SALUSTIANO
Through several series, each with a different character, emerges the common intention of the artist – to penetrate the inner world of the viewer and to influence the realm of their emotions.
The latter are the real protagonist of ‘changer la vie’, embodied in images of young men and women, with expressions laden with magnetism. The intensity of a gaze, the sweetness of closed eyes or the warmth of lips place the beholder into an ambivalent relationship between proximity and distance, between attraction and barriers. These gazes invite to go beyond the mere representation and to leap towards the inner realm, but at the same time, their expressions never allow complete abandon, as it is slowed down by barely perceptible tension lines.
The subject of Salustiano’s art is invariably the portrait. Portraying his subjects often with the emotion and expression of the glance that creates a connection with the viewer. Salustiano paints using a special pigment – up to sixty layers – from the Cochinilla or Cochineal beetle. This pigment was used by the native peoples of Central America and was brought to Europe by the Spaniards.
The presence of dualities becomes more explicit at the visual level of the image representation and composition: a determined and sometimes severe look, contrasting with patronizing gestures or the delicacy of a pair of hands.
The timelessness of positions reminding the viewer of classicism or Renaissance, is torn apart by unmistakably modern elements accompanying the portrayed figure, the solemn air of a pose is denied by the ephemeral or vulgar character of the depicted object, or a heightened masculinity is weakened by the coquetry of other elements included in the composition.
REDUCTIONISM, BEAUTY AND SPIRITUALITY. (The shortest distance between two points is the gaze)
"My painting is reductionist. I work with only three elements: background (empty), figure and composition. It does not even have a specific theme or meaning, it is open to read. And these three elements are at the service of Beauty and Spirituality exclusively.
Why reductionist? In the novel Crime and Punishment, for example, Dostoevsky tells us about everything that happens inside and outside the character and the action, so that the reader can only passively enjoy the story. On the other hand, in a Japanese haiku, with a few words the poet creates a universe where it is the viewer who has to unite them, actively becoming a co-author of the work. This is why my work is intended to be like a haiku. In the same way, for me, an artist is the subject who cooks a dish, but it is the spectator who must eat it and digest it himself; it is the only way for art to really feed us.
Why the beauty? The laws that govern Beauty are discovered, not invented. The Golden Ratio, which exists in nature, is a perfect and mysterious proportion because it participates in everything created, it is something similar to a Divine mark. When the Greeks studied it they took it as the canon of Perfect Beauty. It is a law because it is universally applicable, and we see it beautiful because we participate in and in it. Kepler called this number the Divine Proportion, because it contained the beauty that God has given to things.
Why spirituality? Spirituality in the most primitive sense of the concept. One of the first religious manifestations has to do with art and magic. The Cro-Magnon man represented in the caves everything that he wanted to be given to him by the deities. I can say that my paintings are prayers and, like the caveman, I paint what I want to possess. They painted their desires, I represent mine, which is an ideal, serene world, where Beauty is spoken of as a synonym for the Absolute Good." Salustiano
BIO
Salustiano (Spain, 1965)
Throughout these years Salustiano has occupied covers of magazines and specialized press, such as the magazine Arte Al Límite, Artery Berlin, MU Magazine or the cultural weekly newspaper of the national newspaper ABC. There have also been countless interviews for radio and television.
Thanks to this artistic recognition, in recent years different charitable institutions of international prestige have invited Salustiano to collaborate in their projects. Among them the Dalai Lama Foundation with the exhibition The Missing Peace, which toured several continents, the international organization Woman Together, with the exhibition "Other Meninas", supervised by the World Microcredit Bank, by Muhammad Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize) , in which the Queen of Spain actively collaborates, and the Cisneros Foundation with the exhibition and auction of IKF Latin American Art Auction, part of its program for childhood health care in Latin America.
He participated in The Missing Peace, Artist Consider The Dalai Lama, an international exhibition that brings together such prominent authors as Bill Viola, Anish Kapoor, Marina Abramovic, Christo, Richard Avedon and Sebastiao Salgado, and who, since 2006, has toured several cities in the world: Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Sydney, Berlin, Paris, Prague, Tokyo, Toronto, Warsaw and Miami.