17 Peck is proud to exhibit the original oil works on canvas by José Canencia. As he does not exhibit his works often, we are pleased to be one of only three venues – world-wide – to present his exceptionally brilliant paintings for viewing and acquisition.

“I felt a pull to art at an early age,” says Mr. Canencia, who began his study of art at the San Carlos School of Fine Arts, in Mexico City. He was especially influenced by two masterful painters there, Misters José Bardasano, and Demetrio Llordén, through whom Canencia’s natural talent for painting and drawing were refined.

“I traveled to Europe in my teens to study the classics, beginning in Spain with Velasquez, and the work of El Greco. I sat for hours in the Prado Museum making copies of the works of these great masters.” During his time in Madrid, Canencia also studied with the portraitist Julio Moises.

Canencia went on to England where he was able to spend time at the National Gallery, where he focused especially on the self-portraits by Rembrandt, instructing his orientation to the play of light and shade on the human face in painting.

In Paris, he immersed himself in the works of the Modernists, which he describes as having informed his sense of free self-expression through the brush. “What motivates the imagination, moving us to expression, can be found in the mundane – in the encounter with the everyday, in what is seen”, says Canencia; “In Chihuahua City, my eyes are constantly delighted with the variety, and color of clothing, of the Raramuris, and especially of the Tarahumara women. By depicting those whom I see I find an unparalleled format for the exploration of color and form.”