Xano Armenter

XANO ARMENTER (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1956).
"Chess", Los Angeles, 1996.
Acrylic on canvas.
Signed.
Measurements: 168 x 126 cm.

Xano Armenter makes "Chess" during his time in Los Angeles, a city he moved to in 1993 after having lived in New York. There, in his studio near the Hollywood studios, his language opted for an abstraction that does not end up detaching from his figurative drift, and in that struggle between form and formless where he finds its maximum expression. This is evidenced in this attractive chessboard with the squares unraveling under the effect of an invisible force.

Xano Armenter studied at the Eina School in Barcelona, then settled in New York, where he lived from 1980 to 1990 and where he furthered his training at the School of Visual Arts with Milton Glaser, and at the New York Academy, where he learned printmaking. He currently lives and works between this city and his native Barcelona. He made his debut in 1983 at the Carlos Lozano Gallery in Cadaqués, and in 1986 he made the international leap with a solo exhibition at the Limbo Gallery in New York. That same year he held another personal exhibition at the Sala Vincon in Barcelona, and the following year he did the same at the René Métras in the same city. Also in 1987 he participated in the group show "Catalan art", which toured Philadelphia, Boston, New York and Boca Raton. In 1990 he took part in the Art Fair of Chicago and in the Art Expo of Tokyo, in 1994 in ARCO in Madrid and in 1995 in the LACE of Los Angeles. Since the nineties he has held solo exhibitions in Spain, France, the United States and Japan.