Continuous Velocity
Completed
2023
Medium
Sewn Cotton, Canvas, Acrylic, Nylon, Felt
Dimensions
45 x 36"
Cost
$8,000
Description
I make textile paintings and site-responsive fabric installations that are rooted in geometric abstraction. My materials include hand-woven textiles on a floor loom; hand-dyed, painted, and commercially sourced fabrics; re-purposed clothing, paint-stained canvas, and weathered drop cloths. I use a sewing machine to piece and stitch these various fabrics together to create works that resemble flags, sails or quilts. My use of color and pattern is connected to indigenous textile traditions of the Philippines where it is believed that color and pattern are imbued with a spiritual, healing and/or protective power. The more dizzying the pattern and/or the more colorful the textile, the more protection it offers to its wearer in warding off evil spirits. This faith (or superstition) in the power of color and pattern is an essential source of inspiration. Color is vital to my work. I carry color within me. My relationship to color is not passive. It is political, it is personal, it is emotional, it is felt, and it is in my very being.
About this Artist
Paolo Arao
Paolo Arao (b. Manila, Philippines) makes sewn paintings, textile constructions and site-responsive installations that are rooted in geometric abstraction. Arao mends this lineage of abstraction through the use of textiles; stitching patchworks that explore the elastic nature of queerness and reflects his Filipino heritage. Made with variously sourced fabrics, second-hand clothing, hand woven fibers and weathered canvas, his works resemble flags or quilts, often carrying physical traces of the bodies that wore them. Arao received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and was a participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He has shown his work in numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally and has presented solo exhibitions at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha), the Columbus Museum (Georgia), David B. Smith Gallery (Denver), Morgan Lehman Gallery (NYC), and Western Exhibitions (Chicago). Residencies include: Monson Arts, MacDowell, Art Omi, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, The…
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