Catalina africa solo exhibition

CATALINA Africa’s new solo exhibition in Silverlens, shrine in the shape of a shadow welcomes the public yet again to a spatial visualization of an environment.

This environment is expressed in painting and settles into a site inhabited by images painted by elemental habitation, sculptures molded by the dimensional agency of their material, and videos in collaboration with humans attuned to non-human ecologies. A shrine is a location, site. A shape denotes a contour, frame. And the shadow suggests intermediaries between the visible and the invisible, transformation.

In the last six years, Catalina’s works have been frequently associated with her move to Baler, a piece of information that facilitates our perception of local architecture adapting to rocky cliffs, beachside palettes, weathered layers, and streams (whether rivers or creative consciousness). Besides place contextualizing an artist’s immediate vocabulary, it is animated by the artist’s participation in it. shrine in the shape of a shadow arrived through tactility. Before images, mud was the first teacher for Catalina: its quality occurring between solidity and fluidity while simultaneously carrying these states. Mud demonstrates the feature of liminality but exists as a complete state, very much enlisting the condition of the painterly.

Through shrine in the shape of a shadow, Catalina reflects on how her practice can deepen an understanding of nature’s subtle actions. Edging closer to refining the routes that correspond to the world, she begins with portals to enter landscapes.

The exhibit is on view until January 7, 2023, at Silverlens Manila.