Andres Barrioquinto takes on the subject that is beauty in his latest one-man show at the West Gallery in SM Megamall, Sorrow in the House of Beauty, The works done in oil will be on view form August 8 to 20.
Everywhere we look, there is a pre-occupation with beauty. Everybody wants to be beautiful, and stay beautiful for as long as science can help it. Barrioquinto believes that this seemingly insatiable desire only adds to the emptiness or helplessness that people feel deep inside. The physical enhancements are not permanent. Barrioquinto then chooses to show what age and worrying has done to the physical body, one that is prone to degeneration over time.
But what really stays beautiful is the one that is inside, the soul. People don’t realize enough what is beautiful in them, hence there is constant urge to hide or erase imperfections. Just as Barrioquinto leaves some body parts hidden or unfinished. Then there’s the feeling that something is lacking. Does beauty rest there? Isn’t looking perfect end up being bland?
Barrioquinto sees people growing old and getting more fragile. Death is an eventuality, but we all want to extend life. Again, the desire to look young haunts us like a recurring dream. Barrioquinto, through his drawn figures, shows that it is the acceptance of self that will set us free from all these external conventions. People become thin, become fat, lose their hair, or lose their arm. Yet it doesn’t mean we’re less human than the person next to us. “Love Complications” shows a man in the foreground hiding his face. When we feel less beautiful, fear envelopes us. It stops from reaching out to other people.
Barrioquinto paints about what he feels strongly. He’d rather let his strokes speak more of what he has to say. He feels everyone is beautiful but we delve too much on what is seen on the outside, making happiness almost an unreachable goal. And there are paintings because we cannot possibly explain everything in words, that’s why the artist turns to his canvas, where ideas are best expressed visually.
Barrioquinto graduated with a degree in painting from the College of Fine Arts of the University of Santos Tomas, where he received numerous awards including the Benavidez Award in 1999 and 2000. He is also the first Filipino to win a prize at the International Biennial Print and Drawing Exhibition in Taipei (1999).
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