antonio santín's latest hyperreal paintings of tapestries at marc straus gallery

Antonio Santín: Recent Works at marc straus gallery

Marc Straus present Antonio Santín: Recent Works, a series of new paintings by the Spanish artist in his sixth one-person exhibition with the gallery in New York. Santín is recognized for his vivid paintings of intricate tapestries that reflect the dynamic interplay of light and shadow, the seen and unseen. Echoing techniques of Tenebrism and Chiaroscuro from the Renaissance, the artist portrays dramatic scenes, infusing both human expression and textile folds with a playful charm. This latest exhibition, running until March 3, 2024, is compelling in that collectively, in pattern and motifs, the hyperreal paintings tell their own story, whether on ethnicity through shared culture, geography, or botanical reference.

Antonio Santín, Cónclave, 2023 | oil on canvas, 180 x 200 cm | all images courtesy Marc Straus

a peek at the artist’s slow and labor-intensive process

Delving deeper into the exhibiton at Marc Straus gallery, Antonio Santín’s artworks draw a parallel with Milan Kundera’s Slowness (1995), a novel that contrasts the lightning speed of modern life with the slowness of the 18th century. Kundera’s Slowness and Santín’s Echo Chamber, Poligamia, and Supernova, among other paintings in the show, symbolize how impactful slowness can be; a small thoughtful volume, a surprisingly slow read. Indeed, Santín’s paintings are labor-intensive and can take up to nine months to produce. With actual rugs and imagery, he begins with researching and maneuvering source material: the study of textile and how it deforms when it hides an undefined volume. A low-tech approach to image rendering on a primed surface follows, then comes the paint application, changing and blending the oil, changing the pressure in the compressor machine – as every oil has a different density–, drying, layering, revealing, hiding, and repeating. The process ends with applying chromatic shadows to complete the painting. A work of precision and innovation, leaving little room for unexpected outcomes.

Antonio Santín, Florida, 2023 | oil on canvas, 180 x 200 cm

Much like robotic surgery, his innovative machines allow for fine control and placement of paint while Santín remains in command. The resulting paintings technically, and conceptually, are well-calibrated, intentional, and forward-thinking. With little of the source material remaining, they petition for and are rewarded with extended observation time by the viewer, in support of the premise that it’s not just the slowness of creating that reward, but also that of looking, evident in Elastic Somnambullism, where with its pictographic floral reference, one gets lost in the surface details. The small canvases, some likened to single-color paintings, and others multi-toned, are two distinct series. One is a floral archetype, with a limited multi-toned pallet, the other, an organic vibration of monochromatic broken lines, a tribute to Agnes Martin and Robert Ryman. They are not studies for the larger works but rather highlight the technique through a restrictive palette and narrative.

Antonio Santín, Elastic Somnambulism, 2023 | oil on canvas, 160 x 220 cm

Antonio Santín was born in 1978 in Madrid, Spain. He earned his Fine Arts degree from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid; and studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts. Santín is currently exhibiting Monomanias at the Sharjah Art Museum in his second one-person exhibition at the institution. The installation comprises a series of 12 small-format paintings, titled for their muted palette. Additional Museum exhibitions include the Knoxville Museum of Art; the Nassau County Museum of Art; Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art; the Ithra Museum; the Farjam Foundation; Kunstraum Bethanien; the Georg Kolbe Museum. His work is held in numerous museums and private collections internationally.