1990s "Return Engagement" Abstract Relief Sculpture by Mickey "Kano" Kane

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"Return Engagement" Wood Panel Original Painting and Carving.

Carved sculpture and painting by Mickey "Kano" Kane (American, 20th century). This … Read more "Return Engagement" Wood Panel Original Painting and Carving.

Carved sculpture and painting by Mickey "Kano" Kane (American, 20th century). This bold piece features a carved oval shape encasing a symmetrical abstract design resembling birds. The warm yellow tone inside the oval has a glowing quality which extends outside of the shape. The bird-like shapes are rendered on top of the yellow in a cool toned paper pulp, creating contrast. Outside the oval, the yellow light continues until it reaches a darker border created out of layers of paper pulp. Along the bottom of the piece are the words "AS I LIVE AND BREATHE" in a deep purple font.

Kano's work is outsider art - characterized by its creation outside the boundaries of mainstream art and often by self-taught or unconventional artists. Outsider art encompasses a diverse range of artists, including self-taught visionaries, psychiatric patients, and those outside the mainstream art world.

Titled and signed on verso
"Return Engagement" Kano
Signature is partly obscured by hanging materials. Piece was purchased in a lot of the artists work.
Panel size: 48"H x 72"W

Mickey “Kano” Kane (American, 1939-2002) was born in Illinois and grew up in Sacramento, CA. Kane moved to the Pacific Coast and worked on mixed media panels - which he would refer to as a “Totem” – and detailed collage compositions. His collage work is generally satirical or critical in nature, frequently dealing with themes of money, capitalism, government, power, and debt. By contrast, his “Totem” sculptural work is abstract and free of direct symbolism, focusing instead on the aesthetics of the composition.

Original Member, Artist’s Cooperative Gallery

Artist’s Statement:
The Totem is indicative of the unfolding 21st Century, graphically and metaphorically. It is neither one side nor the other, nor does one side challenge or compete with the other. Each side cooperates and thus enhances the other so that both "sides" transcend that definition into a composition revealing that, indeed, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The Totem reflects the inner harmony that all sides, whether two or two thousand, are striving to manifest in their own inimitable way. See less