Fanny Sanin

“My language is that of pure abstraction devoid of any allusion to an external reality...I am the result of a confrontation of cultures expressed through my individual personality and the inner world”

- Fanny Sanin, 2001

Leon Tovar Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of sixteen paintings by Fanny Sanin. Symmetry will take place at Leon Tovar Gallery’s downtown location, 152 West 25th Street, 3rd Floor, in the NoMad district. The dynamic collection of Sanin’s work illustrates the myriad possibilities of composition which exist within the deceptively confining parameters of neo-plasticism which Sanin’s work adheres to.

The rich variety in Sanin’s work stems from her departure from the expansive, primary colored, grid-like elements favored by other practitioners of neo-plasticism. The complexity within Sanin’s architectonic compositions is afforded to her by the extensive multimedia studies she constructs prior to each piece. As each piece is reformed throughout the studies the two inseparable components of color and shape mutually transform, as the color is adjusted for greater tonal harmony within the piece, the shape finds itself altered as well. The harmony which pervades the unconventional color palettes of Sanin’s work results from her selection of a tonal value, which the color spectrum operates within.

Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Sanin’s passion for art was encouraged by her family whom were avidly invested in Bogotá’s rich cultural scene. Sanin attended the University of the Andes to pursue a degree in fine arts. Inspired by the work of her teachers as well as abstract artists such as Negret and Ramirez Villamizar, Sanin became an abstract painter in her final years at university. Abstraction permitted Sanin to separate form and shape from figure and theme, a distancing which would inform her future work. Sanin’s education continued at the University of Illinois at Urbana, where she studied printmaking and art history for two years.

After moving to Mexico, Sanin had her first solo exhibition in 1964 at the Modern Art Gallery in Monterrey, Mexico. Following Mexico, Sanin studied printmaking at the Chelsea School of Art and Central School of Art in London from 1966 to 1969. It was during this time Sanin began to abandon abstract expressionism in favor of more refined, organized work. Sanin moved to New York in 1971 and her process of creating numerous studies developed. Attention to symmetry and a shift to a larger scale also emerged as prominent elements in her work.

Sanin’s work continues to inform the understanding of geometric abstraction, appearing currently in El Museo del Barrio’s exhibit The Illusive Eye, a collection of works which strives to provide a greater contextual understanding of kinetic and optical art. Fanny Sanin is currently being featured in a retrospective exhibition, En Abstracto, after donating nine pieces to the Colombian National Museum in Bogota.