A chance brushstroke, accidental drips of paint, the bloom of rust on metal, all converging to create a symphony of form and texture. By experimenting with aleatoric processes, Carlo Magno tries to heighten the dynamic between audience and author by giving emotions and shared memory image and form. The artworks in this exhibition take us on an introspective journey exploring the duality that develops through the various interpretations created by each individual viewer. It is of particular interest to the artist how a particular work conveys different meanings or tells a different story based on the viewer’s personal experiences, biases and perspectives. In this manner, the work takes on a life of its own far beyond the artist’s original intent. Associations and meanings collide, space becomes time and language becomes image, and these collectively spark a continuous dialogue between the art and the spectator.
This recent body of work is notable for their fine finish and tactile nature. This bears witness to the artist’s craftsmanship. By focusing on techniques and materials, he formalizes the coincidental and emphasizes the conscious process of composition that is behind the seemingly random works. If one is to look closely, the artist’s process can be divined as a dance between the artist’s creative intent and the controlled chaos that is the nature of the materials he uses. And the resulting work is a sublimely struck balance of a masterfully planned composition nuanced by the improvisation necessitated by the materials’ own design.
Carlo Magno is best known for his mixed media abstracts and figurative artworks and sculptures, although it is widely known that he started out and established himself in the art world as a hyper-realist having had his first solo exhibition at Greenhills Art Center in 1981. It had caused quite a stir in the art community when he made the transformational shift from realism to abstraction after 20 years in the art scene. The momentous shift was marked by his exhibit aptly titled “Transformation” at Galerie Joaquin in 2002. Now in his 40th year as artist, after a brief hiatus from having one man-shows, Carlo Magno is out to show us that his art is still evolving, as he presents an entirely novel body of work in Aleatoric Space.
The exhibition will run from June 7-16 at Galerie Joaquin Rockwell, located at R3 Level, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center, Makati.
