Don Dalmacio
Published December 02, 2020
Interiors, bodies, palm trees, splashes of water, all become phantoms in the paintings of Filipino artist Don Dalmacio. Multiple thin layers of acrylic paint create a mist. What's left is a kind of an impression and abstraction of the world. In that vein, one might think of the skies of Turner and Whistler. Viewers are given hints of reality, like a dream or a memory. Or one could call it a filtered reality, to borrow from the technology that alters photos and apertures.
Under that hazy mirage as all volume and outline is overpowered by color, painterly sketches barely mimic forms. Those same forms have become pure or rudimentary versions of their equivalent in the real world, like elementals or the geometries learned in basic art class. Many times, forms are rendered unrecognizable, partially erased, and robbed of identity. As such, the viewer isn’t playing a game to figure out what’s hiding behind the thin layer of paint. The mind is at rest. What’s apparent in this dimness, in the reduction of the noise of detail, is the silence. It's a space where emotion can freely swell and move.
Since 1999, Don Djerassi Dalmacio has been participating in exhibitions in the Philippines and abroad. He has had several solo shows in galleries, such as Blanc Gallery, West Gallery, and Underground Makati. He received the Juror’s Choice recognition in the prestigious Philip Morris Art Awards in 2003. In 2009, he was a recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Thirteen Artists Award.
