Antonio Santin

Posted by Fabio 23 March 2012

Contemporary art gallery Marc Straus presents an exhibition of new large-scale paintings by Antonio Santin which is his first solo exhibition in New York. This exhibition brings together three related series of works from late 2011-2012 that incorporate the human form as a fetishized object to be hidden or revealed in images that often conjure a cinematic aesthetic. In works such as Der Damm des Riesen (2012), Santin furthers his interest in latent sexuality intertwined with morbid overtones.
The rug series evolved from his ongoing interest in the opacity of fabric as a device to obscure the body with abstract patterns and textures. Each of these works brings the background into the foreground while a discernible figure hovers beneath the surface. In the monumental We Rot (2012) the wavering, raised carpet patterns contrast with the translucent, tonally complex base. At more than twelve feet wide, the intimate details invite close viewing while the outlines of a figure emerge from a distance. In Fiebre Amarilla (2011), the lumps and bulges underneath this carpet inject a corporeal uncertainty into this geometric canvas.

His newest series of crocheted landscapes of the female form are at once a technical accomplishment of texture and a formal repositioning of the body as a distinct yet abstract mass.

Marc Straus
April 1st – May 6th, 2012
299 Grand Street
New York, NY 10002