The latest exhibition at the Art Gate features the solo exhibition “Silence in the Wild” by Filipino-American artist Jana Benitez. This exhibition showcases a series of Benitez’s recent works, with her paintings using multiple perspectives and rich color effects to give viewers a glimpse into the mysteries of the human body.
The term “wild” in the exhibition title reflects the rich emotions and intuition of human nature; while “silence” implies a deliberate response to rid oneself of worldly distractions, encouraging people to detach from trivial matters and cherish the present experience.
The gallery space is filled with diverse and lively painting styles and forms, including: lyrical dancers painted with loose brushstrokes, thickly painted postures full of inner explosiveness, and some abstract works expressing tranquil spaces. In order to convey the intensity, depth, and complexity of emotions, the artists use a wide range of painting techniques, such as creating with traditional brushes and palette knives, and even experimenting with water nets. Additionally, she alters the speed and size of initial markings, varying the transparency and opacity of brushstrokes, colors and lines, as well as the wetness of the paint, to create unique visual effects, much like the diversity of the human body.
The history and formative development of painting are rooted in Benitez’s artistic practice, where she connects painting with contemporary psychology, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Tantric concepts. She focuses on exploring the instinctual responses that humans have developed throughout evolution – the fight-flight-freeze mode, activated instantly in the face of danger and harm. Can this defense mechanism be replaced by a pause-stay-soften approach? Amid social unrest and escalating racism, she does not believe that retaliation is a viable or the only method, instead guiding viewers to consider how to face others more generously and sincerely.
Benitez advocates for “maintaining the purity of humanity in its most primitive state,” such as using posture drawing to activate the life energy nurtured in the body. Behind the vibrant works, the images wander between abstraction and concreteness, chaos and order, brute force and tenderness. At the same time, conveying the duality of richness and emptiness, presence and absence, contraction and expansion, and attempting to break this contradiction.
“Silence in the Wild” invites viewers to break free from conventional thinking, actively listen to their inner voice, and open their hearts to the world of sensations, intuitions, and interconnectedness. Stepping into the gallery space, audiences will feel a growing sense of life energy from the artwork, and we recommend everyone to experience it in person!
“Silence in the Wild”: Jana Benitez Solo Exhibition
Date: Now until October 29
Time: 10 am to 7 pm
Location: Art Gate, 6th Floor, 12 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong
Image source and learn more: Art Gate
