SANSO EXTRAORDINAIRE

“SANSO EXTRAORDINAIRE” OPENS AT GALERIE STEPHANIE
Third Part of 80th Year Celebrations

As the third part of a series of major shows celebrating his 80th year, internationally renowned artist Juvenal Sanso will have an exhibit of rare and unique works which opens Saturday, September 4, Saturday 7 pm at Galerie Stephanie. Galerie Stephanie is located at Unit 1B, Parc Plaza Bldg, 183 E.Rodriguez Jr. Ave, Libis, Quezon City (T-7091488). The show runs until September 18, 2010.

Titled “Sanso:Extraordinaire”, the show features works that are different from the usual flowers and seascapes that Sanso has come to be known for.

Sanso Extraordinaire presents 45 works in acrylic on canvas and acrylic on paper. These include works in abstract, a direction that the artist presents to the public for the very first time such as “Verdant Optimism”, “Exceeding Light” and “As Light Shines Like Silver”. There are also works depicting quaint villas, tranquil rivers and inspiring sceneries such as “A Charmed Occasion” and “One’s Pleasant Journey”.

The curators of the show have also been able to cull a few works from earlier Sanso series’ such as “A Gleam of Good Tidings” (Jade Set), “Leaves of Budding” (Painting within a Painting series), “A Shimmering Intensity” (Gold Series) to his science fiction inspired landscapes “The Mind’s Imaginings”. There is also a unique painting “With Fervent Affection” which was painted on a pink background.

This unique set of shows started with the artist’s birthday last November 2009 with Sanso: A Show of Shows which was held at the Mandarin Suites at the Gateway Mall on his birthday last November. It was followed by a major show defining Sanso’s role in Philippine post-war expressionism titled Sanso:Pioneer of Expressionism at the Art Center in Megamall last December.

If there are seascapes included in this exhibition, they are works actually done and finished by the artist in Brittany in 1975 and in 1980. Sanso spent 24 summers upon the invitation of the Yves de la Dantec family in Brittany where he slowly healed from the violence he experienced in World War II.

Sanso, who has meritoriously earned three medals including some knighthoods in the three countries he has resided in over the years has done a plethora of works proving time and again his boundless creativity and talent.

The artist has been multi-awarded by the three countries he has resided in over the past 50 years. His knighthoods and medals include the King’s Cross of Isabella from Spain, the Order of Chevalier from the French Government and the Presidential Medal of Merit from a grateful Philippine Republic.

He has done frescoes for aristocrats in Venice, had exhibits in photography, is a renowned printmaker, done sculptures, designed products for no less than Balenciaga in Europe, was a much respected set designer for theatre and opera in France.

He has explored subjects as diverse as landscapes inspired not only by France’s Brittany but the coast of Spain, Montalban, Batangas, Tagaytay and even most recently Bellarocca (off Marinduque). He pioneered expressionist figurativism in the Philippines as a result of the pain and anguish he personally experienced in World War II. He has done paintings of still life, New York, Ati-atihan, and floral works inspired by gardens from all over the world but have been processed by his unique creative imagination and presented in a world entirely the artist’s own. As an artist, and as the collection being exhibited in Sanso Extraordinaire shows, his pursuits know no bounds.