Like many of Napay’s sprawling works, Love is part of a triumvirate of massive works that formed part of an installation/exhibition entitled Pugad - organized by the European Cultural Council, at the Palazzo Mora during the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.

 

When one initially views Raffy Napy’s works, and with closer scrutiny, one discovers that the work is created not with a brush but with a myriad of threads, forming sinuous stitches, knots, and tassels upon an undergrowth of exotic flora and fauna sewn on cotton.  Napay paints over the textile, machine sews semblances of tree trunks, branches and twigs, then hand embroiders other elements to summon a grove or copse to view.

 

In a manner of speaking, Napay has continually creates series
of works allowing the audience immediate communion with his ethos and the philosophy of love, hope, family, and all aspirations,
by transcending multiple art forms. His honesty is uncommon, who bares all, expounds completely unrestrained, offering solidarity of spirit, uncumbered by identity or creed.

Raffy T. Napay was born in 1986 in Manila, Philippines. He graduated from Eulogio Amang Rodriguez of Science and Technology (EARIST) in 2009 with a Fine Arts degree. Whilst in school, he started gaining recognition for his skill.

 

Napay originally used oil paints, until he developed an adverse allergy to the medium. Whilst recovering, he explored the potential of other materials, and explored working with the available threads and textiles at home. Growing up with a seamstress mother, Napay was exposed to a wide variety of threads, cotton and fabrics and these materials gave him a strong ground into a different world of cre….

 

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