Wanderings

Kris Jan Gavino
A Solo Exhibition
October 23 – November 2, 2022

In this exhibit, we walk through tableaus of leaf-covered forest floors, autumnal suns, and surreal tree-sized pocket watches – worlds so masterfully painted, so clearly not our own, and yet so undeniably compelling. There is a harmony, even a playfulness, in these places which, rather than making these vistas alien and chilling, confer are inviting and irresistible. 

Gavino explores the allure and invitation of wandering through foreign worlds, by depicting them impeccably with his high-caliber realism. From white birch trees-stained purple by afternoon shadows, to incongruously enormous hourglasses to dice atop orange fields of leaves, his skills are haltingly sharp. 

His paintings capture the essence of what it is to wander and wonder – where and how else could we do this, if not through paintings where a carnival horse welcomes us before a house-sized aged book. Which, in itself, is a mis-en-abîme doorway into another fanciful world. This masterful technique, combined with his creative imagination, gives us incomparable worlds, which serve as a calming respite from a grim, overheating reality. 

The journey his works take us on is nothing short of stunning, and bring a reexamination of the wandering that we, as viewers and inhabitants of our own world, must do and where such dreaming can take us.

– JC Barcelon