THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS is a solo exhibition of Filipino visual artist, Katrina Cuenca.
It will be on view from May 31 to June 13 at the ArtistSpace, and organized by Pinto Art Museum.
The exhibition highlights the artist’s commitment not in describing the world, but in creating an alternate magical realm to it. She achieves this in her works through color combinations that beguile the eye, the resplendent forms that provide access to quiet and contemplation, and the simplicity of her painterly gestures that unlock the deepest corners of the imagination. She extends further her commitment to this transportive place in the exhibition.
While referencing Lewis Carroll’s literary masterpiece, Through the Looking Glass provides a subtler introduction to phantasmagoria in which the viewer, just like Alice, may frolic and take everything in sculptural biomorphic forms appearing to waver and undulate, paintings responding to light in a multiplicity of ways, flashes of projection swimming onto the gallery walls, and a scent in the air evoking a memory of a garden full of flowers as soft music plays in the background. By tapping all the senses of the viewer, Cuenca envisions a portal that is both as a respite and an escape through which anyone may enter.
Katrina Cuenca (b. 1984) is a self-taught artist who has been painting since the 1990s.
Experimenting with figures, patterns, and textures, Cuenca continuously rediscovers and evolves her art practice based on life experiences. The result is a melding of figuration and abstraction at its most spontaneous and celebratory. She has been actively participating in group exhibitions since 2010, and has had multiple well-received solo exhibitions and art fairs. In 2020, she has ventured into metal sculpture as well.
Cuenca’s ambition is to communicate emotion with her creations. Her playfulness with her materials and color palette emulate tactile and visual juxtapositions that constantly evolve in her body of work. In her abstract work, she uses light as an external medium that adds a different dimension to the experience of viewing her art. With the contrasts in her choice of materials, Cuenca’s sculptures and paintings can give several different experiences to its viewers depending on the lighting conditions. The intention is not to find a single universal form, but rather to seek to achieve a form that is constantly changing.
The ArtistSpace is located at Ground Level, Ayala Museum Annex, Makati Avenue corner DeLa Rosa Street, Greenbelt Park, Makati City. The gallery is open daily from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Admission is free.
