Marc Straus

Antonio Santín was born in Madrid, Spain in 1978. He received his Degree in Fine Arts from Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 2005. He has exhibited internationally and is represented in the collections of Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris and numerous private collections worldwide. Public installations include a permanent sculpture commissioned by the city of Madrid in 2003. Antonio Santín lives and works in New York.

Santín constructs eerie, arresting compositions that simultaneously attract and unsettle in their evocative depictions of sublimated desire. He orchestrates elaborate still-lifes, manipulating both objects and the human form to construct a space he describes as “more real than reality itself.” He creates a visceral tension between surface and space with a range of techniques that incorporate both the technical foundations of classical painting and unexpected alterations to the qualities of oil paint to re-assemble the sensory experiences of everyday life. Deeply rooted in the tradition of Spanish Tenebrism as well as his own training as a sculptor, Santín 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. Each of these works brings the background into the foreground while a discernible shape hovers beneath the surface.

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