The Art of Charles Lahti

CEBU, Philippines – There's a lot to like about Charles Lahti's approach in the making of prints, one which says something about the inherent ins and outs of artistic creation; it is serious business, not easily doable with half measures and convictions.

This quality of the artist's accession in the making of works - his creative heart and passionate center, if you will - essentially underlines the compositional and thematic entanglements of the pieces that comprise his first solo art exhibit in Cebu.

Currently on display in the 856 G Gallery located along A.S. Fortuna in Mandaue until December 18, the show - simply titled "Charles Lahti" - fetes a series of prints made by the master painter and printmaker - each evocative of the artist's penchant for aesthetic disambiguation, creative experimentation, and the progressive possibilities and potentials that can be found in the merging of the two.

With works gilded with vivid colors and pieces that are molded by balanced color contrast juxtapositions, a dynamic and temporal flair can be discerned from the exhibit's showcased prints - a quality which all-in-all lends an expressionist tone to their being; "deconstructed" and "remodeled" by the baseline methods and processes that are involved in printmaking.

Alluding to how light, fresh and refreshing prints can be as artpieces, the show leads its viewers to an endearing attraction in the fairgrounds of the visual arts space - saying something about how art can never sigh in resignation or applaud with gusto, but can be silent in a way that sounds the same.

Charles Lahti

Painter and printmaker Charles Lahti has been a creative force within New York's art community for more than three decades. His career in the visual arts field began in 1977 when the Minnesota native relocated to Manhattan to work as a painter at Styria Studios. Later, he went on to work with some of the giants of post-war American art, including Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Judd, Andy Warhol and LeRoy Neiman.

Throughout his career, the artist has emphasized and gravitated towards collaboration and experimentation. Always captivated by the nexus of art and community, he was at the forefront of a number of nascent creative mediums, including performance, graffiti and multimedia art. His studios, first on the Lower East Side and then in Bushwick, have long been centers for learning and experimentation by several generations of painters and printmakers.

His paintings, which have appeared in Woody Allen's "Mighty Aphrodite," are regularly exhibited in the United States and collected internationally.