Curatorial Notes

Gean Brix Garcia chose a theme that fits an Art Fair perfectly. His series titled Ceremonials presents a selection of social gatherings, from the lofty to the quotidian. Its massive scale involves its audience to become part of the odd assembly.

Encountering Garcia’s work is like stepping into a scene in a horror fantasy novel. “Like my own universe,” he describes. He creates each character with their own complex history that an outsider can only partially know.

Costume design is a central device in Garcia’s visual language. “I pay close attention to the clothes to be able to communicate their personality,” he shares. He meticulously dresses up each creature to give hints about their character: a peacock outfit for the sensational cafe goer, a barbed wire dress for a nightmare incarnate, a bear suit to hide in for the introverted kid.

Garcia starts his paintings by creating a setting, like a stage that he would populate inch by inch with scenarios; as if letting the story form itself, chronicling it visually with an ultra fine brush as it happens.

The story of A Green Gate starts with a gigantic willow tree. Garcia built into it a cafe that serves eyeballs and potions as a delicacy. A queue of bizarre characters start to form, including an influencer eager to publish their review, a unicorn toting a detached head that seems to be remnants from a recent altercation, and around them, a staff of black cats serving the orders on a cloud tray.

In Ripe, Garcia tells a story of a successful initiation ceremony. “She went through a lot of ordeals to be accepted into the group,” Garcia explains. “This is the image of her transformation,” He points to the figure emerging from a cocoon-like carcass that is being lifted up by its arms while the incumbent members stand in a row for an obligatory photo.

Garcia’s works call for its viewer to spend time and stay a while in these imagined worlds. The longer one stays, the more stories are revealed until it expands infinitely outside the frame. If one starts to feel a sense of familiarity, as if one recognizes these characters from real life, it may be Garcia’s crafty way of delivering his commentary on contemporary social dynamics that are at times difficult to talk about.

Words by Carla Gamalinda

About the Artist

Gean Brix Garcia graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree majoring in Painting at the Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology. He was a finalist at the 50th and 51st Shell National Students Art Competitions, and launched his much-awaited first solo exhibition, Alchemy, at Kaida Contemporary in 2023.

Garcia's wonderfully rendered brushwork is often mistaken for pen and ink, but these are acrylics painted with the finest brushes that create the tiniest details. He has cultivated a unique artistic style that revolves around depicting fantastic landscapes and whimsical characters adorned in otherworldly outfits. The unconventional and magical imagery he comes up with combines fashion and fancy tableaus, exploring the gamut of human emotions expressed by his playful characters, who find themselves in various surreal settings.

As Garcia's pieces showcase his unique vision, he highlights themes of transformation, growth, patience, and gratitude. By blending the eccentric, hypnagogic, and outlandish, he builds beauty out of the grotesque, intriguing us to no end as we discover new elements with each fresh viewing.