“We are born knowing,” Chati Coronel writes in her artist statement for Notes for Exaltation, her ninth solo exhibition with Silverlens.
Coronel is known for her multi-layered paintings created through a process she refers to as Figurative Spatialism. Here, she paints layers of abstract movement in raw strokes and contains them in a color space that forms a human figure’s silhouette. Her work is informed by a wide range of influences, including Rudolf Steiner, Louis Kahn, poetry, fables, and Tibetan Buddhist thought.
In Notes for Exaltation, Chati Coronel presents six large paintings that continue her search for intrinsic knowledge and power, drawing inspiration from figures in Tarot and ancient Gnostic verses. Framed by her ongoing interest in what she refers to as Human Power—an innate intelligence displaced by systems of efficiency and control—the exhibition invites viewers to turn inward and reconnect with the self.
Four of the works in the exhibition forgoes the human figure, urging the viewer to see themselves within the worlds depicted in the works. Each work corresponds to one of the four instruments of the Magus (Magician) in tarot, the first Major Arcana card in traditional tarot decks, reimagined as anatomical blueprints. Coronel’s practice is rooted in the idea that the body is not merely a vessel but a living instrument: one that moves, remembers, and knows from within. She proposes an inner development, emerging through four symbols: the wand (nervous system), the sword (spine), the grail (heart), and the pentacle (mind).
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Angel Stinson
17 July 2025
It was a privilege to have written for Chati Coronel’s exhibition at Silverlens Manila, which opened Saturday, 19 July 2025. Her work is rich in layers, literally, spiritually, and metaphorically that there is only so much I can cover in the essay.
Read the full essay on the Silverlens website:
https://www.silverlensgalleries.com/exhibitions/2025-07-19/notes-for-exaltation
Angel Stinson 