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A Valencian represents Spain in Beijing in an exhibition for the Olympics
The painter Victoria Cano teaches Fine Arts at the Polytechnic University
A professor of Fine Arts from the Polytechnic University of Valencia represents Spain in an art exhibition in Beijing during the Olympic Games. The painter Victoria Cano was in the Chinese capital yesterday to attend the inauguration of the Olympic Pie Arts 2008 exhibition, in which 150 artists from 80 countries and another 160 Chinese creators participated. Joy and responsibility were the feelings of the painter, born in the Jien town of Alcalá la Real although based in Valencia since 1978. “It’s a significant moment, I will face it responsibly. It’s like feeding back with the energy of the paintings,” the artist told LAS PROVINCIAS.
The Spanish grain of sand in the exhibition, which will remain until September in Beijing, is ‘Poppy Skin‘, a 140x140cm oil paint and acrylic painting. The red tones, a colour with which Spanish Olympic athletes also compete, predominate in the work, with which the artist symbolises the power, strength and passion of the human being.
The relationship between humans and nature is a central theme in the work of the professor of the Department of Drawing of the Faculty of Fine Arts, hence the presence of fingerprints in her creations. For her, nature is “like a poppy, that when you touch it you leave your mark on it and you can break it”.
‘Poppy Skin‘ was painted in 2008, but not deliberately to participate in the Olympic exhibition. Rather, it was almost a coincidence. A curator of several Victoria Caro exhibitions in Italy encouraged her to present a work. She chose this one, which had to go through three selection processes until she was chosen to commemorate the Olympic Games.
The work, which will remain in Beijing until September, will be part of a touring exhibition that will exhibited between 2008 and 2010 in the United States, Switzerland and Greece, as reported by the Universidad Poltécnica de Valencia in a statement. After its worldwide journey, the exhibition will be permanently exhibited in the Olympic Games Memorial Museum that is being built in Beijing. Victoria Cano has been invited by the organiser committee of the contest to spend ten days in Beijing, during the celebration of the Olympic Games and during her stay in the Chinese capital she will have the opportunity to live in the same space with artists from all over the world, something priceless. In fact, in the few hours that the artist has been in Beijing, she has already made contacts to take a course in Spanish at Boston University and another project in Paris.
The works of the exhibition will fill the main communication routes of Beijing. They can also be seen in the form of advertisements and illuminated billboards. The goal is to create an urban art corridor made up of more than 1000 pieces.
Cano has received different awards, including the 1980 First Prize Award for National Engraving in Ribarroja, the First Prize Award in Roig Foundation for Engraving of Valencia in 1981 and the XXVIII Senyera Prize for Engraving of the City of Valencia, in 1986.