Untitled2014, 304.8 x 137.16 cm
Maria Taniguchiborn 1981 in Dumaguete City, Philippines. She currently lives and works in Manila, Philippines

Maria Taniguchi is best known for her ongoing series of labour-intensive 'brick paintings' that are made of repetitive patterns of grey-black rectangles. For the paintings, which are all untitled and unnumbered, Taniguchi first draws out a grid, then fills one 'brick' at a time over a period of months on the floor of her Manila studio. While the works differ in size, the content—or lack thereof—always remains the same. Yet each painting is slightly unique in its distributions of minor gradations within the grid (some cells are near-black, while others appear as a washed-out grey)—a result of the differing amounts of water and pigment on Taniguchi's brush at any given time. Revealing the hand of the artist and the associated connotations of labour in what at first appears to be mechanically produced, the differing densities are largely unplanned and heighten the illusion of textural space. At a glance, the paintings may resemble the grid structures of densely populated urban spaces or sombre memorial monuments. Taniguchi resists calling the paintings meditative however, and instead considers them more of a record of passing time and a means of regulating her own production.


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