Solo Exhibition by FAYE PAMINTUAN
Faye Pamintuan’s gestural paintings are conceived with layers of oil paint on canvas. They are iterations that focus on the artist’s desire to command the spontaneous and instinctive gestures of the hand through the liberation of the mind. Producing works while in a period of mandatory quarantines and the isolation due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Pamintuan’s “Ugh.” is a response to the altering process of action and reaction amid the uncertainty brought by the present.
For that reason, painting becomes a deliberate act to counter tensions felt while everything else is caught in transitory existence. Here, the dark tones of blue are intertwined with hints of brighter and, sometimes, buoyant shades of yellow, purple, and orange. The spaces in the canvas, occupied by these colors, arrange an ensemble that move and pull everything together. The works form images and colluded markings that are pitted against each other. Line segments fade in and out of suggestive shapes. Pamintuan’s conscious understanding of the task at hand is visible: to let the influence of abstraction direct
the ground and fill the space.
Perhaps, it is all an act that somehow forges order back into chaos, yet, somehow still gets lost by the futility of it all. “Ugh” is drawn from an exclamation that often indicates the sound of disgust and aversion. However, there is quite a sense of release when one exclaims it: a diminutive relief in the middle of total exasperation. As a result, the viewer is led to a part of the artist’s inner workings: the mind at work; the hand at play.
In a time where humanity is brazened by a pandemic with endless political conflicts, Pamintuan mulls over the passing of time and thoughts, with the fragility of it all. What else is there to say but, “Ugh.”
THE ARTIST
Faye Pamintuan is a visual artist currently based in Bulacan, Philippines. She was born in and is currently based in the Philippines but spent her formidable years residing in Texas, USA. Constantly traveling between the two places infuences her practice – questioning the idea of barriers and the energies surrounding everyday happenings. Pamintuan’s works refect fnding a sense of order in the disarray of traces left behind by her initial intuitive strokes. Working mostly with oil paint, Pamintuan is fascinated by the emotional impact of color and the puzzle of balancing biomorphic shapes in a confned space. Further exploring with material, watercolor and paper allow chance to be the driver of her work and leave room for refection and acceptance of what is beyond her control. She balances her studio practice alongside teaching art classes to both children and adults. Pamintuan graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting.