VLAB is pleased to present the solo exhibition “To Whom it May Concern” featuring an enfilade of works drawn as antique-like photographs by the artist Isabella K. Cancino. The exhibition displays a group of works in which Isabella focuses on the story evolution of her characters, whom she observes in their daily lives within the drawings. The artist emphasizes the emotions shown through the monotonous tasks of life, playful gestures and intense feelings. Some pieces are slightly more theatrical than others, but altogether, the drawings show a contrast of emotions through the use of soft and sharp tones in which graphite is applied.

Cancino’s process begins by taking inspiration from the things she loves: classic literature, jazz, history, architecture, and the human experience: our emotions and curiosity, our mortality and ever-growing knowledge. Cancino starts with small sketches to make the drawings. She begins sketching different ideas on tracing paper, and once completed, she usually arranges the little bits and pieces of the sketches into a cohesive piece and uses a window or her light box to trace them into her drawing paper. Once that is completed, she figures out where her values will be placed before making small scratchy swirls all over the paper and covering them in graphite as if she was a printer. In the artist's own words “My process isn't complicated at all. I enjoy the simple process. It reminds me of drawing as I did when I was a child”.

Isabella’s love for children’s books and classic literature is what truly inspires her work in ‘To Whom it May Concern’, in which eight out of twenty of the works tell a sequential story of developing bonds and ties. How it is not in being unlike anything that makes something unique; it is in fact the time and love put in that creates the unique ties. As Isabella focuses on a visual story board, the ties are shown between the tulip who is the tamed and the tamer who is the main character.

The spectator should imagine her sitting in a dark corner, at her desk surrounded by pencil shavings, sketches, and some of her favorite books. In Isabella’s own words “It usually takes me a week to finish a large drawing. And at the end of that time, I protest that I either hate it or will never draw anything better.”

The exhibition “To Whom it May Concern” by Isabella K. Cancino will be on view through December 31 at VLAB.