Provenance: Private Collection, Manila

ABOUT THE WORK

Justiniani combines a love for the fantastic, grotesque and humorous with a faith in the ebullient force of human life. Mark Justiniani’s work is informed by contemporary collaborative mural art, deeply personal experience, a keen awareness of social issues and an astute reading of Filipino folk art traditions and language. Justiniani’s art is not a simple reading of the modern world but is a finely balanced interpretation of historical fact with a contemporary perspective. The works springs from the artist’s investigation of folk culture including the use of language and what one may draw from it is indicative of the indigenous frame of mind. When Justiniani introduces a comic note, he is more complex than a cartoon figure, for he is also the sign of the ludicrous and the absurd. At times the images seem to take place in an enclosed place but the artist may evoke a theatrical tableau. A certain abstract reserve, explains why the art of Justiniani seems frozen in time, when people might look first of all for sentiment and emotional drama in a folksy painting. In spite of the tangibility of Justiniani’s subjects, the logic of their relation to one another, his art is otherworldly. The satisfaction it gives us is based on the sense of order within a limited world.