NEWS ARTICLES AND REVIEWS
A REVIEW OF ESCANO's WORKS by MICHELA TURRA, ART CRITIC, TIA
"When people asked me how I learnt to paint, I cannot give them a precise answer... I never took art classes... Though I do know why I learnt to paint... I feel a strong attraction to beauty." So says Maria Pureza Escano about herself, a self-taught artist with clear, multi-faceted inspiration and undeniable taste for beauty. It may be because of the Philippines (her home country) which she holds in her heart, with its intense landscapes; it may be because of her 360 degrees love for art, from cinema to literature (she has published poetry and short stories), but her canvases emanate a great feeling of freedom, as if it were possible to move with maximum nonchalance from a flower in a field to Audrey Hepburn's grace as two unique elements in our universe.
In her paintings, Maria Pureza Escano renders life's simplicity and greatness, and she does it well, in a detailed and technically skilled way. By carefully choosing her colours, she distributes them, dosing out tones and shades, as in "Sisters, where all the shades of brown are explored in harmony to make up an allusive yet precise fresco of the feminine. Or in "Tree at Sunset Hill", where more colours are used to depict a great tree with intertwined branches and the nearby pool, in a surreal very captivating style.
As a symbolist, this painter never spares herself in her art; on the contrary, she investigates with true sincerity the many aspects of living, especially those closer to the feminine, showing great ability in her figurative art, in her representation of the body, but also expressing herself masterfully in wider interpretations, precisely those of a symbolic and surreal nature. A previous New York exhibition has gained her well-deserved success, the fruit of her talent, passion, faith and trust in life.
Michela Turra
Art Critic, TIA
Maria Pureza 'Puchette' Escano at LRI Design Plaza
(The Philippine Star) Updated March 01, 2010 12:00 AM
All the paintings in the “Ode to the Father” collection will be donated to the Bukas-Loob sa Diyos Foundations’ Scholarship of Hope as the artist’s response to the call of BLD’s spiritual director Archbishop Lagdameo to assist its beneficiaries.
The traveling exposition started at Bliss Café & Art Space, Hotel Elizabeth in Baguio City last Feb. 14. The collection reflects the artist’s search, discovery and affirmation of the inspiration behind her masterpieces — as depicted in all 18 artworks (retrospective of her paintings from 2002-2010) which are experimentations of her varying styles in realism, impressionism and surrealism, executed in either oil, acrylic and her forte, watercolor. The paintings embody each verse of her poem of prayer to God.
Jason Asistores, and Nika Espinosa of the Makopa band will perform on opening night. The event will also feature photographs by Mian Sta.Cruz. This event is sponsored by Smart Communications Inc.
Maria Pureza “Puchette” Escano is represented by Ico Gallery Chelsea, New York; Sining Kamalig Gallery, Gateway Mall; and ArtAsia, SM Megamall. For information, visit http://puchettescano.weebly.com.
THE PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER: Escano at LRI Design Plaza
Artist Maria Pureza "Puchette" Escano's "Ode to the Father: An Art Exhibit of Praise and Thanksgiving" will open March 6, 6 pm., at the LRI Pavilion, LRI Design Plaza, along Nicanor Garcia St. (formerly Reposo) in Makati. Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo is special guest. Proceeds will go to the Bukas-Loob sa Diyos Foundation's Scholarship of Hope. Escano's works are done in her signature figurative and avant-garde style.
WORKING MOM: The Color of Hope
Working Mom
December 2009 to January 2010 Issue
Photos by Mian Sta. Cruz
The raging flood waters almost destroyed everything in artist Puchette Escano's home -- but left three things and a lesson she will never forget.
Artist Puchette Hernandez-Escano delivered this speech at the opening of "When I Grow Up" exhibit at the Power Plant Mall last October 12, 2009, for the benefit of the children of CRIBS Foundation. Typhoon Ondoy damaged all her works except for the fragile watercolors that she had prepared for the exhibit. She realized God's message was to use our talents to create beauty and to do good...
"I was busy preparing for a solo show when I was invited to join this exhibit. I had second thoughts about joining. My solo show was supposed to be this October and I have not completed my series yet. But when I learned who the beneficiaries would be, I couldn’t find it in my heart to refuse. Who am I to say no to the children of CRIBS Foundation? How are they different from the orphaned kids of Baguio whose cause I am espousing in my solo show?
A Feverish Hope
I consulted with my husband. I needed to be reassured that I could swing it – make additional paintings for another exhibit when my solo show was drawing so close. And Rad said that I worry too much. If it’s God’s work I am doing, God will help me beat deadlines.
And so because the date of this exhibit was nearer I concentrated first on my entries for it and was able to paint three watercolors in less than two weeks. Strangely, while I was doing those paintings, it was as if I was touched with fire, feverish even in my passion to portray those images… inspired by memories and dreams of my own childhood… goaded by the fervent hope that through these works I, just like CRIBS, would help make a difference in the lives of children less fortunate than my own but nevertheless, equally deserving of love, caring and the hope of a better future.
Dangerous Currents
I was nearly finished with another work, when the typhoon came. Merville Park was flooded. From the creek at the back and the streets in front, the muddy water came inside our bungalow. We had to evacuate before it reaches any higher or my husband, my children and I would be swimming in the dirty water or worst. But the current outside was unbelievably strong, chest-deep and roaring. We have three kids in the house – our three-year old daughter, our two-year old son and my brother’s new-born baby girl. How can we safely cross without endangering their lives and health?
Ride to Safety
Quick thinking or the hand of God made us notice our kid’s inflatable swimming pool which was then already floating in the lanai. Two by two, the yayas and the babies first, we rode it across the flooded street guided by men who held on to a rope, braving the strong current to see us safely through to our neighbor’s two-storey house. My husband almost got swept away by the current and I praise God that he never let go off that rope.
When it was my turn to cross I remembered my paintings and my spirits dropped. Some were already submerged and some floating in the murky water. A year’s worth of work gone. But the sight of my children in my neighbor’s house, unscathed, laughing and still excited about their unexpected boat ride lifted me. We are all alive and safe. Nothing can be more important.
Saved by the Angels
When everything cleared up and we were able to go back, everything was wet and muddy. Most of my works were damaged but could still be saved. Restoration would take time so I postponed my solo show.
Amazingly, it was the most fragile paintings, my new watercolors, which suffered no harm. Little Hero was saved because it was at that moment with ART ASIA (Thanks to Seb Chua!) and the two others were still wrapped in plastic from the framers. My brother had put them on the bed when the water rushed in. The bed was soaked but its surface was dry. And so are the paintings.
Overwhelmed by gratitude at the sight of them in pristine condition, I thought that maybe the angels preserved them because they are for the more immediate noble cause, the children of CRIBS.
The Art of living with Hope
The road towards where I am standing now had been specially long and arduous after the storm. However, I believe in my heart that the flood was a blessing-in-disguise. It was a new beginning, a chance to start again.
We had to find us a new home and I could not paint for a long while, not when, first, we had to reorder our lives, so I had more time with my children. For days my husband had to stay home from work and so we had a chance to bond together and to reappreciate and enjoy each other. And everyday when I wake up in our new, safe and beautiful house, I thank God for the realizations and changes that happened to us after the flood.
Blessings in disguise
It may sound selfish of me to say these things when thousands of Filipinos are suffering horribly and many have even lost their lives in the storm. My heart goes out to them and I can’t even begin to contemplate the magnitude of their brokenness at this moment.
But I think that maybe the flood, just as it had been for my family, is really a blessing in disguise for all of us. You see, I believe that every bad occurrence is God’s way of giving us an opportunity to do good.
Lord, make me an instrument
Remember the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi? And maybe it was no coincidence that his feast day which is October 4 happened so closely to the aftermath of the typhoon and the date of this exhibit. St. Francis prayed,
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy…”
The trauma and the despair of the children of CRIBS Foundation is an opportunity for us to bring them healing and hope. God has given us a chance, through this exhibit, to be stewards of their fate and it is my fervent wish that this stewardship shall not end with this exhibit but rather that we should always be ready to answer their call as we would if it were our own children or loved ones.
Whenever I feel sad seeing all my damaged artworks, I only had to look at the faces of my two kids and feel enormously blessed. They are the real treasures any mother-artist can hope for… for they are God’s own living artworks, the genuine masterpieces of His love. All children are.(WM December 2009 - Januray 2010)
God bless all the children of the world and every child within us all.
EDITORIAL: Creativity in the Storm
Not all of us are painters, but we are all artists. We create our lives; we exhibit our talents and principles; we leave behind our masterpieces, our children.
Sometimes storms in our lives threatens to destroy what we do. But that is part of the art of hope. We take the bad and transform it into a chance to do good. We choose to see grief and despair as part of a greater canvas of joy, hope and heroism.
We create our perspective towards tragedy.
And we can hold our brush in our hands and say "Lord, make me your instrument. I can create a better world with You."
And no matter what the storms destroy, the watercolors remind us of one thing : "The time spent on a work done with love is never, ever wasted."
Philippine Star : Discovering Puchette Escano
By Jennifer Ong (The Philippine Star) Updated December 11, 2009 12:00 AM
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=531344&publicationSubCategoryId=84
MANILA, Philippines - With every stroke of her brush, she awakens something. Something becomes a tremendously sensual work of art that bares her very soul. For painter Maria “Puchette” Pureza Escaño, the essence of her art is her love of life, family and God.
You can call her an incidental painter. Puchette had never thought she would be where she is now — planning a solo show in New York — had New York never taken notice of her in the first place.
A local artist who never called herself a professional painter until last year, Puchette was actually discovered by one of New York’s finest galleries, by chance. “I had made a site to remind myself that I can do this (painting) and then suddenly, I got an invitation to exhibit my paintings in New York. At first, I thought it was a joke,” Puchette recalled. She then asked a friend who lives in New York to check out the gallery and after doing so, the friend exclaimed, “Puchette, it’s in Tribeca!”
That gallery in Tribeca, New York is none other than the infamous Ico Art & Music Gallery, known as one of the most prestigious galleries in the world over where only the best artists are invited to exhibit.
While many would immediately jump at the chance of exhibiting at the Ico Gallery, Puchette still hesitated at first. It was only when her cousin offered to pay for her trip if she agrees to go that she decided that perhaps, she should do the exhibit. “And off I went. It was the first time I was going to go away without my kids. It was hard, I was crying on the plane,” Puchette said.
The exhibit was called “New Motions of the Figure.” Before she went, she shipped off four of her works and carried two more with her. She was prepared to beg the gallery to include her last two paintings, which pretty much arrived last minute. But the curator at the gallery took one look at them and knew it had to be there.
During the show, the very petite Puchette walked around the gallery in a pretty pink ensemble with her husband. She was nervous. She felt like everyone was bigger than her. And then, on that very night, one of her works sold. “It was also an artist who bought ‘Mary Joy’s Garden.’ It was the smallest work in the exhibit, practically the size of a bond paper!” Puchette exclaimed.
There, in her artist statement for the exhibit, she had written, “I do not see art as work. It is rather an answer to that need in my soul to reproduce how I see things with my heart’s eye… the need to hold something raw and use it to express how the wonderful things in God’s good earth move me. Art is my praise to God.”
The exhibit that featured seven artists ran for nearly a month. And in the end, it was only Puchette’s work that sold. There was even one work this 39-year-old mother of two was so attached to, she actually refused to sell it. Of her painting “Homeward,” she said: “It is now in my hometown of Sariaya, Quezon.” That painting is actually her way of showing how much she misses Sariaya.
Puchette’s work is about innocence, love, longing, affection but most of all, happiness. Happiness is exactly what brought Puchette her biggest commissioned project so far, a four-by-two-meter muralentitled “Beachcombers of the Cebu Channel,” commissioned by the Associated Marine Officers’ & Seamen’s Union of the Philippines (AMOSUP), along with the Japan Seamen’s Union for the Mariner’s Court hotel in Cebu. According to Puchette, the Japanese said they wanted to see something happy. And indeed, she made something that made them smile. Her partnership with them has also resulted in the commissioning of another mural for the Mariner’s Court hotel in Davao.
As for exhibits, ever since Puchette came back from New York last year, the invitations to exhibit in the metro have kept coming. Recently she was shown at the “Buhay at Biyaya” exhibit in the Sining Kamalig Gallery at the Gateway Mall, “The Sacredness of Life” at the FPOP Building in New Manila, Quezon City, “Sa Amin May Sining” at the GSIS Museum of Art and “When I Grow Up” at the Rockwell Power Plant Mall. Throughout the year too, Puchette found herself exhibiting for the second time in Ico Gallery in Tribeca for the group exhibit entitled “Collide” while she had recently flew to Roldy, Denmark to exhibit her works at the Gallery Svardson for the International Festival for Culture and Arts.
Puchette is well aware of her blessed career. And with her upcoming exhibit, entitled “Ode to the Father,” Puchette wants to offer a thanksgiving for everything she has received. And afterwards, she is bound for New York, once again, for her very first solo show at the Ico Gallery entitled “The Eyes of the World,” which is expected to showcase 30 of Puchette’s finest works.
For Puchette, everything has been a blessing. And to the art world and for anyone who has seen her works, she is simply, heaven-sent.
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Visit Puchette Escaño’s sites: www.puchetteescano.weebly.com & puchette.multiply.com
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E-mail the author: [email protected].
Artist Maria Pureza Hernandez-Escano Signs Second Contract with JSU
(Nov 18, 2009 - 09:40 AM) :
Ico Gallery artist Maria Pureza Escaño, a Filipina painter, signs another contract with the All -Japan Seamen’s Union on November 18, 2009 for a set of commissioned paintings. The contract signing took place during a meeting with Mariners’ Court General Manager Nolet Otayza at the JSU-owned hotel in Manila, Philippines.
Escaño was commissioned to paint three paintings by the Japanese-Filipino mariner’s organization to be hanged at the conference room of JSU’s new hotel in Davao. The All-Japan Seamen’s Union is the world’s largest seafarer’s organization, 80% of which are Filipinos.
Just in May of this year the Sariaya-born artist was commissioned and completed a 4 x 2 mural for the same company which now hangs at the lobby of Cebu’s Mariners’ Hotel.
“This project could not have been more timely,” Escaño says, “as I am now working towards helping raise funds for a scholarship for the children of the “poorest of the poor.” And I am just so overwhelmed with gratefulness for God’s quick answer to our prayers.”
The three paintings will all be 4 x 3 feet in size and will depict maritime scenes. They are expected to be completed in early 2010.
“I am looking forward to working again with the AJSU. I admire and am inspired by their efforts to protect the rights and improve the situation of Filipino seaworkers who are working in Japanese ships. Also they could have gotten a Japanese artist to answer to their artistic needs. Japan’s artists are outstanding. But they asked a Filipina to do it. I think this mirrors their regard for Filipino creativity and their well-meaning efforts to strengthen the bond of mutual respect between Japan and the Philippines.”
The All- Japan Seamen's Union was established to engage in the improvement of the welfare of Filipino seafarers who will be on board Japanese-owned ships, the education and training program in Japan for Filipino seamen, and investigations of the recruitment of Filipino seamen for Japanese-owned ships. It carries on a wide variety of international labor campaigns to protect the rights and employment of its more than 44,000 non-domiciled members.
Maria Pureza Escano is currently preparing for solo shows in Manila and in New York.
Maria Pureza Escano's Works Trailblaze Manila's Sacredness of Life Art Collective
July 14, 2009
The figurative and surreal art of Philippine-based international artist Maria Pureza Escaño will be the main feature of the Sacredness of Life collective exhibition to be held from July 17 – August 4, 2009 at the FPOP Bldg, New Manila, Quezon City, Philippines.
Spearheaded by the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines, “Sacredness of Life” gears to promote and uphold life’s sanctity and clear the organization’s stand about the rights of the unborn.
Among Escaño’s works which will be featured are three of of her newest paintings – “Sunchild”, “Madonna of the Lake” and “Madre dei desideri.”
The fundraising exhibit will also showcase the paintings and installation art of veteran stage and movie actor Ernie Garcia and the art of three of the country’s most talented emerging artists Julius Legaspi, Anton Pelobello and Mian Sta. Cruz (photography). Also participating in the collective are Nannette Yatco, Lorenz Yatco (photography) and Rolando Talag.
Director Edgar Fernandez of the National Commission of Culture and the Arts will officially open the art collective.
Escaño’s growing reputation in the global art scene as a notable figurative and surreal artist followed after the phenomenal success of two shows she joined at New York’s Ico Gallery in March and April 2009. Her well-received figurative art which are characterized by soulful and lighthearted subjects and scenes are reminiscent of her classical and impressionist exposure while her surreal art features evocative dreamscapes in vibrant patches of colors either in languid almost sinuous brushstrokes or in geometric stained-glass-looking shapes – a style uniquely her own yet universal in appeal.
Escaño has been recently commissioned by the All-Japan Seamen’s Union to paint a mural for their new hotel in Cebu City. She is scheduled to have a one-man show in October 2009 at the Bliss Gallery at Hotel Elizabeth in Baguio City and a first international solo exhibit at Ico Gallery – Chelsea in April 2010.
Part of the proceeds of “The Sacredness of Life” exhibit will go to the Family Planning Organization of the Philippines and UNICEF. Maria Pureza Escaño is represented by Ico Gallery-New York, Dekada Arts-Philippines, Sining Kamalig Gallery and ARTASIA.
http://artzeal.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/maria-pureza-escanos-works-trailblaze-manila-sacredness-of-life-art-collective/
Maria Pureza Escano, An Artist of the Soul
The Art Catalyst
July 14, 2009
It was only by a serendipitous accident that we discovered this fresh new artist from the Philippines. By some stroke of fickle fate, the art event which we really planned to attend that night in March was cancelled. We were already in Tribeca so why not drop by Ico Gallery instead? They were opening this “New Motions of the Figure” exhibit where they will feature the works of sculptor Blake Ward along with other artists from around the globe.
Ico Gallery was full. There were some media around. We circled that night’s collection and we were transfixed by a face of a girl hanging on the wall. There were butterflies fluttering across her face. A simple yet arresting composition. “Winged Friends” is just one of Maria Pureza Escaño’s works which best represents the character of her art. Pure, unassuming, soulful, her works give the viewer a glimpse of life’s simple but profound essences. We listened to the buzz of the crowd and sure enough, the works of the Filipina artist had the same effect on them.
What we like about Maria’s art is that it reminded us of what real art should be. Her art do not seek to impress through painstakingly studied techniques but are nevertheless impressive because they seem to spring spontaneously from an irrepressively hopeful heart. Viewing her art rewards one’s soul with new inspirations to see beauty in even the most ordinary of life’s occurences.
Fionna McBride/ The Art Catalyst/ New York
http://artzeal.wordpress.com
The Asian Journal: Filipino artist takes a "surrealistic" bite of the Big Apple
People and Events, p 14
by Dennis Clemente
NEW YORK— Where else can you find the tonic you need to scrape off the weary edges of this city but online?
Technology paved the way for Maria Pureza Escaño, Philippine-based painter, to come out of semi-retirement and come all over to New York to meet Ico Gallery owner Dalia Chako and curator Skylor Brummans. The latter discovered her online and invited her to join other international artists in a group show last March.
“We think Escaño’s works have a unique sensitivity and delicate nature with an angelic perspective that we find very appealing and make us think of faraway worlds and beautiful dreams,” Chako was quoted as saying at the exhibit.
From that first big break, Escaño wasted no time in participating in another exhibit at the same gallery. The abstract/surreal group exhibit titled “Collide” runs from May 8 to 28.
From a body of work that consists of realistic and figurative paintings, the Filipino artist this time is expanding her range with surrealistic works.
“I want to inspire young Filipino artists to believe in themselves,” she says.
The self-taught artist has come a long way. From a small town in Quezon Province in the Philippines to New York, her second exhibit will be at the same famed art and music gallery, Ico Gallery in Soho, where she had her first exhibit last March. It was reportedly also a first for the Ico Gallery to feature the works of a Filipino artist.
Escaño is coming from a long hiatus in the art scene. Her last exhibit was in 2002 with a group of friends in Quezon Province. She stopped painting and concentrated on working for a design agency and not long after that, got married and became busy with family life.
Now she is back in the thick of it, thanks to Chako and Brummans who stumbled on her personal website and offered to represent her in the Big Apple.
The result was her first exhibit in a group show titled “New Motions of the Figure” just last March. In the show, she joined other celebrated international artists Ned Martin, Jean Dorch, Nelly Drell, Kevin McKrell, John Boe Paulsen and Blake.
“I love doing art so much that I do not see making them as work. It is rather an answer to that need inside my soul to celebrate life. My art is my praise to God,” she adds
Escaño started painting at the age of nine after seeing the works of the French impressionists--Claude Monet’s La Promenade, Edouard Manet’s Le Chemin de Fer and Edgar Degas’ The Rehearsal. “It was like a religious experience for me,” she says.
Her exposure to these works at such an early age compelled her to take up brush and easel and make a name for herself in the Philippine art world, particularly in her hometown of Sariaya, Quezon, located south of Manila.
The petite artist traces the inspiration of her idyllic, pastoral works and children captured in light-hearted moods to her upbringing in her hometown in Sariaya where the rich and vibrant culture of her Filipino-Spanish-American influences bore fruit.
“In my hometown, there was a park called Atienza’s Park, with its once-flourishing meadows and trees, that played such a critical role in my creative yearnings,” she remembers fondly.
The goal is to share with the audience a sense of beauty and peace in the works. “I want them to leave with a lightness of soul after viewing my work,” she adds.
In her second New York exhibit, Escaño joins fellow artists Susane Adame, Tedd Barr, Annie Frasier, Colin Kilian, Rhoma Mostel, Karin Perez, Marina Reiter, Michael Schmotzer and Davor Vukovic.
Unfortunately, Escaño will not be able to be physically present in New York for her second exhibit, as she is busy finishing a 4x2-meter mural titled “Beachcombers at the Cebu Channel” in the Philippines for the All Japan Seamen’s Union and which will be hanged at the new Mariners’ Court in Cebu City, Philippines.
To view her works for her New York exhibit, visit http://icogallery.com. Her other works can also be viewed at her personal website, http://puchetteescano.weebly.com
ABS CBN: Pinay Painter Holds First International Exhibit in New York
By LENN ALMADIN-THORNHILL, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau | 03/17/2009 11:09 AM
A self-taught Filipina painter, Maria Pureza Escano, has her first international exhibit at the Ico Gallery in Tribeca, New York.
Considered as one of the most promising artists in Manila and known in the Philippine art scene for her realism renditions of rustic scenes in oil, acrylic and watercolor, Escano was chosen to participate in the group show “New Motions of the Figure” which runs from March 5 to March 28.
“It was the unique sensitivity and delicate nature of her work. It was an angelic perspective on life we thought was very unique. Now I can see why. She is as angelic and delicate as her work,” said Dalia Chako, owner of the Ico Gallery.
Escano, a mother of two young kids, was born in Sariaya, Quezon, where she said her love for soft colors and painting nature came from.
But these images were inspired by something else.
“Childhood memories, the settings of stories I read growing up, classics like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens,” said Escano. "I paint what my heart's eye sees. Whatever that is true and fine and beautiful that moves my soul in God's good earth."
Her works are a big hit not only for the most discerning art patrons but with regular folks as well.
Terry Mattia, a gallery guest from Belleville, New Jersey, remarked “Maria’s work comes straight from her heart. It’s what’s in her heart she puts out on canvas.”
Meanwhile, Escano’s new fans will have another chance to see her other works because the Ico Gallery invited her to show her surreal paintings this May.(abs-cbnnews.com)
Business Mirror: Pinay Painter Debuts in New York
Life
Written by Rikki Jimemez
March 17, 20009
Filipina painter Maria Pureza Escaño stages her first international exhibit at the Ico Gallery in Tribeca, New York. The exhibit is ongoing until March 28. Escaño was invited to participate in the realism and figurative group show New Motions of the Figure, which also features the works of international artists Blake Ward (Canada), John Boe Paulsen (US), Kevin McKrell (US), Ned Martin (US), Nelly Drell (Estonia) and Jean Dorch (US). New Motions of the Figure is curated by Skylor Brummans.
Located at 27 North Moore Street at the upscale area of Tribeca, New York, Ico Gallery, a music and art gallery, was founded by artist Dalia Chako, her husband David and their son Skylor Brummans. From its beginnings in 2004, this gallery has become one of the most popular art spaces in New York catering to the discriminating taste of international art connoisseurs and critics. Escaño is the first Filipina who was invited to show her works there. self-taught artist, Escaño’s was born in Sariaya, Quezon, a town from which she sources the birth of her creative soul with its dreamy and colorful vistas and its rich culture of Fil-American-Hispanic infusions.
Gaining recognition in the Philippine art scene for her masterful renditions in various media, Escaño’s work has been ranked along with the great American impressionists, and her themes, universal in essence, are considered a bold deviation from the common impression of what is Filipino art. Her profile in Art Slant New York is currently one of the most popular sites in this network.
When asked about what inspires her work, she answers, "Art is my answer to that need inside my soul to reproduce what I see with my heart’s eye, that need to hold something raw and use it to celebrate the richness of life and whatever moves my soul in God’s good earth."
Incidentally, Escaño will be exhibiting in another show at the same New York gallery this May. Collide, a group exhibition of surreal works, will run from May 5 to 29, and will showcase the works of Escaño, Tedd Barr, Susane Adame, Colin Kilian, Annie Fraser, Marina Reiter, Michael Schmotzer and Davor Vukovic.Escaño’s works can be viewed at her web site puchetteescano.weebly.com. ( BusinessMirror)
Design News: Filipina Art Goes to New York
EXHIBITION ANNOUNCEMENT
27 North Moore Street
America
05 March – 28 March 2009
Filipina painter, Maria Pureza Escano, will have her first international exhibit at the ICO Gallery in Tribeca, New York..
Pureza will be participating in the group show, “New Motions of the Figure”, a realism show which shall also feature the works of Blake Ward, John Boe Paulsen, Kevin McKrell, Ned Martin, Nelly Drell and Jean Dorch.
Maria Pureza Escaño, a self-taught artist, was born in Sariaya, Quezon, a town from which she sources the birth of her creative soul with its dreamy and colorful vistas and its rich culture of Fil-American-Hispanic infusions.
Known in the Philippine art scene for her excellent realism renditions of rustic scenes in oil, acrylic and watercolor and the sinuous quality of her abstract works, Pureza is considered as one of the most promising artists in Manila.
Buds Convocar, President of the Art Association of the Philippines describes her paintings as “can be ranked with the great American impressionists” while Dekada Arts, an online gallery, considers her style as “a bold deviation from the common impression of what is Filipino.” (Design Taxi.com News)