Exploring technical applications of varied methods of assemblage on paper, Carlos Quinto Kemm has been creating three-dimensional collages for the past twenty-five years. The more involved pieces experiment and play with the use of dimensional space through images adhered at various heights within the visual plane.
Kemm often enshrines his lusciously coloured vignettes in seductive intricate configurations with implications of religious / cultish association. He draws extensively on images from art history, religios symbolism and archetypal imagery, his work often linked to the tradition of magic realism in Hispanic art and literature.
Carlos Quinto Kemm lives and works in New Mexico, USA.
This is a playful recasting of many art history images – a metaphor of the artist worshipping the muse or goddess, and controlling desire in the face of reverence.
The characters are composites of many historical pieces. The man’s head is from Cranach’s Adam, and the mask “covering his back” is a Francis Bacon portrait. The woman’s face is from Fra Angelico’s Virgin and her foot is from Boticelli’s Venus. The pedestal she is standing on is a table from a Magritte painting. The sleeping tiger, which represents man’s animal nature, is from a Japanese Zen master’s painting. The phallic goose neck is taken from Fragonard’s Leda and Swan.