Donnabelle Casis

Untitled (220-10), 2020

Handmade marbled paper, gouache, colored pencil, pen, marker

7 x 5.5 inches

$600

Untitled (220-14), 2020

Handmade marbled paper, gouache, colored pencil

7 x 5.5 inches

$600

Untitled (220-13), 2020

Handmade marbled paper, gouache, colored pencil

7 x 5.5 inches

$600

Untitled (220-08), 2020

Gouache, handmade marbled paper, pen, colored pencil

5.25 x 4.25 inches

$400

Untitled (220-15), 2020

Handmade marbled paper, gouache, pen, colored pencil

7 x 5.5 inches

$600

Untitled (220-06), 2020

Handmade marbled paper, gouache, colored pencil

5.25 x 4.25 inches

$400

Untitled (220-16), 2020

Handmade marbled paper, gouache, colored pencil

7 x 5.5 inches

$600

Untitled (220-12), 2020

Handmade marbled paper, gouache, colored pencil

7 x 5.5 inches

$600

Untitled (220-11), 2020

Handmade marbled paper, gouache, colored pencil

7 x 5.5 inches

$600

Untitled (220-09), 2020

Handmade marbled paper, gouache

7 x 5.5 inches

$600

"Initially, making my work during the pandemic and concurrent rise in racial tensions was difficult. I am an artist of color and felt marginalized, especially by the anti-Asian sentiments. I felt sensitive and vulnerable, and this affected my work focus and productivity. As a way to re-enter my studio practice, I revisited a pile of marbled paper I made a year ago. Creating entirely new work from nothing seemed daunting, so I collaged these papers with fragments from older, unfinished drawings and paintings. The small scale enabled me to work quickly and freely."

Donnabelle Casis is a Filipina-American artist. Her paintings explore the relationship of personal identity and ritual to visual systems of signification in both ancient and modern cultures. Through the use of patterns and geometry, she reassembles disparate and discrete iconographic sources into unified compositions as an analog of cultural hybridity. Filipino tribal tattoos and textiles, bullfighting costumes, and facial recognition software, inform her aesthetic decisions. Filipino tribal imagery is tied to storytelling, marks of accomplishment, and societal roles. Spanish bullfighting costume colors and embellishments have deep ties to familial history and status. Facial recognition software maps physical characteristics which determine one’s visual identity. Casis filters these and other images to create my own configurations.
Donnabelle Casis lives and works in Florence, MA. She earned an MFA in Painting at the University of Washington. Her work has been included in national and international group and solo exhibitions. Donnabelle’s work is included in several public and private collections.