CARLOS MIRANDA. Draftsman, painter.
He was born in the city of Unquillo, Cordoba, which is renown by its artistic tradition. Currently, he lives in Buenos Aires.
From his early childhood, he inclined torwards drawing, where he showed outstanding natural skills.
He earned his degree in Engineering in the Nacional Technology University.
He studied drawing and painting in the “Expresión” studio owned by Master Pedro Gaeta –Chairman of the Argentine Association of Plastic Artists- where he received a solid artistic training.
In order to improve the technique of figurative painting, he currently attends Mercedes Fariña´s studio.
He has exposed in several group, shared and solo exhibitions, obtaining a honorable mention for this artwork called “El Sueño”.
His artwork is mostly made up of drawings and paintings around the social theme with forays into fantasy.
He does not belong to any movement within the visual arts; according to him “an artwork needs to have content, technique and aesthetic harmony in order to have meaning, but its main value resides in what it conveys”.
When asked about Carlos Miranda, Master Pedro Gaeta said “We have to note the appropriate management of plastic values: balance in composition, accuracy when defining shapes and figures and harmony when creating colours, employing a fantastic chiaroscuro technique that contributes to create a suggestive and misterious atmosphere.”

Review of the art exhibition held in the Argentine Actors Association
Mrs Haydée Breslav 
Art critic
 
AMIDST SOCIAL REALITY AND HUMAN DRAMA

         For Carlos Miranda, two concepts merge in the theme of his artwork: social reality -with the “deepest and finest meaning” that Raúl González Tuñón proclaimed- and human drama.
         From a first look, we may grasp that drawings are devoted to the first concept and paintings to the second one; a closer observation let us discover features of both in all the artworks exhibited in the show. After all, an authentic artwork is always testimonial in every artistic discipline, whether this has been intended by the author or not.
         In terms of drawings, it is necessary to note firstly the firm lines and the different values of whites and grays arising from precise shading; the result being a vigorous image full of dramatism. Thus, the artist recreates in the suburban landscapes the sordidness of marginal environment and shows, with no gruesomeness or euphemism, the living conditions of vast sectors of our population. 
         Other drawings are outstanding due to their dynamism, where the masses intervening in our recent history appear. The criticism is toned down in Inundación, where the drama of flood evacuees presents unexpected tenderness, expressed in the deep trait of the old man who, sitting on the roof of the flooded house together with the crying woman, tries to comfort and protect her in spite of everything.
         As far as Miranda´s painting is concerned, we may say it is reflective and is a rigorous execution of the previous draft; a balanced composition, the pastel palette and the wise use of chiaroscuro contributed to develop an original and attractive aesthetics.
         The social message, even though not as direct as in drawings, is equally intense and even deeper because this painting reflects the different consequences of postmodern individualism: pessimism, loneliness, isolation with its opposite side of exhibitionism, alienation...
         Social aspects are often balanced with fantasy: monsters live together with human beings, devils are often seen as carrousel horses. Even more disturbing is the image of the young cardboard scavenger that rests on the streets and integrates with the cardboard with which he covers himself.
         The artist uses the resource of painting-within-a-painting and it is the spectator responsibility to decide whether the frontier between the real and painted world is abolished or not, or if a new dimension has been created. In Ausencia, the character has two windows before him: the allegedly real window remains close and the one of the painting is open to the street. The character chooses to look through the open window...but he is also within the painting (I think of Baudelaire, in his compliment of the closed window.)
         But Carlos Miranda´s painting does not entail escape. Like his drawings, it is deeply related in time and space reflected in the sidewalks, shop windows and characters that can only be located in the current Buenos Aires.
         Even though the artist does not use the classic iconography of the gender –only once a couple is seen dancing and it is not even the leading one- an unmistakable air at the rhythm of 2 by 4 is extended across the artwork accompanying the stress originated in an unfair social order or in the misery of human condition. As in a Tango...or in life itself.

Haydée Breslav
April, 2008