“After Hours” by Alvin Paraguison at Art Elaan

While most people are ready to call it a day, for night owls, the day has just begun. Artist Alvin Paraguison is one of them. Like a lot of creative types whose minds are visited by a muse during downtime, Paraguison confesses that the late hours of the day are when he is most productive and in his element. While the world around him is asleep, he can work to his heart’s content without interruption. His solo show “After Hours” is a reflection of the moments when he retreats to his work alone. In this series of paintings, the subject is either alone or absent from the picture, yet they all share the same color palette and tonal values, which tells us that they were all set at the same time of the day.

In a sense, one gets to be honest in his thoughts with the exclusion of external affairs, distractions, and expectations imposed on us by others. It’s the moment we let our guard down. We don’t have to put on a mask to perform a certain role or function to fulfill our duties. Yet whether we like it or not, it is also the moment when we are more vulnerable to be confronted by our emotions which really are just signals of our current state. And with no company but oneself, and no task at hand but one’s craft, the artist reflects on the heart of his motive for creating, how we must do things out of love, rather than for love, and that is only possible when we love ourselves.

Originally known for his Japanese-inspired artworks, Alvin Paraguison’s art has evolved into a classic figurative style with dream-like imagery as a result of his art residency in Bangkok, Thailand. The influence of Renaissance and Modern artists such as da Vinci, Durer, Uldalen, Mark Demsteader, and Lo Chan Peng can be seen in his works. He is a graduate of Fine Arts at Bulacan State University in 2013 and has been active in group shows since 2012. He had his first two-man exhibition in 2016 called Retrospective cultures.