In The Searchers, Carlos Cañadas presents a monochromatic universe where the figure of the poet intertwines with that of the outlaw. Through a series of large-scale drawings, the project unfolds as a meditation on the tensions between language, representation, and silence. The walls become a stage for life-sized projections of fragmented figures posing with a disquieting strangeness.
The cowboy emerges as a central motif, a symbol of an awkward mysticism that blends ritualistic obedience with profane asceticism. This figure, evocative of the acid western—a postmodern subgenre inaugurated by Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man—is simultaneously heroic and vulnerable. Like the acid cowboy, the contemporary artist appears ensnared by an excess of self-awareness, unable to sustain the traditional myths that once underpinned artistic practice.
A painting that resists the act of painting. Cañadas’ creative process is marked by deliberate interruption. The images he constructs are deactivated before reaching a narrative or conceptual climax, functioning as metaphors for unrealized potential. Humor, nihilism, and a critique of painting itself converge in his work, creating a universe where the impossibility of articulating the unintelligible is conveyed through incisive, melancholic irony.
