Water on the Dry Land,\" embodies the theme of hope and empowerment. Padua believes that individuals have the power to shape their own destiny by exploring new ideas and seeking alternative solutions to life's challenges. Just as watering a barren land can lead to prosperity, he encourages people to cultivate their own growth, reap what they sow, and transform their lives for the better.
\nTrompe l’oeil is perhaps the best term to describe the works of Demi Padua. A French term, trompe l’oeil is a method used specifically to deceive, a deliberate attempt to confuse his viewers through overlapping elements and threedimensionality. First finding favor with the Baroque folks, trompe l’oeil eventually became famous among cubists and surrealists circle, who used the method’s penchant for trickery as a way to explore the questions of the human psyche.
\nPadua’s 2025 Water on the Dry Land echoes the famed trompe l’oeil. In this piece, even the picture frame used is mismatched – as if taken from multiple frames and overlapped together. More importantly, one can see how three-dimensional the work seemed to be. If one reaches out, it seems possible they could touch the depth and contours of the woman’s face or run their hand on the distance between her eye and the triangle roped over it. In one masterful work, Padua creates photorealistic, visual collages that blend the figurative with the abstract, a true trompe l’oeil tenet.
\nPadua himself once said in a Lifestyle Asia interview: “I want to trick my viewer’s eyes.” The main medium with which he pursues this is through photorealistic portraits. More often than not, one might find a black-and-white depiction of a woman on his canvas, so realistically done it looks incredibly similar to a portrait. However, these portraits are not just mere reproductions – in his works, faces are obscured, a fantastical layer done over them that makes them burst into kaleidoscopes of colors and shapes. The overlapping customized frame, much like the paintings themselves, warps reality, making its viewers double-take and question what they see. “
\nI just want to prove that not everything we see is real,” Padua said. “Prove that people can easily judge based on appearance. That sometimes what you see on the outside is different from what you see on the inside.” (Hannah Valiente)
","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":9000000,"bp":0.2016,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":9000000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":10814400,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":56966,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/107/141/lot/88.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":87,"next":89,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}