casi tankó (she/her) is a Budapest-born Montréal-based Romanian-Canadian visual artist. Her practice is moved by magic realism, symbolism, nuance, flow, interconnection, energy, and contemplation, offering an aesthetic window into a spatial patterning of these. One could say her creative approach belongs to a world of visionary imagination and sibylline dream, weaving painterly spells of awestruck wonder in honour of light, the mysterious void, all that is celestial, as well as nature’s quintessential elements.
The Light Reflects What Our Heart Holds
Oil painting of leaves, flowers, and crystals floating in a glowing spectral space. Soft amorphous colours blend together, brightly saturated, with a blanket of translucent light pink covering everything in a fine misty haze. At the centre is a 4-leaf clover, edged with luminous golden-orange, held within a glowing elliptic shape, a polished crystal.
The clover's stem is serpentine in shape, and soft colourful gestures are reflected within and around it. Surrounding the clover are other crystals and botanical symbols that glow gradient spectral light, beginning with orange then eventually turning light aqua-blue. Tiny flecks of coloured light make their way outwards from the central crystal, dotting the canvas with a subtle starry pattern. The soft amorphous colours begin yellow at the centre, turning green then blue then indigo towards the outer edges of the canvas, following the natural order of a rainbow, with hints of orange and violet here and there.
The organic symbols feel intentionally placed on the canvas, as if each stem, leaf, flower, and crystal suggests its very own purpose within the whole composition, drawing some kind of constellation around the central clover. Although the colours are vibrant, everything is soft, easy on the eyes, gentle and delicate in their given gestures.
I, casi tankó, recognize and observe the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation as the sovereign keepers of the lands and waters of the place I live, work from, and call home. The island called ‘Montréal’ is known as Tiohtià:ke in the language of the Kanien’kehá:ka, and was a gathering place for many First Nations including the Omàmiwininì, Algonquin people. I acknowledge that this island is unceded Indigenous land surrounded by unceded Indigenous water, and engage with the lands and waters with wholehearted respect for the stories they carry. I am incredibly thankful to be here, and encourage everyone to engage with the lands and waters with an informed approach, one of utmost respect and gratitude for them and their keepers.