The rich imagery of Carating’s works

It is above lush fields, above the heavy foliage of trees, branches nodding to the monsoon wind’s insinuations; above secret meeting places, above sacred caves, above mute rooftops glistening in the distance, above lovers mouthing a precipice of promises, above pupils dilating to catch the slightest hint of light, that a sky, seamless and adolescent to all things sleeping below it, is being prowled by a pregnant moon. Gold and silvery beams ignite and explode. Matins trace the cold backbone of night.

It is in this kind of imagery evoked by Norberto Carating’s abstractions, where the power of his craft lies. A master of using the language of texture, Carating composes a world embraced by nature’s mystique, where real and imagined dealings unfold— seaming the line between dreamscape and waking life. “Nocturnal Images,” Carating’s latest solo exhibition inhabits this melded realm.

The word “nocturnal,” having sprang from and associated with the word nocturne, also references a musical quality. The wealth of combed, metallic acrylic pigments filling his polyptych canvas echoes a cantabile melody, that which sings of the earth and cosmos, darkness and light. Stylewise, this song-like aspect shows Carating’s adroitness: he conscientiously handles his medium— layering pigments and pigments of it with stubborn precision as an orchestra master, and yet charmingly allowing improvisations.   Continued...