Antonio Santin

Antonio Santin (b. 1978 in Madrid) is known for his hyper-realistic, dramatic paintings depicting skillfully executed ornamental tapestries. Santin’s paintings including his earlier, large series of portraits seem to be the results of the forces of light and dark, of the visible and the hidden. Similar to the techniques of tenebrism and chiaroscuro that the master painters such as Caravaggio and da Vinci introduced to European painting in the 15th and 16th century.

Deeply rooted in the tradition of Spanish Tenebrism as well as his own training as a sculptor, Santin juxtaposes flattened planes with tangible forms carved by light and shadow to create a continuous perceptual dialogue in each work. The rug series evolved from his ongoing interest in the opacity of fabric as a device to obscure with abstract patterns and textures.

Alluding to concealed anthropomorphic forms, their sculptural qualities make one question whether his fabricated reality is more real than your own. Much like the Gobelins Manufactory was to luxurious Renaissance tapestries, Santin’s approach to his signature trompe l’oeil paintings focus on arresting intricate details and surface textures. Inspired by the unique fusion of Josef Albers sharp and boldly colored squares with the fuzzy, blurred palette of Mark Rothko, Santin subverts the experience of flat color field paintings by ‘crumpling’ the very view. Santin uses the tropes of art history to situate his paintings in a context that the viewer will immediately - though perhaps subconsciously - associate with high drama: the Baroque era.