a.) Untitled 1
signed and dated 2000 (lower left)
pastel on paper
20” x 16” (51 cm x 41 cm)

b.) Untitled 2
signed and dated 2000 (lower left)
pastel on paper
20” x 16” (51 cm x 41 cm)

c.) Untitled 3
signed and dated 2000 (lower right)
pastel on paper
20” x 16” (51 cm x 41 cm)

Slick, what with the brooding “bright-lights-big-city” mood, yet gritty in spirit, the urban scenes are vaguely familiar, yet puzzling. We perceive Manila as so grand and overwhelming, but Justiniani’s viewpoint captures a sense of intimacy about the city.

The scenes portrayed involve a degree of complicity with ordinary people, mostly from the streets at night, an area that has become, in effect, dissipated by an atmosphere of ennui…yet the three canvases merely suggest ghostly human presence, if at all, except for what looks like a lady’s leg. A woman of the night, perhaps?

A social commentator, Justiniani jabs at the deterioration or inaction of society, or aspects that reveal its ‘directionlessness,' confusion and stagnation. All of which, achieved with the powerful distortions and colors of expressionism, many times bordering on surrealist horizons.

These works by the artist yield insights, both dark and disturbing, into the complexities of everyday life at the end of the twentieth century. His desire to scratch beneath the surface of appearances was kindled by representing a kaleidoscopic view of human experience, its pain and ambiguities.