Patricia Eustaquio is a rising talent in Asia, not only for the strength and dynamism of her painting but also in the innovative conceptual design of the works. Reprise III & IV (Lot 2429) are delicately fabricated creations which challenge the way we traditionally view painterly art. Here, Eustaquio attempts to present a painting as something that does not necessarily exist within a four cornered frame, but can take on the elusively fluid shape and embodiment of a fragmented memory.

The photorealist images themselves are painted to appear as though extracted from a larger composition of an old master work: a hand from a portrait by Van Dyck or Gainsborough delicately resting on the luxurious velvet of a lady's gown. The swan of the left panel lies in drowsy repose, each feather deliberately crafted; appearing to be an allusion to the myth of Leda and the Swan as well as the artist's own take on the sanctity of Flemish still lifes.

Within her Reprise series of works, Eustaquio attempts to deconstruct what has historically been deemed important and central to art: the technical mastery of realist painting coupled with a strong dramatic narrative. By imitating the heroic proportions of the French Salon school, Eustaquio also interrogates the function of a painting as monumental decoration. However unlike the allegorical or didactic works of the masters, the precise narrative in Eustaquio's opus is only hinted at and never fully realised, leaving a sense of lingering nostalgia despite the sumptuous texture of the surface. Eustaquio's awareness of the hierarachies of art are seamlessly merged with the formal elegance of her aesthetic.