edgar francisko jiménez
Nació en Pijiño (Magdalena, Colombia) en 1951. Egresado de la Facultad de Bellas Artes de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia en Bogotá (1977). Estudió Grabado al agua fuerte y al buril en el “Atelier 17” en París, con los Maestros S.W. Hayter y Georges Wall (1980-81) y Litografía en la Escuela de Artes y Oficios de Barcelona, España (1981-82). Fue profesor de Dibujo en la Facultad de Bellas Artes de la Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano en Bogotá, Colombia. En 1983 obtuvo una beca para realizar estudios de Post-grado en Pintura China Tradicional en la Academia Central de Bellas Artes de Beijing (Pekín).
Fue profesor de Arte en el Liceo Francés de Beijing (1985-86). En Hong Kong fue profesor de Arte del Liceo Francés y del “Art Centre” donde enseñó “Expresión con tinta China”. Estudió Cerámica en el “Fringe Club” de Hong Kong. Después de vivir 12 años en Asia, se trasladó a Toronto, Canadá en 1995, allí fue miembro fundador de La Casa Cultural Colombiana y del grupo de artistas visuales “JIRART” de Toronto.
En 2006 regresó a Colombia y vive de nuevo en Bogotá.
Contunúa en «Solo exhibitions», «Group exhibitions» y «Collections/Awards»
edgar francisko jimenez
Born in Pijiño, Colombia in 1951. He attained a degree in Fine Arts at the National University of Colombia, in Bogota. In 1979 he was awarded second prize at the first juried Regional Art Competition of Magdalena Province in Santa Marta, Colombia. After reading the novel «The Autumn of the Patriarch» by Gabriel Garcia Márquez, he was inspired to do a series of paintings that reflected the Realism full of Magic present in the novel. With those paintings he held solo exhibitions in 1980 at the « Ocre Gallery » in Caracas and the Zulian-American Cultural Centre in Maracaibo, Venezuela.
In 1980 he started to study at «Atelier 17» in Paris with the great etching Master Stanley Hayter, this allowed him to produce a series of engravings on the subject of «Cumbia», a rhythmic Colombian music and dance. He also studied Lithography at the Arts and Crafts School in Barcelona, Spain, where in 1982 he held two solo exhibitions: at the “Cercle Artistic de Sant Lluc” Gallery and the «Sarro” Gallery.
Around mid 1982, Edgar Francisko went back to Colombia where he was appointed Drawing Professor at the Art Academy of Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Bogota, then in September 1983 he obtained a scholarship from the Colombo-Chinese Cultural Exchange to pursue a post-graduate degree in Traditional Chinese Painting at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing. There He lerned the technique and the philosophy of Chinese painting and calligraphy, then he created a particular style combining the strokes of Chinese calligraphy with the movements of Colombian dances, giving his work a unique expression : A combination of Western and Eastern feelings, a style about which the Art Critic Jane Beamish, in the Hong Kong «Artention International magazine», commented: “His calligraphic strokes are immediate and spontaneous, but not casual, they are a combination of his mastery both of the human anatomy, as viewed and taught in Western Schools of Art, and the Chinese Calligraphy tradition of expressing through a single brushstroke».
After having finished his studies in Beijing he established himself in Hong Kong, Here he taught «Expression with Chinese ink» at the «Art Centre», and was also appointed art Professor at the French International School. In 1989 he began to explore the technique of acrylic on canvas, keeping dance as the main subject of his artistic creativity. Three years later he participated in several seminars on spiritual growth, thenhe began to meditate while painting, creating therefore a series of abstract paintings, which became at that time his new way of expression.
During his twelve years sojourn in Asia, he held solo and group exhibitions in Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, China, Japan and Macau. In search of new horizons, in 1995 he moved to Canada where he developed a series of erotic paintings inspired by the erotic mysticism of Tantra, that were exhibited in 1996 at the «Foundation for Contemporary Art» Gallery in Miami and the «Here and Now» Gallery in Toronto.He continues showing his wotk around the world.
Edgar Francisko is a founder member of the art group JIRART from Toronto. The JIRART Group held exhibitions in 1999 at the «Enrico Bucci» Gallery, Santiago, Chile; in 2000 at the Marco Bontá Gallery, Santiago, the Felipe Cossío del Pomar Gallery, Lima, Peru, the House of Ecuadorian Culture Museum , in Quito, Ecuador. Then in 2001 at the Columbus Centre’s Joseph D. Carrier Gallery and the Royal Ontario Museum from Toronto, Canada.
As a result of his continuous Artistic research Edgar Francisko created in Toronto a new style: A free colorfull stained background, that gives life to his figures built with irregular dots in the foreground. His figures can be mistaken with stained glass windows or even with mosaics, but they are neither of them, they are really a new way of reality interpretation as well as a personal style.
Enrico Bucci has called this style «fragmentation of the forms», and stated: «It looks like pointillism at first sight, but it is not, it is Edgar Francisko’s technique, an application of the colour in dots that, when watched, give us the impression that the figures have become paralysed or petrified in the captured animated moment. Thus movement and immobility become a new pictorial invention».
On his book “The resources of imagination, Visual Arts from the Colombian Caribbean Coast” (» Los recursos de la imaginación, Artes visuals del Caribe colombiano») the Art Critic Eduardo Marceles writes about his most recent work: “Back in Colombia, Edgar Francisko´s painting has turned towards the Barranquilla´s carnival vernacular figures. They are wonderful pictures where he includes Marimondas, Toritos, Garabatos, Congos, the ludicrous Zoo that invades the city during the carnival. With water colour like technique, he gives his images the movement of the parades and the dances choreography, emphasizing the Caribbean light and their characteristic shining colours”
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