MANILA – January 20, 2014 – The small, quiet space of 20 Square at Silverlens galleries is the perfect home for Karl Castro’s "Two Things."
The exhibit is a collection of small paintings featuring everyday objects – the kind that are often overlooked. A book, an umbrella, a sneaker – these are the sort of objects that Castro places in the spotlight. "I wanted to discover why me eye is drawn to certain things. So all these things are random things around the house," Castro told adobo during the exhibit opening on January 9.
Castro, who studied painting at the Philippine High School for the Arts and film at the University of the Philippines, shared that he focused mostly on design since graduating. "I’ve been feeling really burned out with design, so I started painting again," he said.
Painting allows him to relax a bit and not obsess too much over details, he said. "Compared to my design process, where you have to think of everything down to the paper size, the font, I think less about it when painting. It’s more intuitive," he said.
The decision to paint two things at a time was so that he wouldn’t have to think too much about the work, he explained. "I like how usually in the middle of the painting or maybe after, I draw certain connections between why I paint these things," Castro said.
Wanting the viewer to have the same freedom, the artist arranged the exhibit so that no titles can be seen next to the works. "I just wanted people to be able to look at the work and focus. I edited it down to just one line, so you can focus on a painting at a time and not be troubled by reading a caption. So you can draw your own conclusions on why these two things are together," he said.
Two Things runs from January 9 to February 8 at 20SQ, Silverlens Galleries, 2F YMC Bldg 2,
2320 Don Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City.
