Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

In practice, art and magic are remarkably similar. When a painter persuades us to believe in something that is actually not there. This is a quietly elegant portrait of country lass with a magazine cover girl face her figure is rendered with a luminosity that is echoed by the sparkling waters and balanced by the delicacy of her Filipiniana outfit. The natural setting of trees and flowers also romanticizes the subject. To intrigue the eye, Galicano’s surprisingly adds a little mystique of abstract illusionism — a painted vertical line of pure color cutting across a realistic country scene — an act of conjuring has been performed.