Canyon Castator

Canyon Castator ( 1989, Houston, TX) makes large-scale paintings that satirically address our social reality, bringing together an exuberant blend of figures culled from the internet, modern media, politics and personal experience. Castator’s world is hyperbolic, saturated with dissonant characters, knowing symbolism and distorted narratives. His distinctive aesthetic is not tied down to one language but fuses digital and traditional mediums in a cacophony of psychedelic vibrance. 

Castator’s work explores our relationship with the digital, reflecting the unfiltered cornucopia of images and content found online. His collages are a blend of dissonant characters onto the canvas: iconic cartoons feature alongside political figures and memes in a chaotic narrative that recalls the semi-animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. 

Castator accentuates this feeling of incongruity by merging digital and traditional painting techniques on the canvas. He executes preparatory drawings on the iPad, where he articulates the composition, meticulously arranging the figures. Some of the characters are then printed on the canvas with a distinctive claymation aesthetic; while others are realistically rendered in oil.

It is this blend of fine art skills and disturbing cartoon-like figures that makes Castator’s work so unique: “When it’s successful, the two mediums are married together and work harmoniously. When it’s really successful the two mediums are completely at odds with one another and create this kind of chaotic visual conflict,” the artists explains (in conversation with Rom Levy, Street Art News, April 2020).

Canyon Castator (b. 1989, Houston, TX) lives and works in Los Angeles.