Anthony Pabillano
Anthony Pabillano is a Houston-based visual artist that creates works of art in traditional media (such as
graphite, charcoal, colored pencils, pastels, and acrylic paints, among others), oftentimes using his
preferred medium: paper. His love of paper as a medium began in high school when an art teacher assigned a
Henri
Matisse-inspired cut-out art project and also while using wallpaper scraps to create a replica of Madonna
and child. These two undertakings—cutting blocks of paper in organic and geometric forms per the Matisse
project, and cutting into paper to convey the contour lines of the Madonna-and-child image—form the
foundation of the style of paper art that he developed back in 2010. His method of conveying the
three-dimensionality of form involves cutting blocks of paper and layering them, with the layers of paper in
gradations of color that are in turn cut in such a way that follow the contours of the different values on
the form.
Since learning to formally draw back in high school, Pabillano has been intrigued by the human form. This
fascination has led to the exploration of various aspects of the human condition and experience through
portraiture work; from ideas relating to self and identity, to topics about diversity. His current artistic
pursuit is to visually celebrate the diversity and the individual stories of the people he meets whose walks
of life all led to the multi-culturally, multi-nationally, and multi-ethnically rich city of Houston, Texas.