Filipino gallery Silverlens opted to inaugurate its new gallery in Gillman Baracks with a solo show by young Filipino artist Luis Lorenzana titled “Beautiful Pain.” For good measure, the gallery opened a second solo show by the same artist in its Manila gallery on September 20.
Happiness is not the first word that comes to mind when one looks at the beautiful cartoon-like figures of little girls the artist has produced here. Cracks fissure their faces, thorns spring from their eyes and chests or painfully encircled their heads. Yet with the figures painted on an entirely lead white background and framed in the painter’s usual ornate frame, also entirely painted white, there is also a feeling of acceptance and peace created by the whimsy of blooming flowers, candy gardens also sprouting out of these figures.
Read my short interview with the artist on
ARTINFO
