"Charles De San Juan's Diametric Styles"

De San Juan may not seem to have artistic allegiances in style, but his abstract and surreal art contains a wonder which his austere realist work lacks. When De San Juan wants to express desolation, he paints people and nature. Imagined forms and landscapes, full of voluptuous arcs, are allotted his exuberance. When freed of the duties of depicting the real, his lines seem to express with greater confidence, precision and generosity, but do not repudiate the avocation of illusion. Oddly, the imagined forms claim their existence more convincingly than the imitated forms.

The affected third dimension, balanced use of space, and cohesive vision enable De San Juan's works to assert their aesthetic identities rather than anxiously await judgment as the avant-garde is prone to do. With these paintings, the viewer is assured that he is not swindled, but at the same time challenged and presented with enough mystery to mull over. Craftsmanship and care is evident. The end product is at least as important than the process and the visual pleasure one gets makes up for any misconstruals of the artist's message.

-Eugene Hwang