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David Salazar

Artist Statement

Resting my body by the Amazon River I found it easy to idealize life in South America, of course viewing it from a westerner's perspective. I remembered sitting along side an inner city market on the coast of Ecuador, it was covered in textiles and fruits. I watched a homogenous crowd of people starting off the day by setting up booths and stands to sell products from deep in the jungle and around the lower Andes. There were many children selling cigarettes, gum and lottery tickets or simply wanting to shine your shoes. I realized that most of them had come to the city reluctantly from their villages or towns, fighting their way through the urban chaos because it is their only livelihood option. Ultimately, the picturesque life I idealized among the murky rivers and lush green banana plantations is a daily struggle of economic insecurity and social deprivation for many.

Greatly influenced by my family's cultural and historical background, I have recognized that I, like many others growing up in a metropolitan city, am a product of cultural hybridization. Born in Guayaquil, Ecuador I have been raised in Canada, in a highly ethnological city of Toronto. I've begun to create sculpture in hopes to make sense of my own history and my own reality as an Ecuadorian Canadian.

There is a metamorphose between nostalgia and reality, tenderness and brutality, reason and chaos. These are dualities that are present in my life and in my work. My challenge is to understand the importance of their mutual presence.

Brief Biography

Education
2007 BFA, Sculpture Installation / Fabrication, Ontario College of Art & Design

Selected Group Exhibitions
2009 Bridge Art Fair, NYC, USA, Represented by Headbones Gallery, Toronto
2009 Director's Selection, Lonsdale Gallery, Toronto
2008 Art Miami, Miami FL, Rep by Headbones Gallery
2008 Who Dunnit?, OCAD Art Auction
2008 Sculpt Art, Royal Botanical Gardens, Burlington, Prime Gallery, Toronto
2008 Art Market, Lonsdale Gallery
2008 Cash is King But Your Love Rules, Edward Day Gallery, presented by Art Metropole
2008 The Love Show, Gallery 1313, presented by Lonsdale Gallery
2008 Toronto International Art Fair, Rep by Headbones & Londale Galleries

Awards
2009 Emerging Artists Grant, Ontario Arts Council
2009 First Place Award Winner, Society of Canadian Artists
2008 First Place Award Winner, Living Arts Juried Show, Mississauga
2007 Emanuel Hahn Award, Excellence in Modelling
2007 MST Bronze Sculpture Award, SSC presents 12th Juried Graduating Sculpture Student Exhibition
2007 First Place Award Winner, Desmond Juried Art Exhibition

Salazar has participated in many exhibitions in Canada and USA garnering awards. He has also been represented at the Toronto International Art Fair; and recently became the recipient of an Ontario Arts Council Grant. Salazar is based in Toronto.

email:

website: http://

Media: clay, bronze

SSC Member Since: 2009