Punit

In Punit, Obet Tiaño fashions together fragments of fabric and life, blending intentionally cut holes and overlapped materials into images that tell stories of potent and raw emotion. The artist builds on a testament of strength and courage as he presents six dynamic paintings of quiet resilience, each piece holding layers of meaning.

Growing up, his family had a humble tailoring and modiste shop, which served as a vibrant playground for his young imagination. As he became more serious in his creative production, however, he was inspired by the various scraps of fabric left after cutting. He got the idea of using these torn pieces as an art style, not only repurposing them for his paintings but physically making holes in canvases before laying them on top of each other and then painting them through those layers. This, he feels, is also reflective of what has happened in his life, one he considered a bit tough and torn apart as he gives his best efforts to piece everything together.

Tiaño started working in this style back in 2017, but had to stop for a while around 2020 due to urgent health concerns. He switched to painting on plain canvas, but now part of his recovery is returning to doing his process the way that he truly loves. Unconditional Love is a fusion of female and male subjects dissected by a very thin white line. Divided into two sections, it reflects on the complexities of relationships, offering a symbolic portrait of his own and seemingly reminding us that mutual support in life connections is a wellspring of inspiration, recovery, and growth. Holes appear as voids filled by vistas of peaceful horizons in this work and his other pieces, replete with grass dancing with the wind and resembling calm ocean waves. The “torn” fabrics on his canvases are not merely surface textures; they’re symbolic scars, echoing the physical and emotional trials faced by everyone. The magic also comes in as the viewer expects some parts of the painting to be pierced canvas, only to realize that it in actuality is flat, and the artist used trompe l'oeil to fool the eye. Dark spaces are crisscrossed by thin lines like fine cracks or fiber, breaking the image visually but still serving as a shroud that veils the emptiness.

Though Tiano’s path was marked by health struggles and hardships that nearly sidelined his practice, art still sustains him, bringing him joy and purpose through physically taxing times and providing the financial means for his medical needs. He is an artist who is meant to paint, he says, and only paint because it is where he draws his strength. Weaving together the totality of life experience with a raw, intimate lens, Punit is his way of capturing the imperfections, the scars, the nothingness, and the torn edges of existence, his smooth applications of oil on canvas soothing the eye and the soul even when life frays at the seams.