Paes
Artist Biography
Paes sees his studio as a physical manifestation of what is happening in his mind and life. His paintings emerge from who he is, absorbing the experiences, thoughts and emotions that shape him. When he is in the studio, he feels as though he is inside a tiny laboratory within his own dream world, where possibilities float freely, waiting to be caught mid-air and transformed into something else, into another medium.
Paes does not seek to communicate a particular message or pose a specific question through his work. Instead, his practice serves as both an observation of the world and a personal diary, charting the events of his life, his dreams and nightmares, his darkest and brightest emotions, and the ongoing process of learning through everyday experience. His beliefs, convictions and the causes he advocates for inevitably find their way into his work, sometimes directly, sometimes more subtly.
Although large-scale canvas remains his preferred medium, Paes is increasingly drawn to creating banners and garments from recycled materials found on the streets, alongside installations and sculptures incorporating embroidery, carpentry and collage. He also works on paper and plywood. His materials include acrylic paint, oil pastel, pigments and oil paint, often combined within a single painting to create distinct shapes, layers and textures. Working with the same old, inexpensive brushes, he even repurposes the water and oil residue collected in his brush buckets as paint, embracing imperfection as a way of creating something less polished and more human.
Existing somewhere between figuration and abstraction, Paes’s practice is an ongoing search for ways to express feelings through images, rather than simply depicting the images themselves. His work moves away from accurate representations of the body, form and nature, towards something more elusive: an attempt to capture the hidden tapestry of blurred memories, fleeting sensations and lived experiences that shape how we see and feel the world.
