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Vincent de Pio's "Quiet Fortissimos"
"Quiet Fortissimos", the first solo exhibit of Vincent de Pio, opens on Friday, January 30, 7:00 PM at Galerie Raphael, Level 2 The Piazza, Serendra Mall, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. The show displays the development of the artist's color and stroke, which are especially evident in his series of acrylic paintings of a female musician and her stringed instrument. The show runs until February 13, 2009.
De Pio's beginnings as an artist and the story behind his subject matter are as lyrical as the paintings themselves. As a young boy, he enjoyed drawing, but initially painting in the studio did not appeal to him. He found it uninviting to watch his father, noted artist Gig de Pio, work in the studio, as disturbing him was forbidden. Vincent found it relaxing though, as the older de Pio would listen to classical musical while painting. But it was in college when he painted using oil on canvas for the first time that Vincent de Pio realized he had his father's genes. He completed his Fine Arts degree at the University of the Philippines and went on to become a finalist in the GSIS and Metrobank art competitions.
In 2005, de Pio was among the artists invited to exhibit at fundraising concerts held in memory of the late cellist Tiking Lopez. One of the guest performers was Ena Song, a visiting Korean cellist. Drawn to her beauty, de Pio immediately imagined how he wanted to approach his paintings the first time he saw her. Song who did not speak fluent English, became his mysterious muse, inspiring several paintings even after years since their first meeting.
The show's title refers to the dynamics of de Pio's works and the variations he introduces in each piece. Like the changing loudness in a piece of music, each artwork bears witness to the changes in the artist's moods. When he is no longer content with a technique, de Pio switches to another. His play with color and texture is best seen in "While Waiting", where the impasto rendering and saturated tones of the cello sharply contrast with the thin, linear strokes of the pale figure. In "Angel of Music", he gives the violinist wings and builds a flat background with ochre. The subtle color accents de Pio employs successfully trick the eye: upon closer inspection, his black and white cellists are not completely monochrome.
With influences from Luna to Luz, de Pio counts impressionism and cubism as artistic movements that inspire him, although his own work tends to combine expressionist and realist techniques. His biggest influence remains his father. Their conversations not only revolve around the technical aspects of art but also deal with the life of an artist and the events shaping the art scene today, talks the 29-year-old artist finds valuable in his career. Averse to formula, de Pio has unconventional ways of tackling well-worn themes. In the future, he plans to pursue a hybrid Filipino fantasy, a direction hinted at by "The Learning", where a man's portrait is sprinkled with incongruous elements: a duck, a tower, an askew pair of eyeglasses and a pair of scissors. But his music paintings will always special.
For someone who has already been successfully featured in numerous Southeast Asian auctions, Larasati and Borobudur to name a few, the art community eagerly awaits de Pio’s works in "Quiet Fortissimos". Although de Pio points out that the music paintings are not meant to be portraits, explaining the changes in the East Asian sitter's countenance, the viewer can see that the artist was enamored with the subject matter. It is fortunate that the Korean musician's lasting impression on him lives on in his canvases for this much-awaited debut. |
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