Untitled
signed (lower right) dated 2011 (verso)
mixed media on paper
16 3/4" x 13 1/4" (43 cm x 34 cm)

PROVENANCE Silverlens, Makati City


Even with the rich history of Abstract art, new and novel expressions of the medium continue to revolutionize the genre. Bernardo Pacquing’s approach toward his art, style, and medium reveals the expressive potential of Abstraction. His canvases display forms and figures that are familiar in everyday life, often evoking a Zen-like feel and a state of existential calm. In that way, Pacquing obscures and subverts the basic concepts of aesthetic representation, which in turn also reinvents how we see the objects we’ve often taken for granted. However, although Pacquing’s method is not purely non-representational, his subjects remain vague and obscure enough to benefit from the enigmatic allure that guided the early patrons of the art style. As a student of modern abstraction, the Thirteen Artists Awardee offers the school of Abstraction a release from the uncritical orthodox dogmatism that often plagues extensive 57 schools of style and thought. His signature style of abstraction tests the limits of creativity by going against the grain, and he encourages everyone to do the same. (P.I.R.)