Galaxie Maria
Published August 27, 2020
Galaxie Maria (Maria Delfino) is a Filipino artist with a wide array of output, including oil paintings, graphite drawings, sculpture, font design, illustration the list goes on. It's like she never rests.
Many artists nowadays shift easily between the spheres of commercial and fine art, but just as easily get pigeonholed into boxes like low brow and pop surrealism. While many "more serious" artists may balk at this, Delfino uses the many approaches, tools, and the imagery gained from commercial work to constantly experiment in and expand her personal oeuvre. And if one could recognize where Delfino takes flight on her own or doesn't easily get pinned down, it would primarily be in her paintings and her drawings.
For one, her paintings and her drawings are deliberately personal fictions. Many of them are characters and settings that pull the viewer in with something almost palpable. The mystery is heightened through the use of cryptic text, characters in antiquated dresses, near empty space or expanses of light and shadow, to name a few. And always there is the dexterous and fine build up of the medium, be it oil paint or graphite, into a sensory pleasure.
