Utopia, Oil and Acrylic on Canvas

Description

Utopia, oil and acrylic on canvas

This Oil and Acrylic on Canvas is by Dante Perez. Dante Perez was a painter, filmmaker and journalist born in 1956, Sorsogon. His work as an artist director and editorial cartoonist in Manila led him to migrate to Singapore as part of the pioneering batch of Filipino journalists for Singapore Press Holdings. While maintaining a career in journalism, Dante painted, made films and organized artist communities. Aside from his group shows in Singapore and Bicol, his solo Oil and Acrylic on Canvas shows took off in Manila in the early 2000s. His last solo exhibitions before his demise were Cold Turkey Flies (2011) and Lithium (2013): these were hosted by Artinformal Greenhills. His film vocation found him winning best production/ visual design at the Gawad Urian and Young Critics’ Circle for Lav Diaz’s “Death in the Land of Encantos” in 2008.

Dante’s works in this series considers living ironies that are subjected to bodies in industrial societies. Beauty carries a cost, and manmade standards have ceased to be transformative for civilians. Rather, an individual’s embodiment or physical form becomes a challenging responsibility. Dante’s paintings converse between the graphic design and abstraction, indicating his relationship to form: solid but also mutable. He works with direct symbols to unravel the nuances of these archetypes. Odd pairings of things, objects and figures frequent his portraitures, demonstrating the contradictions of life.