Exhibitions

Multi-awarded and internationally renowned artist Juvenal Sanso presents another dimension of his highly creative oeuvre. This highly creative artist continues to present various facets of his talent, the latest of which are 26 works in abstract. Aptly titled "Sanso Abstract", the works presented are a progression on his highly popular textile designs which were presented in the exhibit Fundamental Sanso.

The 1960s and the 1970s were a period of great changes in society, politics and consequently the field of art. This was the period of experimentation of psychedelic and kaleidoscopic colors.? Sanso had just been through a period where he became a much sought after and very successful designer of textiles and fabrics for top fashion houses such as Bianchini-Ferrier, Balenciaga and Synergy. After he did an entire line of textile designs for Balenciaga, he felt he had earned enough that he could get back to his main concern, which is art and painting.

Although his work with textile designs were mostly geometrical and involved visually attractive patterns, "a lot of the work was random", he recalls, "and that," Sanso says "was the fun of it." Still highly fascinated with colors and shapes, he decided to pursue his interest in abstract art by painting miniature abstract works on colored slides. This work involved a variety of techniques from using oil, certain chemicals, burning on the slides and leaving colored imprints.

He set aside these works until a little less than a decade ago when he was contemplating on leaving his Paris atelier and sending most of his things back to the Philippines. He found his colored slides and bursting with energy and enthusiasm, decided to convert the artworks there into acrylics on canvas. ??It is these works, 26 of them, that are to be exhibited in the show "Sanso Abstract" which runs February 18 -26 at the 2nd Level of The Podium Mall in ADB Avenue in Mandaluyong City. The show is being presented by Galerie Joaquin Podium in cooperation with Galerie Stephanie.(Tel: 634-7954 and 709-1488 or visit www.galeriejoaquin.com and www.galeriestephanie.com).

Sanso who is a recipient of medals or knighthoods from the three countries he has lived in has a King’s Cross of Isabella medal from the king of Spain, the rank of Chevalier des Arts et Letres from France and the Presidential Medal of Merit from the Republic of the Philippines. He was also the Grand Prize winner of two back to back competitions of the highly prestigious Art Association of the Philippines oil and also its watercolor category competitions in 1951. A product of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, he also studied at the Academia di Belle Arti in Rome and the Academie des Beaux Arts in Paris, France.

"After my textile designs which were really the begins of my interest in abstraction, I decided to do away with the geometrical and repetitive patterns. I just let the colors and the shapes define the emotive impact of what I wanted to express with my abstract paintings," the artist recalls.