• Casiano Leon

    Yep – thats me…

What I do

I was born in Argentina in 1965.
I had a strong education from its beginnings at Asociación de Estimulo de Bellas Arte, where I studied for 4 years.
I also completed my studies of engraving, drawing and painting with Luisa Reisner , a well-known Argentine artist.
Lately, I graduated at National School of Fine Arts “Prilidiano Pueyrredón”, as engraver and teacher in 1988.

In 1993 I founded the Art School “Taller Escuela de Expresión Plástica” where more than 100 students are enrolled annually.

Since 1988 I have been participating in numerous solo and collective museum and art galleries exhibits in USA, Japan, Spain, Brasil & Argentina. I also received different awards. At the present time, the mayority of my works belong (sin s) to private collections in Argentina, USA and Europe.

About my work

“..I intend to fuse two different forms of expression: the strength of color and the strokes of German expressionism with the purity and conceptual simplicity of Oriental Art…”

Eyeless Fishes which appear in my artwork is my personal interpretation which comes from the critical thinking expressed by the Argentinian national hero, Roque S. Peña. When he gave his address at the opening Congress Sessions in 1901 made a parallelism between biology and our Argentinian democratic quality. Biologists point to us that functioning defines what organs do. Linking both thoughts: it is said that the first generation of fish living in dark water caverns are born blind and then without eyes as lack of this function. If we do not exercise our democratic rights as a society, we’ll lose our democratic understanding and knowledge, generation after generation. The eyeless fishes I paint are those blind fishes and our reflection as a society and our scarce democratic quality. Many times, this is symbolized with voracious jaws and teeth.

Then there came the birds in contrast with these fishes. Here birds represent freedom and all the positive that exists in our democracy and society. It works as a duality, the existence of two characters or different phenomena in a same thing. These birds, sometimes, birds and plants also remind us that we are inserted on this planet with its natural laws we can’t violate, but we do.

The woman in my artwork represents the Republic, the beauty and Sensuality.

The impression of flawed chromosomes in my artwork is taken from a photograph image from a laboratory where flawed chromosomes were studied from old decendants of Chernobyl inhabitants in Ukraine, after the nuclear accident at Vladimir Ilich Lenin nuclear plant in April 1986. That accident together with the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan in 2011, ( level 7 on the Nuclear accidents scale ) constitutes two of the major environmental disasters in human history. On the other hand, the presence of chromosomes means all that is transmitted through genetic heritage, sometimes flawed…

The Ebola virus, is considered one of the most virulent illnesses in this century, with more than 13,633 infected people and 5,500 casualties (WHO’s figures until 2014). Its printing in my artwork tries to emphasize the dramatic situation some countries and populations are facing nowadays regarding health and environmental status.

Sheets from school folders are the representation of our low educational levels which collide directly with our democratic quality. These sheets are in white because they represent all which is unsaid.

I paint mainly in acrylic since I am interested in the synthetic appearance and their artificial essence. Charcoal Drawings allow me to efficiently represent the graphich image and stroke purity achieved with this type of material.

In my artwork there also appear two major influences, the German expressionism and the Oriental art. I intend to fuse these two different forms of expression: the strength of color and the strokes of German expressionism with the purity and conceptual simplicity of Oriental Art.

Since my academic major is engraver: my graphic mark results from the relevance of engraving in the German Expressionism and Oriental Art.