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Grace
04.07. – 09.08.2025
Paulina Caspari. Munich, Germany


Installation view of Grace at Paulina Caspari, Munich, Germany.

What are the aesthetics of grace?

Grace is an act of submission to divine mercy, an act of relinquishing control to natural or divine forces that are often invisible. For his first solo exhibition at Paulina Caspari and in Munich, Filipino artist Augustine Paredes inquires into the physical manifestation of grace, revealing the visual language of material when allowed to make an image of its own. In this exhibition, the artist embodies grace as a poetic inquisition of his relationship to materials that have threaded through his artistic practice.

With a practice rooted in photography and image-making, Paredes questions the post-colonial identity of a Filipino in diaspora through different appropriation of artistic mediums, indigenous materials, and historical narratives. Paredes’ artistry — traversing through the Philippines, United Arab Emirates, and Germany — is marked by a perpetual questioning of desire in light of migration, identity, and longing. Paredes’ affinity to the poetics of materiality, with the chemistry of analog film as a starting point, unfolded into his explorative use of and historical research on Piña fabric. A delicate textile from the Philippines made from pineapple leaves fibers first introduced by 15th century Spanish colonizers, Piña is embedded within the artist’s continuous inquisition of colonial influence on the Filipino identity.

Grace is a continuation of his series, Amalgamation of Tenderness, first presented at Liste Art Fair 2025. Here, the Frankfurt-based artist focuses on material: investigating its tensions and capacities, using the concept of ‘grace’ through the materials’ reactions to time, light, and heat. In these works, the artist pushes himself against the practice of artistic control, letting these invisible elements autonomously leave their visible marks.
Using research as a starting point in his artistic process, Paredes explored antique stores in Frankfurt and Heidelberg to uncover deteriorating old, unused films as well as printed photographs and frames. Paredes also traveled to Banisilan, North Cotabato in the Philippines to uncover decaying photographic family archives from the 1970s to 2000s — lingering evidence from the artists’ conflict-ridden homeland. Paredes observed how the passage of time, complimented by prolonged exposure to heat and light, have changed form, markings, ink, and image manifestation. The back of a photograph ages gracefully through time, creating unique browns and yellows.

When an image is overexposed, parts become white: though a vignette remains. Likewise, Piña fabric, when burnt and ironed, creates a haunting, yellowing mark. His experimentation with these discoverings manifest themselves in the artworks in this exhibition.

For Paredes, to ‘age gracefully’ is a soft resistance, a revolution against decay; and yet, no matter our resistance, time, light and heat still yields its force; decay still occurs. In the context of Catholic beliefs and practices, also central to Paredes’ practice, grace can likewise be seen as a parameter for morality, a faithful belief in the invisible divine. Through these works, Paredes expands a wider inquiry into the state of grace: a way of being that traverses from resistance to eventual submission. Grace is letting go, a submission to what we cannot see or control. Grace is surrender.

Curatorial Text by Anna Bernice delos Reyes