Pacifico Silano (b. 1986, USA) is a lens-based appropriation artist based in New York City, where he graduated with an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in 2012.
Rephotographing sections of the magazines, Silano assembles his new images into a range of seductive installations, which often reference the materiality of the publications themselves – honing in on stapled centrefolds, torn sheets or the faded colour palette of printed pages weathered through time. Bringing contrasting details to the fore, from the familiar visual signifiers of an archetypal masculinity, to more romantic glimpses of an overlooked tenderness, Silano points to the tensions that underlie his source material; between harshness and softness, between joy and melancholy, between the liberation of gay communities and their enduring adherence to wider social norms.
Silano’s works have been exhibited in both group and solo shows at the likes of the Bronx Museum; Tacoma Art Museum; Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; The Museum of Sex; The International Center for Photography; Houston Center for Photography; Baxter ST@CCNY; Rubber-Factory; Stellar Projects; Light Work; Melanie Flood Projects; Fragment Gallery and Luis De Jesus Gallery. His work is found in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Silano is a past recipient of the Aaron Siskin Foundation Fellowship, the NYFA Fellowship in Photography, and a finalist of the 2013 Aperture Foundation Portfolio Prize. In 2021, he was shortlisted for the Paris Photo/Aperture First Book Award with his debut publication, I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine, published by Loose Joints.
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'Monochromatic'
Michael-Bailey Gates, Blommers & Schumm, Katie Burnett, Asger Carlsen, Inez & Vinoodh, Boris Eldagsen, Emile Gostelie, Nico Krijno, KYoung, Anja Niemi, Robin de Puy, Pacifico Silano, Scheltens & Abbenes, Christopher Smith, Eva Stenram, and Tereza Zelenkov 29 Apr - 10 Jun 2023A woman in a formal white gown glances sideways, her gaze steady and her expression neutral. A set of hands – the body to whom they belong cropped from the...Read more -
'One of a Kind'
A 10-year anniversary show with unique pieces 3 Sep - 22 Oct 2022When, in 2012, Narda van 't Veer and Jasper Bode founded The Ravestijn Gallery, they were amongst the few galleries in the Netherlands who felt photography was more than simply...Read more -
Summershow 2022: 'The Portrait'
Michael Bailey-Gates, Blommers & Schumm, Koos Breukel, Asger Carlsen, FakeShamus, Inez & Vinoodh, Anja Niemi, Robin de Puy, Pacifico Silano & Patrick Waterhouse. 25 Jun - 27 Aug 2022The human urge to immortalize its likeness is as old as the emergence of civilization: the Ancient Greek immortalized important figures in marble and stone, where Ancient Egyptian portraiture flourished...Read more
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Exhibition Review: Monochromatic
Wenjie (Demi) Zhao, Musée Magazine, April 24, 2023 -
EXHIBITION REVIEW: THE RAVESTIJN GALLERY PRESENTS “THE PORTRAIT”
Margarita Matta / Parker Renick, Musée Magazine, July 26, 2022 -
A Fresh View of Queer Masculinity, Through Scraps of Old Magazines
Vince Aletti, The New Yorker, May 22, 2022 -
EXHIBITION REVIEW: IF YOU GOTTA HURT SOMEBODY, PLEASE HURT ME
Katie Grierson / Parker Renick, Musée, April 19, 2022 -
Pacifico Silano Examines Violence and Desire by Reenvisioning Gay Erotica
Ayanna Dozier, Artsy, April 13, 2022