Paolo Arao is a Brooklyn-based, Filipino-American artist working with textiles. He received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Arao has shown his work widely and has presented solo exhibitions at David B. Smith Gallery (Denver), Western Exhibitions (Chicago), and Jeff Bailey Gallery (NYC) amongst others. Residencies include: Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, The Museum of Arts and Design (NYC), the Millay Colony, the Studios at MASS MoCA, Vermont Studio Center, Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency, NARS Foundation, Wassaic Project, BRIC Workspace, Atlantic Center for the Arts and the Fire Island Artist Residency. He is a recipient of an Artist Fellowship from The New York Foundation for the Arts. His work has been published in New American Paintings, Maake Magazine, ArtMaze, Esopus, and Dovetail.
Artist Statement:
I make textile paintings and site-responsive fabric installations that are rooted in geometric
abstraction. My materials include hand-woven textiles on a floor loom; hand-dyed, painted, and
commercially sourced fabrics; re-purposed clothing, paint-stained canvas, and weathered drop
cloths. I use a sewing machine to piece and stitch these various fabrics together to create works
that resemble flags, sails or quilts.
My use of color and pattern is connected to indigenous textile traditions of the Philippines where
it is believed that color and pattern are imbued with a spiritual, healing and/or protective power.
The more dizzying the pattern and/or the more colorful the textile, the more protection it offers
to its wearer in warding off evil spirits. This faith (or superstition) in the power of color and
pattern is an essential source of inspiration.
Color is vital to my work. I carry color within me. My relationship to color is not passive. It is
political, it is personal, it is emotional, it is felt, and it is in my very being.