Lucas Cantú (b.1982, Monterrey) lives and works in Mexico City. Trained as an architect, Cantú employs elements of sculpture, installation and experimental architecture, to develop projects that are firmly anchored in expansive material exploration and construction processes. Through his works, he conducts research into his self-developed concept Sinseñalismo - life without signal – urging a reassociation with the natural world and a re-grounding in the present moment. Occult, palaeolithic and spiritual elements are often present in Cantú’s artefacts, heralding a more essential state of being. Drawing awe and wisdom from the outdoors, these projects arise from a formal and personal language through which Cantú generates utopian and dystopian scenarios.
Cantú was a tutor at the AA Beton Machine satellite school. The program took place at Edward James’ surrealist garden in Las Pozas, Xilitla S.P., and served as a platform to investigate the empirical techniques of concrete, as well as to draw connections between the site and the layered history of monumental sculpture in Mexico. Cantú, together with Matos Carlos H. Matos, formed Tezontle in 2016, a collaborative project which produces research-lead work based on an array of aesthetic and historical references. With intensive material experimentation, they have constructed a distinct imagery which refers to a bucolic utopia, at once modernist, pre-Hispanic and primitive.
His works as part of Tezontle have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in places such as Friedman Benda in New York, Museo MARCO in Monterrey, LIGA in Mexico City, Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, and PEANA. Public works include ‘Tenaza’ a monumental sculpture commissioned by the XIII Havana Biennial in Havana and ‘Terma El Papelillo’ a sculptural sauna located on the coast of Oaxaca. Tezontle has participated in different residencies including Casa Wabi, Centro Experimental Chullima Wilfredo Prieto Studio in Havana and ‘Tu casa es mi casa’ at the Richard Neutra VDL House in Los Angeles, amongst others.