the wall of many collectors thru the world.

Silvia Medina, Curator

“Autobiography and migrants”
Recent Works by Ricardo Cardenas

Ricardo Cardenas, a young Mexican emerging artist whose popularity is growing in giant leaps, gifts us with pictorial work – rich in colors and diverse images – displayed on the hard surface of concrete. His paintings – teaming with autobiographic elements populated with everyday life characters; the exuberant flora of his native country; and the strong influence of its artistic legacy -are influence by the muralist and cubism legacy of Mexican culture.

Today, Ricardo presents us with an Autobiographic series of Works that represent time; his time. We would have to delve into the artist’s most private realm to fully understand the whole significance of what he imparting to us; so we must view his work simply as time in all its verbal forms. Each element in his paintings represents for us the hands of a clock –as does the horizon’s white line that represents the time and vertical line of minutes past. And, though his work has diminished in his color scheme’s force, its strength is present in the sealer that is applied to his concrete works; the transparencies that seal the paintings with a somber overtone that the artist employs to represent his day-to-day obstacles. His awesome concrete pieces – almost pure – signify the harshness and coldness that time goes carving inside most of us. At the same time: “the marvels that appear in his work represent the soul of a work that has to be as hard as steel in its effort to resist time”.

Regardless of this fact, there is light and purity, because white is intentional in its essence. The ever-present greens of the frames, add a touch of hope to the whole.

Recently, I referred to Ricardo’s work, mentioning the fusion brought about by the combination of his civil engineering background and his knowledge of Povera Art. His works are an open picture gallery that project the anthropologic archeology of his spiritual landscape, its edifices, and its entire environment. In the same way his sculpture series: “migrants” was created with characters that walk, and find themselves in search of new horizons.

Each piece – on its carved wood base where the wood represents his country’s warmth and the lines represent the difficulties we sometimes encounter when we live in our own countries- and from that concept, our need for immigration. The concrete and the rods express how tough and complicated it becomes to make the decision to leave our native lands, our homes, and our lives behind. The wires found on the sculptures’ bases represent how bound we are to our roots. Carving can also be found on the sculptures themselves to represent the quality of the artist’s warm, yet empty, soul that has been torn by the trajectory; while in the sculptures’ faces, viewers will recognize the shouts of hope. There is no doubt that these pieces are poetic, because Ricardo always accomplishes the daunting task of working with just about any type of materials with pristine esthetics and finesse.

“AUTOBIOGRAPHIC and MIGRANTS”, presents a series of works that are formally rich in structure, while at the same time retaining the artist’s human sensibilities.

Silvia Medina, Curator
February 2016