by Monica Salazar, Anna Russ // Sept. 22, 2010
A Spanish painter, Antonio Santin has been actively working and living in Berlin for the last several years. He studied Fine Arts at Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Anotati Scholi Kalon Technon in Athens. He began as a sculptor, however four years ago he decided to shift his focus to painting. From a distance, his work seems to resemble photographic images more than paintings. It is not until the viewer steps closer to the work that you realize the technical precision and details that make his large-scale paintings so impressive. In his most recent work, Santin photographs his subjects wearing their own clothing and surrounded by personal belongings, creating a beautiful, dark and intimate atmosphere for the painting. The women in his still life paintings seem like sculptures, while the intricate detail of their garments and surrounding objects narrate a unique story.
“Finding an image that wants to be a painting is an exciting rarity. It always starts with an inexplicable fascination for some aspect of reality. People and things get bored or die and rot, so photography offers me a comfortable approach. These photographic sessions are quite chaotic, in addition to the effort of fixing this elusive fascination, I project my aesthetic manias and recurrent obsessions on the model, respecting as well a wide margin for the unexpected. The results are hybrids, pure serendipity. It is a constant challenge in many ways, looking for a conclusive response to intuitive questions.” – Antonio Santin, 2010
