Stripped of prejudices flooding the copper sheet are lights of gas and fire, thus appears the origin of the cosmos formed by the kinetic polychromes; directly altered out of the artist's hands. Slowly but surely, we are aware that without movement a message...we don't know which, but we enter into another world through a door...to the art and heart of the artist.
Edgar Carrasco is a pioneer in the artistic investigation of copper. He explores these materials with acids, water and fire. Solitary, introverted and very casual, characteristics of his personality, he is one of the Ecuadorian painters with great trajectory.
Carrasco began working with the figurative and later evolved into the abstract supporting the metallic patent (using copper, and eventually gold, silver, tin or bronze), in bisectional creations. His labor is engraving, repoussing, polishing, scratching, staining, perforating, restaining, fitting, and then submitting the sheets in acids and fire. Light, space and color are the highlights of his art. This one is of his alchemical and sapient combinations of acid and other reactive products that produce hidden tonalities in metal from relucent black to pure white. It is a particular technique that is not learned through schooling.
Technically his work is complicated; acids, copper sheets, electrolyte bathes, burnt tar, sandpaper and many other chemicals. The process of production is slow. It can take 2 to 3 days, or even up to 9 months. He also likes that the spectator can play with the demountable pieces of his work.
"The Metal Magic of Copper keeps many secrets from which you can abstract all the colors of the rainbow." Carrasco. He experimented with the reactions of these materials for about 40 years. "I found mercury to be philosophical" the alchemists and magicians wanted to convert mercury and carbon into gold. I did it. I mixed mercury with copper and found gold with 24 different colors, but I found it through the tool of philosophy.
His trajectory is vast. It isn't unmeasured to assert that he has reached serious technical levels for his art, which is bold, fresh, genuine and transforming.
Edgar Carrasco was born in Cuenca, Ecuador, January of 1946. He has fondly admired Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee.
His father was a metal and wood artisan who used a hand knife to carve his work and his mother molded the clay. It was here he learned manual work. At the age of 12, he enrolled into a sculpture workshop where he learned a lot about copper, silver and gold. He also experimented with acids.
At the age of 23, in 1969, he moved to Venezuela. During that year he discovered a more advanced art form with new and revolutionized techniques. He then traveled to Bolivia where he didn't learn anything new about art but was inspired by the people.
In 1976 he visited Machu Pichu, Peru, from which he exuberates admiration in his work. From Indo America to France and Madrid, Spain, he gathered admirers who understood his art and inspired him.
Between 1975 and 1976 he was given a scholarship to the University of Burdeau, School of Art and Architecture, Marseille, France. He was instructed in the National College of Benigno Malo, Cuenca, Ecuador, and School of Applied Arts and Artistic Trades in Madrid, Spain. Carrasco later taught at the Western Kentucky University Center for Latin Studies, and School of Art in Cumaná, Venezuela.
Back in Ecuador, Edgar Carrasco owned and directed Sangurima Gallery. He also founded the Sculpture and Repousse Workshop of Copper in his natal city of Cuenca.
He has displayed his art throughout Bolivia, Spain, Venezuela, United States, Mexico, Panama, Italy, Cuba, Bulgaria (1988) and Ecuador.
1974 Beca Premio de París, Quito, Ecuador (Scholarship)
1976 Primer Premio Nacional de Artes Plástica, Casa de la Cultura, Quito, Ecuador (First Place)
1983 Primer Premio Salón de Pintura Cuencana, Museo de Arte Moderno, Cuenca, Ecuador (First Place)
1985 Primer Premio Salón de Julio, Guayaquil, Ecuador (First Place)
1986 Primer Premio Nacional de Escultura de la Casa de la Cultura, Cuenca, Ecuador (First Place)
1967 Primer Premio en Escultura en el Portal César Dávila Andrade, Cuenca, Ecuador (First Place for Sculpture)
1968 Primer premio en Escultura de la Facultad de Arquitectura, Cuenca, Ecuador (First Place for Sculpture)
1978 Primer Premio el Salón de Octubre, Guayaquil, Ecuador (First Place)
1986 Segundo Premio del Salón Nacional de Poema Mural, Guayaquil, Ecuador (Second Place)
1987 Pinceladas Taurinas Prize
1995 Pinceladas Taurinas Prize
1973 Honorable Mention in the Salón de Octubre, Guayaquil, Ecuador
1975 First Mention of VI Salón Luis A. Martínez, Ambato, Ecuador
1979 Special Invitation of Acquisition in the Casa de la Cultura, Quito, Ecuador
1981 Honorable Mention in the Salón Mariano Aguilera, Quito, Ecuador
1982 Honorable Mention VIII Salón Luis Martínez, Ambato, Ecuador
1993 Assembly Hall of Honor of the II Bienal de Pintura, Cuenca, Ecuador
You will find that Carrasco doesn't title his artwork because it is abstract. It all depends on the spectator's point of view and interpretation.
Mural of the Hotel Cosmos of Bogotá, Colombia (54 meters each)
Central Bank Museum of Ecuador, Quito & Guayaquil, Ecuador
Sculpture--Edificio Delta, Quito, Ecuador
Banco Popular, Miami, USA
Modern Art Museum, Cuenca, Ecuador
Residence of tennis player, Andrés Gómez, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Residence of Michèle Herblin, Niza, France
Banco Popular, Quito, Ecuador
Banco Bolivariano, Quito, Ecuador
Hotel Alameda Real, Quito, Ecuador
Museum of the Tauromaquia, Quito, Ecuador
Banco del Pichincha, Cuenca, Ecuador
Universidad Central, Cuenca, Ecuador
La Marimba de Atacames, Atacames, Ecuador
La Unión Compañía de Seguros, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Seguros La Nacional, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Banco del Azuay, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Banco Internacional, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Banco de Préstamos, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Residence of William Wright, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Residence of Aldo Vanoni, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Hotel Hilton Colon, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Residence of Mrs. María Eugenia Febres Cordero, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Residence of Roberto Goldbaum, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Gran Hotel Guayaquil, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Residence of Fabien Robert, Lausanne, Switzerland
Residence of Pierre Voit, Zürich, Switzerland
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