Sandra Cinto (Brazilian, born 1968). Tempest in Red, 2009. Acrylic and permanent pen on canvas, 63 x 98 x 2 inches (160 x 248.9 x 5.1 cm). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Elisabeth H. Gates Fund, by exchange, Fellows for Life Fund, by exchange, James G. Forsyth Fund, by exchange, Gift of Demotte and Company, by Exchange, Charles Clifton and James G. Forsyth Fund, by exchange, George Cary Fund, by exchange, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Lucien Garo, by exchange, Evelyn Rumsey Cary Fund, by exchange and Norman E. Boasberg Fund, by exchange, 2011 (2011:12). © 2009 Sandra Cinto, courtesy Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York. Image courtesy the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.
Sandra Cinto has developed a rich vocabulary of symbols and lines with which she creates lyrical landscapes and narratives that hover between fantasy and reality. Through a combination of drawing and painterly processes, the artist renders intricate and mesmerizing interpretations of Mother Nature’s fury, creating the illusion of a weightless, spiraling universe. The turbulent seascape depicted in Tempest in Red represents the power of nature and our inability to control it. The form of Cinto’s waves draws inspiration from European Old Master paintings and Japanese woodblock prints depicting storms, which often contain ships struggling against the elements. The work also refers to contemporary worldwide immigration issues and the many people who journey across potentially dangerous bodies of water in search of better lives.
Label from Drawing: The Beginning of Everything, July 8–October 15, 2017
