MARC STRAUS

Antonio Santín’s ornamental rug paintings are labor intenseive, taking many months to complete. The technique of using realistic imagery to create optical illusions of depth dates back the work of Zeuxis (b. 464 BCE). We can reference the epic story of the birds that pecked at the painted grapes in a Zeuxis mural painting, as they looked so realistic. Like Zeuxis, Santín’s work depicts hyper-realistic renderings. In Santín’s case, they are of tapestries with shadows and forms creating realistic surfaces with the use of ancient techniques. To be clear, his approach is grounded in the traditional Spanish style of tenebrism and the Italian chiaroscuro. These techniques use extreme contrasts of light and dark to heighten surfaces and imagery to dramatic effect. Santín describes his work as “more real than reality itself.” With this statement Santín takes it further by squarely placing the work in the combined techniques of tenebrism, chiaroscuro, and trompe l’oeil, the no-tech version of what is today virtual, immersive reality.

Antonio Santín’s work has recently been exhibited at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee; the Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, NY; lthra Museum Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; the Farjam Foundation, Dubai, UAE; Kunstraum Bethanien, Berlin, Germany; and the Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin, Germany. In 2021, his work was featured at the Shara Art Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His work was also featured in a solo exhibition at Sharjah Art Museum, UAE in 2016, and is held in numerous museums and private collections internationally.

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