OPEN E.Y.E : CENTO GOES 2.0
In the last 10 years CENTO has painted more than 20 OPEN's for friends, customers and of course also for himself. But with his latest work he redefined his style.
Both Gerard and myself are huge fans of Cento's work. Back in 2018 CENTO painted an U.P.P.E.R. for myself and then a couple of years later Gerard asked Cento to paint a WI.DE. for his wife (see below). The nice thing about CENTO's art is, there is always a story in it. I had a couple of milestones and motives in my life that I wanted to incorporate in the design and same for Gerard's wife. So the final bike becomes more than just a piece of art; it's full of personal lifetime memories.
More about the artist
Cento Canesio is a writer and artist from Treviso (Italy) inspired by the railway backyards and walls, where he started to turn words into images and stories.
If you get the chance to meet him, you will love him that's for sure. His graphic design mixes lettering, characters and a playful spirit full of energy from the streets.
He is also part of the "Tigers Bike Crew", of which my son is a huge fan. Guess what he gets as a Christmas gift...
I asked CENTO what his inspiration was for his new design: "I think it's simple, I am used to draw in a super methodic and slow precise way, but sometimes by doing so, I loose the moment of spontaneity. I love doing tags and write my name, this is fast and captures the moment when I do it, but that approach is too big for a bike frame. So I came up with the dots. They are kind of mini tags that sometimes also drip, showing the same effect as when you do a tag on a wall."
"I also want to show the super nice carbon structure of the frame and while working with the dots, i do not have to cover the whole frame with paint, like I did in some of my previous works. The nicest parts of the frame stay clear carbon and are just covered with some small drawings, a bit like when you have a boring phone call and you start to draw things on a little piece of paper. On top of that is an orange- gold transparent clearcoat done by Tony Spray, the master of custom painting".
Want to see more? Here comes the gallery of CENTO's U.P.PER. 2.0.
...sorry there are not many images so you will not spend a lot of time looking at them, but you will need that time for the video...
Photos credit to Nadia Moro
Find out more about CENTO, his lifestyle, work and his bike in the following video.
What fun artwork and a beautiful way to display it!
That's why we love Cento!