The Life Perverse Tonight! 11.16.13
Alejandro Augustine Padilla
The Life Perverse Opening Reception: Saturday November 16, 2013 TONIGHT! 5:30 pm - 8:30 pm Bihl Haus Arts is proud to present The Life Perverse, new oil paintings and ink drawings by Alejandro Augustine Padilla. The exhibit opens with a reception, which is free and open the public, on Saturday, November 16, from 5:30-8:30 pm. The evening includes food and wine with poolside (weather permitting) live music by Jacinto ys su Conjunto.
In The Life Perverse, Alejandro Padilla’s disquieting images, manifestations of his personal struggle to face and overcome trauma-induced anxiety, are flawlessly executed in oil on canvas and ink on paper, mediums that in themselves provoke angst in the most seasoned artists. Dark, foreboding, fascinating, Padilla’s images are brilliantly painted--the artist clearly revels in his mastery of traditional technique--in deep tones drawn from the interiors of the body: blood red, veinous blue, bile green.
Through the use of familiar, yet elusive forms and symbols set within liminal spaces, Padilla creates unnatural, i.e ‘perverse,’ displays that convey anxiety-driven feelings of isolation and depersonalization.. A common element in Padilla’s new work is the egg, a symbol Surrealists like Dali connected to the prenatal and intrauterine. In Padilla’s angst-riddled visions like Egg Register (top image), the psychic egg, it’s unbroken opalescent shell secreting chaos within, terrifies a fleeing clown, his mouth agape, red hair flying. Above the intact egg boils yolk-tinged magma amid swirling albuminal clouds. We are compelled to look, yet fearful of what we might see—ourselves, perhaps? BIHL HAUS ARTS
2803 Fredericksburg Rd. San Antonio TX Bihl Haus Arts is the historic building located inside the gates of Primrose at Monticello Park Senior Apartments, at 2803 Fredericksburg Road (across from the Tip Top Cafe). Please park in the circle lot and enter through the walk-in gate. Overflow parking is available at Redeemer Church.
