EX-LIBRIS

Exhibition | Carlo Tanseco

“EX-LIBRIS”.

A continuing exploration on the structural form and compositionality of a painting, Carlo Tanseco rediscovers and reimagines select literary classics in his fourth solo presentation Ex Libris. Tanseco takes inspiration from literature and translates textual narratives into visual interpretations that are painted as front covers on enlarged custom-shaped canvases, replicating the physicality of a book.

Tanseco employs decorative patterns, geometric grids, and concentric circles to illustrate balance and symmetry in his paintings– techniques and principles that are rooted from his training as an architect and a product designer. He then breaks the uniformity and order in the background by overlaying figures, symbolisms, and archetypes that allude to actual plots and moments in the books.

Although character-centric, the amalgamation of symbols speaks of Tanseco’s attempt at presenting an image consisting of seemingly unrelated but contextually tied visual elements. He asserts that the focal of a painting is the entirety of the idea being represented and the integration of all the symbolic values and significance he assigns to each representation.

Such is depicted in the piece “Remedios” which pertains to one of the main characters in Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. Here, the earthly and blue cubic shapes signify the perceived city of mirrors Macondo and whose solidity and hard edges contrast the softness of foliage in the foreground that represents the jungle. The novel inherently exemplifies the writing device magic realism which Tanseco interprets and paints with candor as imageries of yellow petals and butterflies, and a singular ant.

In “Dr Jekyll”, a painting based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, the artist reflects on certain humanistic tendencies and attributes, in particular, the duality of man. This conveys that fiction mirrors motifs that are evident in our present conditions and realities. He demonstrates

the same mode of expression in various series of paintings referential to the following books: Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, and William Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

The Latin phrase ex libris refers to the inscripted identification pasted into the book to indicate ownership; true enough, Tanseco captures its very essence by encapsulating the stories into his own visual language, all while remaining faithful to the literary sources. The approach of combining different planes and layers in the paintings is suggestive of Tanseco’s past and current artistic persuasions. “This is my background and this is who I am now and I put both my worlds together,” states the artist.

Words by James Luigi Tana

“EX-LIBRIS” is on view from May 21 - June 11, 2022. Join the opening night on Saturday, May 21.