Lullaby

Galerie Isa is proud to welcome back Spanish artist Antonio Santin, with a new showing titled Lullaby, also the name of a painting in the series.

For the Madrid-based Santin, showing for the third time in Mumbai, represents an evolution in his trajectory as an artist, an extension of his journey as a creator; the cultural exchanges and interactions continuing to shape his vision of the world, and a sensitivity to his craft.

It’s difficult to attempt to categorize Santin’s style; his works are mesmerizing, drawing the viewer in with their complexity. The works garner a sense of disbelief with their play on tactility, on light and dark, on what’s seen and unseen, and what’s said and unsaid. An amalgam between sculpture and painting, Santin’s now globally recognized signature style, consists of a figurative painting without a figure; an ornate excuse to represent the invisible.

Santin’s narrative and resulting dramatic works are highly individual, laborious in the slow language of painting, and resplendent in their detail, their dark humor, and their sublime beauty. Santin uses elements from the Golden Age of Spanish painting (predominantly the technique of chiaroscuro found in El Greco, and Velasquez’s work) with a strong interplay of light and shadow.

Santin’s inspiration sources are eclectic, often a result of random associations from the deluge of images encountered daily. Before embarking on any new work, the artist undergoes a crucial period of reflection and analysis. What follows next is a focus on palette, composition and once a firm sense of direction is established, Santin builds up the pattern, imitating embroidery techniques with oil paint.

What makes Santin’s work so compelling is the arduous and unusual nature of his technique and the layers of illusion involved. Peel them back and you’ll find that beyond the surface lies a process and a contemplation that is extraordinary. At first glance, what looks like relief work, is actually solely oil paint, used as a sculptural medium to create patterns, through a series of labor-intensive and complex steps. While initially Santin applied squeezable bottles to push the paint out through fine tips, creating a dynamic and painterly result, he soon incorporated technology in the form of pneumatic syringe, the fine threads of colors allowing him to shape the paint into an array of micro reliefs. These make the very base of the work. Santin’s process is highly unique and the final result often disorienting for viewers with its hyper-realism.

Peel further, and the trompe l’oeil effect is magnetic, the glazings of oil paint creating a shadow system that lies in the chasm between a classical chiaroscuro and a sculptural patina; a tridimensional triumph, leaving the viewer questioning the very medium and resisting the urge to reach out and touch the surface.

And finally, peel back the last overarching layer, referencing the collective imagination, and the mundane expression of sweeping something under the carpet.

A lullaby, is a soothing refrain, usually a piece of music or song; in this case, it refers to the hypnotic quality that is intrinsic to Santin’s oeuvre, drawing the viewer in immediately and activating the senses on repeat viewings. With this series, Santin continues to delve deep into his fascination with the unknown and the beauty that lies in that very void. But in Santin’s mind, this does not occur in a blank space, conversely, it is found in the minutiae of pattern, in the repetition of stripes, in the dimensional details of geometric shapes, in the lushness of flora and fauna.

For Santin, what’s in fact hidden is abstract but the rug continues to be a magical canvas, for both the artist to showcase his prowess and also to figuratively hide things; reiterating the idea of what lies beneath as belonging firmly in the eyes and minds of the beholder.

‐ Priyanka R Khanna