Named after her late aunt, singer Paola Luz, Paulina Sotto, daughter of Vic Sotto and granddaughter of Arturo Luz, is now one of the rising stars of the local art scene. Her recent shows consisting mostly of abstract works made up of lines, squares, circles and other geometric shapes have been sold out.
By Aubreylaine M. Salazar
You hear the family name “Sotto” and the first thing that probably comes to your mind is actor-singer Vic Sotto or his older brother Senate President Tito Sotto. Little did the world know that another Sotto is already starting to shake up the local art scene.
Paulina Luz Sotto is the daughter of Vic and former actress Angela Luz. Although born and raised in a family of renowned actors, Paulina decided to trudge a different path—painting.
Guided by passion for simplicity and taking cues from abstract artists such as Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian, Paulina is beginning to make a name for herself by creating pieces of her own. Here are some interesting facts about her:
- Unlike majority of artists, her work focuses more on lines and shapes—the foundations of drawing—inspired by works such as Malevich’s “Black Square” and Mondrian’s “Composition C with Red, Yellow and Blue.” She plays with lines, shapes and colors to produce arrangements of squares, triangles, or curves that convey different meanings and elicit varying responses.
- Paulina, apart from bearing the name Sotto, also happens to be the granddaughter of none other than a National Artist for Visual Arts himself—Arturo Luz. Contrary to popular belief, she says her work was not influenced by her grandfather. “People always assume that I would have watched him paint and that he would be preachy and give me all these tips. It’s literally the opposite,” she says.
- The young artist who has already showcased and sold her works in several exhibits started dabbling with paint without formal training and only several visual art classes in high school to guide her.
- She originally did not plan on selling her works, as she saw them as her medium of expression and eliciting feelings. She only posted her art works on Instagram because “I just wanted to share it with the world.” That was until one of her friends’ mom saw her work and asked if her she was selling the paintings. From then on, the prolific artist decided to do just that.
- She always leaves her works untitled. Why, you ask? “I don’t want to put a label on something.”—That’s her philosophy as an artist. According to her, different people see different things. Putting a title could limit people’s perspective and she wants people to celebrate the varying emotions, feelings and responses that could come from seeing her work.
By honing her craft through the years, Paulina has become an independent, prolific and fairly successful artist at 26 years old.
(This blog post was culled from Isabella Olivares’s article on Paulina Luz Sotto titled The Abstract of An Artist, which appeared on the April-May 2018 issue of PeopleAsia magazine.)
