Realistic Abstraction : Andres Barrioquinto Solo Exhibition
Tang Contemporary Art | Bangkok
Artist: Andres Barrioquinto
Curator: Michela Sena
Exhibition Dates: 25 June - 30 July 2022
Venue: Tang Contemporary Art Bangkok
Opening Reception: Saturday, 25 June at 4:00 PM
Tang Contemporary Art is proud to present the opening of "Realistic Abstraction, solo show by Andres Barrioquinto" , the latest solo exhibition by Filipino Master Andres Barrioquinto, curated by Michela Sena at Tang Contemporary Art Bangkok. The exhibition will be held from 25 June to 30 July 2022.
It would be simplistic to classify Andres Barrioquinto’s art in a single style. Undergoing an evident evolution over time, his research and approach results in a unique and distinctive language, representing his mature phase.
Barrioquinto's works moved from an initial stage, characterized by a more instinctive approach, expressed through what he was used to: strong engravings, bolder signs. Vitality and energy were spreading from his canvas, a measure of turbulence and passion typical of an artist’s youth phase.
Then slowly and gradually his art naturally moved towards a new dimension, a cosmos of almost immaterial images, where the constant tread is the vanishing of the physicality and carnality. He embraced his mature aesthetic research, a distinctive language so unique to be now his artistic signature. Barrioquinto's subjects are almost dematerialized yet hyper-realistic, in an apparent contradiction that he wisely developed to reach excellence. In fact his subjects, so realistically painted, become pure immaterial concepts, ideas. Abstraction is not simply the opposite of naturalistic or representational art, however It can also be an attempt to explain, depict, allegorize, or imagine the intangible with tangible ideas.
On this line Barrioquinto literally crafted his own artistic alphabet which characterizes his art today. Sublimating beauty, he realises the noblest still harder process a contemporary artist could operate; his is a gesture of independence and maturity, it implies the consequential abandonment of the reassuring elements of "carnal" and "real", faded away by the preponderance of the unconscious expressed in forms. Only confident artists can highlight their unconsciousness, choosing to base their art on a fragile thin line better than the stability and obviousness of reality. Thus his portraits are enriched with details taken from a dream world: mushrooms, birds, butterflies, flowers, all archetypal symbols that do not fly but float, in a timeless suspension, like satellites that remain magnetically attracted to the subject's vibration. All like in a fairytale’s vision or in a dream. While Barrioquinto takes cues from the great renaissance and modernist periods, at the same time Japanese aesthetics is an essential reference for this mature phase. Sublimating forms and freezing movements, he stigmatises a given moment in eternity.
No longer real, the image becomes a dream, a memory, an unconscious idea. The body loses physicality, its beauty turns to the ideal. His canvas refers to art of other eras and other regions, revealing wisdom, knowledge, culture. Barrioquinto’s world is filtered through the lenses of a particularly refined sensitivity.
About the Artist
Born in 1975, Manila, Philippines
Andres Barrioquinto is currently resident in Manila, Philippines. His current occupation and specialization is being a Visual Artist. The artist graduated from University of Santo Tomas(UST) in 2000 from College of Fine Arts and Design Major in painting. Barrioquinto’s works are collected by important institutions like the Singapore Art Museum. In more recent years, Barrioquinto's works have developed a distinctive style of surreal and hyperrealistic portraits. With fine strokes in acrylic and oil, the artist renders recognizable faces in subdued tones. The darkness in his old style still creeps into his newer works, though masked by the calmness of flowers, birds, butterflies, and traditional patterns belonging to Japanese culture – specifically ukiyo-e, Japanese woodblock prints from the Edo period. Barrioquinto’s exquisite image overlaying, patterning, and image appropriations from various Asian cultures create dynamic juxtapositions and open up numerous possibilities of interpretation, earning him both critical and commercial attention, locally and abroad.
Tang Contemporary Art
Since its founding in Bangkok in 1997, Tang Contemporary Art has opened 7 spaces in Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Seoul to promote the development of experimental art in different regions. In the past 20 years, Tang Contemporary Art has organized groundbreaking exhibitions in its gallery spaces, and also cooperated with important art institutions in China and abroad to accomplish outstanding art projects. The gallery strives to initiate dialogue between artists, curators, collectors and institutions working both locally and internationally. A roster of groundbreaking exhibitions has earned Tang Contemporary Art internationally renowned recognition, establishing its status as a pioneer of the contemporary art scene in Asia.
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