Chilean artist Santiago Salvador Ascui (b. 1983) paints melodic, colorful arrays of pattern-like assembled figures and faces. Rendered with a hand-painted perfection, the artist employs careful lines and bright tones to create color studies, which guide the viewer’s eye through the placement of hue, rather than, as most figurative paintings would, narrative. While his works are vibrant, decorative, and conjure up a sense of fun and happiness, Ascui’s deliberate use of repetition and unification through subject matter and color tonality could suggest a feeling of monotony and conformity. Perhaps the paintings are an allusion to modern consumer culture, where his patterned pieces create a true sense of identity-less beings, unlinked to any sense of individuality. Ascui lives and works in Santiago, Chile and holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts from Finis Terrae University in Santiago. He has exhibited widely across Chile and Europe.
