HAPPENINGSAsencio Classic Beauty August 2014
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ince the start of his career in 2000, art collectors have felt drawn to Henry Asencio’s masterful oil paintings. Their allure lies within the deep emotional well of the human spirit. Each complex likeness stirs unspoken feelings and awakens dormant hopes in the deceptively simple illusion of the human figure.
Asencio’s abstract style translates the abstract ideas of
intimacy, hope, desire and spirituality he sees represented in the women he paints. His understanding is strongly influenced by the expressionists and surrealists in their exploitation of accidents and manipulation of organic forms. Asencio molds the oil paint in impulsive swaths like a sculptor shaping clay. He uses various found tools to cut into his existing brushstrokes and agitate the smooth flow of the paintbrush. “I get to be aggressive with application, yet convey a tranquil moment,” Asencio explains. It is what he identifies as the “dichotomy of tenderness and aggression” and what later evolved into his philosophy of “Solace in the midst of Chaos.” In Asencio’s work, realism and impressionism interchange depending on the manner in which the viewer addresses the painting. Asencio adapts unnatural colors that actually adjust in the mind’s eye to convey a natural image. It can take years to fully appreciate and enjoy the subtleties of his technique and the aesthetic depths he reaches using color. The figures maintain realistic aspects, but the process is not meant to result in perfect visual likeness. Rather it is a reflection of feeling, as the artist often finds himself exploring pivotal moments of decision- making and self-discovery. Asencio’s new work, Classic Beauty, reaffirms the powerful artistic voice he has developed over the past 14 years. This fine art limited edition sepia painting relies on his foundational skills in drawing. For Asencio, drawing is an essential requirement for any artist, and he demonstrates this with crisp lines that create the central silhouette along the subject’s
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arms and shoulders. From there, he manipulates the oil paint in varying thicknesses and textures, mimicking light and shadow. Employing only the necessary details, he allows the edges of the image to fade into abstraction. Today, women live outside the outdated conceptions of
a traditional “female sphere.” Asencio most often paints his figures with an abstract background. He does not define either an external or internal setting, allowing the viewer to interpret the figure from a purely emotional point of view rather than as someone restricted to a specific way of life or being. Some artists have been criticized for only portraying women living in the home. In Asencio’s works, women are not depicted by occupation, class, or their relationship to men, but by who they decide they are.
These compositions, which merge the traditional with the more avant garde, highlight contemporary sensuality. What does elegance and sensuality look like today? Much of Asencio’s paintings have to do with opposition and creating beauty rather than finding it. Men and women have the power to create beauty, just as they have the power to create peace, opportunity and happiness. The control and freedom brought forth in the act of creation is what sets Asencio’s masterpieces apart.
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