Paolo Arao (b. Manila, Philippines) makes sewn paintings, textile constructions and site-responsive installations that are rooted in geometric abstraction. Arao mends this lineage of abstraction through the use of textiles; stitching patchworks that explore the elastic nature of queerness and reflects his Filipino heritage. Made with variously sourced fabrics, second-hand clothing, hand woven fibers and weathered canvas, his works resemble flags or quilts, often carrying physical traces of the bodies that wore them.
Arao received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and was a participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He has shown his work in numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally and has presented solo exhibitions at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha), the Columbus Museum (Georgia), David B. Smith Gallery (Denver), Morgan Lehman Gallery (NYC), and Western Exhibitions (Chicago).
Residencies include: Monson Arts, MacDowell, Art Omi, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, The Museum of Arts and Design (NYC), Millay Arts, the Studios at MASS MoCA, Vermont Studio Center, Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency, NARS Foundation, Wassaic Project, BRIC Workspace, Fire Island Artist Residency, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Arao’s work has been published in New American Paintings, Maake Magazine, Artmaze, Dovetail, Harper’s Magazine and Esopus. Paolo Arao is a 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Painting from The New York Foundation for the Arts and a 2023-2024 Pollock-Krasner Foundation grantee. He lives and works in The Catskills, NY.
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.