Exhibition

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Here Lies the Painter

Jason Montinola

April 26 - May 21, 2011

Gallery 1

In Here Lies the Painter, artist Jason Montinola focuses on how he perceives love, sin, redemption, and death. “The viewers would be able to see my visions and dreams as I see them,” says Montinola, on his follow-up to last year’s Black Carnival.

In a 5 x 4 feet oil on canvas work titled “Death Song for Virtual Triangle,” Montinola unmasks a man’s true self, revealing the man’s real motivations, most of them for selfish ends. As he strives to articulate his visions and dreams further, Montinola says it feels like unlocking new portals that lead to a whole new variety of acquired ideas and skills. The process then becomes a continuing journey of discovery, of painting onto the canvas what began as rough, broad themes in Montinola’s head. Here Lies the Painter lets his viewers in on what occupies, stirs, and challenges his creative juices.

Montinola adds his approach is quite clear-cut, but he does not dismiss the possibility that it could change, depending on the way he looks at things: “If the vision inside my head changes, maybe it would be of a different approach.”

And he is willing to put in the long hours to achieve his goals, seeing painting not merely as his road to fame and success, but as an extension of his life beyond the time he spends polishing his skills in his art studio: “With this, I hope to be able to resist the current trends in the art world, be negative to it, and to remain true to my visions as I see them.”