Omar Canales-Cisneros
Home: Barrie, Ontario
Title: Hermanos
Media: Oil and Ashes on Textile
Dimensions: 92 x 152 cm
Website: omar-canales-cisneros.format.com
Instagram: @omar.inferno
ARTIST STATEMENT
Hermanos is a painting that depicts my younger brother and myself, serving as a critical response to a childhood photograph of both of us in the bathtub. The bathtub is referenced through the obround sculptural form of the canvas, evoking the domestic space and the intimacy of early memory. The facial expressions in Hermanos are restrained, and invite the viewer into a space of discomfort and reflection, while bearing witness to the dissonance between the brothers portrayed.
The work is grounded in my lived experience as a trans man and addresses themes of gender, identity, and self-definition. Though my brother and I were both raised in the same traditional and patriarchal Hispanic household, our differing experiences as a first born son and closeted queer child created a subtle but persistent strain in our relationship; Hermanos examines this conflict.
Themes of cultural identity and family dynamics are reinforced through material choices; the textiles used are sourced from my home country of El Salvador and the primary pigment in my oil paint is made up of ashes sifted from the family fire pit. Processing these ashes into a workable medium is as conceptually important as the final outcome, as the laborious task allows for reflection of inter- and intrapersonal conflict addressed in the piece. Thus, Hermanos functions as an act of reconciliation and re-engagement with memory, culture, and familial intimacy.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Omar Canales-Cisneros is a Barrie-based painter of Salvadorian descent. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from OCAD University (Toronto), where he graduated with a major in Drawing and Painting and a minor in Sculpture and Installation. In 2025, he was awarded the Untapped People’s Choice Award at Artist Project Toronto. Canales-Cisneros’s practice is primarily based in painting and expands into sculpture and installation. As a Latin American man, his work is concerned with exploring issues of identity, including heritage, sexuality, gender, and the intersectionality of these fields. His practice implements the artistic methodology of decreation by burning materials that represent the conceptual aspects of his work and incorporating the resulting ashes as pigment for oil paint into a final body of work.