As recently as five years ago, checking out Manila’s entire art scene essentially meant a stroll down the fourth floor corridor of SM Megamall in Pasig. Perusing art did not differ much from malling, the Pinoy’s favorite pastime. While having the galleries stand side by side along that stretch certainly made art more accessible and democratic, we didn’t get much of the diversity and multi-sensory experiences we enjoy today. Unless, of course, the exhibit was “big” enough to merit booking the Art Center; definitely, this space hosted its share of memorable shows.
I thought I’d swing by Megamall, for old times sake. Crucible stood out from among the row of shop windows hawking paintings. A Soundtrack To Nothing converted their small space into a setting for street art. The same group of artists had done this before, at Manila Contemporary in November 2010 (for Painting With A Hammer To Nail The Crotch of Civilization: A Group Show of Wall Works and Tattoo Imagery) and earlier this year, at West Gallery, in an installation paired withManuel Ocampo’ssolo (Boycotter of Beauty and the Theoretical Steroid Defiled Modernist Chicken).
A repeat of the concept did not make the exhibit any less attractive. The vibrant splashes of paint beckoned to passers by, especially on a rainy, gloomy afternoon. The group collaborated on several small-scale canvases mounted as part of the installation, ensuring their fans could take home pieces of their work. Having graffiti-inspired work in Megamall, however, just proves how conventional this genre has become.
A Soundtrack to Nothing with Nemo Aguila, Bjorn Calleja, Rommel Celespara, Jigger Cruz, Don Dalmacio, Dex Fernandez, Epjey Pacheco, Edric Go, Dave Lock, Jason Montinola, and Beejay Esber runs from 26 July to 7 August 2011 at The Crucible, 4F SM Megamall. Phone (632) 635-6061 or visit http://www.thecruciblegallery.com
I wasn’t quite sure what to make of The Origin of Symmetry, Wesley T. Valenzuela’s solo exhibit at Art Informal. A chat with the artist revealed that his intent had been to simply create balance and harmony among discordant pairs. Hence, we are confronted with figures that combine Darth Vader and Buddha, man and machine, skulls and guns set in patterns that echo mandalas. Indeed, as one enters the gallery, the show’s installation gives off an air of serenity and peacefulness: the gallery’s pristine walls, freshly coated in white, set off the precisely placed pieces in red and black.
Wesley draws from his background in graphic design, a subject he teaches at Asia Pacific College concurrent to his involvement with the artist groups TutoKand Pilipinas Street Plan. Influences from pop culture and a penchant for collecting toys and action figures come out in the processes he adopts for his work. He has used silkscreens to create his patterns and images on canvas, while his sculptures have been fabricated from resin.
Wesley T. Valenzuela, The Origin of Symmetry runs from 20 July to 8 August 2011 at Art Informal, 277 Connecticut St., Greenhills East, Mandaluyong City. Phone (632) 725-8518 or visit http://www.artinformal.com
Riel Hilario, "From The Wreckage, A Silent Reverie", detail
RIEL HILARIO, ASTRAL PROJECTIONS
Karl Jung defines projections as issues that our consciousness cannot face, concerns we may end up expressing via our dreams. Riel Hilario has mined this explanation, along with a youthful obsession for astronomy, to create two sets of works for Astral Projections, currently on view at The Drawing Room. The exhibit features his most recent series of sculpture, pieces that draw on his background as a wood carver from an Ilocano family of santo makers. This heritage continues to frame
Riel Hilario, "Traveller, Repose and Dream Among My Leaves"
his current work. The chiseled gessoed faces of his figures, and the severe, muted palette he adopts, hark back to traditional Filipino religious sculpture.
Riel Hilario, "The Virgin Setting On The Mountain"
Riel describes one group of works as portraits of the night sky. As he explains, “I took specific constellations, part of the celestial sphere, and reinterpreted them as sculptural objects.” The four-legged I have all the riddles to all your answers borrows from the constellation Leo, while Bearing The Burden of Light and A Cartesian Enigma: Joshu’s Dog look to Canis Major and Minor. The female figures of The Crab Ascendant and The Virgin Setting On The Mountain follow the configurations of Cancer and Virgo.
Riel Hilario, "All Dreams of the Soul End Up in the Body"
Observing the stars has led Riel to dreams of the forest, the inspiration for the second set of works in the show. One may describe the female figures in this group as tree maidens. They either stand with their arms spread out, mimicking branches, or tall and sturdy, with leafy outgrowths. We find familiar devices in this bunch, Riel’s signatures if you will. For instance, the birds that populate the steel branches of From the Wreckage, A Silent Reverie sport human faces; he uses these hybrid creatures repeatedly, calling them guardians or aniwaas. The monkey, symbol of the primal and the playful, appear in two of the works: They Are Often Most Profound When They Seem Most Crazy and Traveller, Repose And Dream Among My Leaves.
Riel Hilario, "They Are Often Most Profound When They Seem Most Crazy"
NEIL ARVIN JAVIER, PACKED!
Meanwhile, the other side of the gallery hosts art of an entirely different nature, but not any less interesting. Neil Arvin Javier, street artist, punk musician, and self-published comic
Neil Arvin Javier, "Ang Mamatay ng Dahil Sa 'Yo"
book creator mounts an exhibit of his collages. I first saw Arvin’s work at the homecoming show of TUP Alumni in October 2010 at the CCP. For that show, Implosion, he submitted a large-scale collage, and since then, I’ve always been curious to see more.
Neil Arvin Javier, "Ako...Ikaw...Kami...Sila...Tayo"
Arvin creates his psychedelic pieces from found paper products: empty pizza boxes, stickers, magazines, cut out gallery catalogues. He then finishes them off with drawings or painted flourishes, either done by hand or sprayed on graffiti style. While he may work with less of Riel’s intellectual examination, his pieces are just as carefully considered. I’ve always taken a shine to well-made collages, and I find Arvin’s work, tinged as they are with an urban Pinoy edginess, quite appealing. Moreover, a conversation with him will reveal an artist genuinely committed to the lowbrow, skater lifestyle.
Neil Arvin Javier, "Hell...O Hayop, Pure Open Slot"
Neil Arvin Javier's collection of small collages
Astral Projections and Packed! run until 6 August 2011 at The Drawing Room, GF Metrostar Bldg, 1007 Metropolitan Avenue, Makati City. Phone (632) 897-6990 or visit http://www.drawingroomgallery.com
Thank you to Yorkie Gomez for the additional photos of Riel’s show.
Riel Hilario, "Call No More For Penguins (The Unicorn)"
Riel Hilario, "When Safely Ashore Take Not The Raft On My Back"
Riel Hilario, "From The Wreckage, A Silent Reverie", detail
Riel Hilario, "Bearing The Burden of Light"
Riel Hilario, "The Crab Ascendant"
Luis Lorenzana appreciating Arvin's work
Neil Arvin Javier, "Mahal Kita Ba't Di Ka Maniwala"
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a life-sized bloom with slightly rusting petals ready to unfurl! Pete Jimenez relishes nothing more than taking on a backyard full of scrap and transforming it into whimsical metal sculptures. This man of steel creates art using discarded materials and found objects, a practice borne out by more than ten years of solo exhibits. An advertising professional with a degree in Visual Communications from the University of the Philippines, he turned to sculpture in the late 1990s after good friend, artist and gallery owner Rock Drilon, encouraged him to do so. Both belong to the UP Artists’ Circle Fraternity. This month, Drilon’s Mag:net Gallery in Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City welcomes Jimenez back for Body Parts, a suite of sculptures put together from a dismantled VW Beetle and other vehicles.
Pete Jimenez, "Family Outing"
“Part of my creative process is to have fun while doing my work,” Jimenez shares. This mindset helps him fulfill his multiple he roles: running Optima Digital Inc. as its General Manager during the week, and bending and welding iron to his bidding on weekends. Assembling his material includes regular forays into junk shops, a task he cheerfully takes on alongside the progressions of a multimedia career, one for which he has received awards in animation and art direction.
Pete Jimenez, "Red Riding Hood"
Jimenez’s jocularity translates to pieces that brim with playfulness and wit. He imbues his visual puns with generous doses of Pinoy humor. In his last solo exhibit, 2009’s If The Shoe Fits for Alliance Francaise de Manille, he constructed his sculpture around a collection of old wooden shoe lasts fused with an assortment of metal objects. The facetious Its Unpairis a tabletop piece made from short metal pipes that hold two shoe lasts – both for the right foot. On another piece, a bunch of shoe lasts hang like fruit sprouting from metal bars that jut
Pete Jimenez, "Puppy Love" and "Ball Park Figure"
out from a tall steel pole, literally forming a Shoe Tree. Three years ago, large nails salvaged from construction sites metamorphosed into the twenty works that came together in West Gallery’s now defunct Megamall space, a show Jimenez dubbed Nail Spa.
Body Parts, which runs from July 2 to 28, is the 15th solo exhibit for Jimenez. For this, he has fabricated large pieces from sections of whole vehicles, some sourced from as far north as Pampanga. Among others, the show incorporates an old Combi’s sliding door and its fender into works that seem to bounce and wiggle, an illusion of movement that decidedly draws on the artist’s background in animation.
Pete Jimenez, "Bill's Gate"
In the future, Jimenez hopes to secure a commission for a public project, something that will allow him to put one of his works on permanent display and give pleasure to a larger group of viewers. In the meantime, he continues to produce the unexpected from his stash of iron. And enjoy himself as he does.
Pete Jimenez, "Raise The Roof" (foreground)
Body Parts runs from 2 to 28 July, Mag:net, 335 Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City. Phone (632) 929-3991 or visit http://www.magnetgalleries.com
It must be the season for group shows. The third one I’ve seen this month, Hate Mail, at Manila Contemporary, is the second in a series of exhibits that, per the wall text, “…looks at visual linguistics in relation to communicating fundamental human emotions…” It comes after Love Letters, which the gallery, fittingly enough, mounted close to Valentine’s Day.
Christina Quisumbing Ramilo, "Mal Viaje".
Christina Quisumbing Ramilo, "Mal Viaje", back detail
It seems difficult to avoid falling into the trap of communicating such strong emotions as love and hate via clichés. Some of the pieces in this show do so, reaching for more familiar means of expressing hate, equating it to violence and anger. Kaloy Sanchez chose the quiet route. In Flightless, he has painted self-loathing via the hopelessness of a drunkard who has given up on life. I’ve always loved the way he paints; his gray tones and mistily romantic vibe belie the intensity of his images.
Romeo Lee, "Mr.Lonelee"
Here, his subject lies naked, save for a plague doctor’s mask, the beak-like face cover meant to protect medieval physicians from the Black Death. It hides him from further humiliation, but does nothing to diminish his vulnerability.
Jose Legaspi, untitled drawings, detail
Jojo Legaspi’s collection of pastel drawings also illustrates self-loathing. These three sets come from earlier in the artist’s career (although the gallery offers no dates in their labels). In spite of how familiar his autobiographical renderings have become, they do not diminish in their power.
Jose Legaspi, untitled drawings, detail
Ling Quisumbing and Nikki Luna have shown the power of hate when communicated through text. Ling has borrowed from jeepney destination signs. She has filled these handy wooden pieces with invectives and insults, while Nikki has memorialized hurtful lines in small bronze plaques, turning the words into permanent markers.
Nikki Luna, "Commemorative", detail
Nikki Luna, "Commemorative", detail
With a dozen artists participating in this show of hate, you get a whole range of works to peruse. Clichés do have the advantage of making art accessible— and thus, easier to relate to.
Hate Mail runs from 2 July to 14 August 2011 at Manila Contemporary, Whitespace, 2314 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City. Phone (632) 844-7328 or visit http://www.manilacontemporary.com
Costantino Zicarelli, "Everything Is Not Going To Be All Right" and MM Yu, "Itch"
Installation of Maria Jeona and Catalina Africa
Robert Langenegger, "Dogspeed"
Jose Legaspi, untitled drawings
Jucar Raquepo, "Crab Mentality" and (on floor) "Orgy"
Now this is a show! Boredom must count as the biggest peril to an art blogger—well, it is mine. When art overdose sets in, exhibits start melding into one another. I feel as though I’ve seen them all before. It becomes difficult to muster excitement from the pieces that stand before you. So when I come across an exhibit that makes me rush back to my computer, eager to post my photos and my thoughts, I know that the thrill of art has come back.
Poklong Anading: Miracle Healing and Other Hopeful Things, which opened last night at MO Space, has made for a wonderful break from the spate of group shows of the past two weeks. The premise of the show is nothing new: the ordinary and the everyday have been given new life, new purpose, as art objects. But Poklong, being Poklong, delivers this statement as a marvelous experience.
By using market-bought rags (basahan), metal poles, wires, used cans of paint, and old tires, Poklong has transformed the gallery space into a carnival of colors. The viewer steps into a landscape strewn with bits of cloth scattered like confetti. The brightly hued, rounded snips of fabric have been assembled as giant slinkies and multi-colored arcs and spirals popping out from canisters, rubber pots, and plastic bottles. The mood is festive and exuberant, all the more so because this has been derived from humdrum, decidedly nondescript, materials. And therein lies its brilliance.
Poklong has documented his search and gathering of materials in a video that will play during the exhibit’s run.
The healing and the hope in Poklong’s title refer to the renewed intent he has imbued onto the discards of others. To me, they apply to the refreshing douse his exhibit has poured on to perk up this occasionally jaded art observer.
Poklong Anading: Miracle Healing and Other Hopeful Things runs from 9 July to 7 August 2011 at MO Space, 3rd Level, MO Design Building, Bonifacio High St., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Phone (632) 856-2748 loc. 2 or 3, or visit http://www.mo-space.net
The exhibit’s title did puzzle me, but it should have clued me in. Clint Eastwood in Hats On, Bottoms Off shows works inspired by Westerns—the cowboys and Indians variety, an odd, unexpected choice of concepts. But a chat with artist Allan Balisi, who had thought this up with Cos Zicarelli, revealed that there is nothing more to this than a bunch of cowboy movie enthusiasts getting together to produce work. Everyone in the group was game enough to stick to the plan.
Mariano Ching, "Under The Western Sky Series 2"
Dex Fernandez, "Date With The Bandit"
Mariano Ching showed more of his pyrographs on wood, a series of small-scale works with detailed images in miniature. I especially marveled at the two pieces of found twigs that he worked on. Dex Fernandez’sDate With A Bandit, two figures cut from carton, painted and adorned with actual t-shirts, gave the old fashioned shoot out some urban edge. Sam Kiyoumarsi presented another of his pithy photographs, Mum, that of an
Costantino Zicarelli, "Demento Mori"
emaciated mare feeding on grass alongside her colt. Cos Zicarelli chose to exhibit his drawing on an actual cow skull.
Tatong Recheta Torres paints again! Outcast is a portrait of a Native American with a lone feather on his head. I admit the subject does not interest me, but his execution, monochromatic gray in fine strokes, cannot be faulted. Check out the lines on the man’s
Sam Kiyoumarsi, "Mum"
face. I don’t know how his Second Life stint has affected him otherwise, but his painting skills obviously remain intact.
Jonathan Ching, "Shopping With Botero's Leg"
Other artists in the show: Dina Gadia, Mica Cabildo, Mark Salvatus, Wesley Valenzuela, Wawi Navarroza, Jonathan Ching, and Charles Buenconsejo.
Clint Eastwood in Hats On, Bottoms Off runs from 7 to 28 July 2011 at Blanc Compound, 359 Shaw Boulevard Interior, Mandaluyong City. Phone (63920) 9276436 or visit http://www.blanc.ph
Allan Balisi, "They Were No Longer Savages 1 and 2"
When Gary-Ross Pastrana conceptualized On The Radar: 6 New Symptoms, he went back to the original brief for SLab, the gallery where the show now runs. SLab or Silverlens Lab had been intended as a space that welcomes visual arts
Maria Jeona, "Identity crazy, your own worst enemy, hair and makeup by Maria Jeona"
experiments, a complement to silverlens, Manila’s first gallery devoted to photography projects. What better way to revisit this thrust than to put together an exhibit of six artists who have just started making names for themselves? As the exhibit’s curator, Gary gave them a bit of a nudge and a push, required nothing drastic, but squeezed out more from what they are currently doing.
Ryan Villamael, "Bling"
The show does not break new ground, we don’t see any earth shaking statements from Catalina Africa, Dina Gadia, Gail Vicente, Marija Vicente, Ryan Villamael, and Maria Jeona. I enjoyed it nevertheless. The pieces work well together, you don’t feel overwhelmed or left scratching your head. The works were fun and engaging, with just the right touch of edginess to make for exciting viewing. The exhibit has provided an opportunity for added insight into these six.
Ryan Villamael, "Bling", detail
I thought that Ryan Villamael, incidentally the only male in the group, delivered an exemplary piece. Bling continues his series of creating intricate patterns from paper that he has cut by hand. I have to admit that when I first saw his solo, Cut Felt, earlier this year, his work
Another angle for "Bling"
reminded me too much of Kara Walker’s cut out shadows. However, I have seen more from him since, his follow up at WestGallery, and now this. He seems to be on to something here, challenging himself to move what may initially come off as a crafty technique into the realm of sculpture.
Ryan Villamael with his piece
Trust Maria Jeona not to shrink from celebrating her crassness. Nobody else can pull this off like she can. Three inflatable kiddie pools serve as frames for her self-portraits. In If I Were A Fish, the pool has been filled with water, and sanitary napkins stained with red paint (I’m assuming—hoping— she used paint), float within. She told me she often sees herself as a fish, and thus, we are presented with this. Laptop shows her laptop inside one of the pools. Just like for most of us, her life’s details have been saved within its memory. The funniest of the three involves a bust that looks like it has been salvaged from beauty school experiments. Identity crazy, your own worst enemy, hair and makeup by Maria Jeona shows how she would fare if she had allowed herself free reign on her grooming.
Perusing Maria Jeona, "Laptop by Maria Jeona"
The work of Catalina Africa shares the same aesthetic as Maria Jeona: colorful and kitschy, and (at the risk of betraying my age) a little bit of Jolina Magdangal. There’s seems to be a bit of a fashionista slant going on here—a multi-colored fan-shaped
Maria Jeona, "If I were a fish"
canvas, a panel of bleached denim, makeshift platform sandals, and a backlit photograph of whimsical rings adorning a pair of hands.
Catalina Africa, "Platforms"
The last three artists all presented installations. Marija Vicente had two pieces, a mass of bound cloth, Talk Is Cheap, and a video, Too many words will lead to error, both threshed out from a recurring dream. Dina Gadia, who I am more familiar with for her
Catalina Africa, "Precious (sugar water)"
paintings and collages, presented Point of No Return, which has an intriguing banner above a collection of resin forefingers that spell out “Nooo”. Gail Vicente’s stacked The attempt to record the lifespan of dripping water has proven to be an extremely poor idea topped off by Nest apparently has sound incorporated into the piece. The chatter of the opening night crowd drowned this out, as I honestly cannot remember hearing any of it.
I am frequently asked for names of young artists to watch out for. Well, here we have six.
Catalina Africa, "Bring Bring"
On The Radar: 6 New Symptoms runs from 29 June to 23 July 2011 at SLab, 2F YMC Building 2, 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati. Phone (632) 816-0044 or visit http://www.slab.silverlensphoto.com
Marija Vicente, "Talk is cheap"
Marija Vicente, "Too many words will lead to error"
Gail Vicente, "The attempt to record the lifespan of dripping water has proven to be an extremely poor idea" and "Nest"
Jeona says hello!
Exhibit installation view
Installation View, Catalina Africa, "Bleach" and Maria Jeona, "Laptop by Maria Jeona"
Diokno Pasilan’s art stems from his community involvement. He moved to San Vicente, Palawan in the late 1990s, a place he still visits every year, traveling annually from his current base of Perth, Australia. The core of works for Here, There, and Everywhere, now running at The Drawing Room, started out as a project in 2003 to provide senior citizens of the town with ID photos for their Philhealth cards. As evidenced in this exhibit, those seemingly innocuous photos make for forceful portraits. Diokno has blown up a selection, transforming what originally had been intended as run-of-the-mill identification tags into the mixed media wall-bound works he has now installed in the gallery.
On each colored photograph, gray haired men and women pin viewers with their unsmiling, austere gazes that look out from creased and weather beaten visages. Around them, Diokno has scribbled verses using coffee. The words are spur-of the moment thoughts, some written in English, others in Filipino. These literary outbursts were inspired by the subjects he has chosen, geriatrics he has portrayed without any concessions to vanity. Each piece gives nothing of their stories away. Yet, you come away thinking of them with sympathy, wishful of learning more.
Two three-dimensional pieces originally made for Sungduan 3, the quadrennial exhibit organized by the NCCA, join the works on the walls. Both make reference to a previous project Diokno also undertook in his Palawan barangay. To encourage his neighbors to take pride in their dwellings, he sponsored a contest. He would award
Diokno Pasilan, "Masinlo Project"
the best-preserved traditional houses and document their owners’ efforts. Thus, on view is a maquette of a nipa hut printed on cloth and mounted in stilts. The bigger, more interesting piece, Masinlo Project, makes use of several gantangan, wooden boxes used to measure and scoop up grains of rice. Each box has been bisected by a mirror printed with the eyes of his subjects from the ID photo project. Installed at an angle, each one reflects a photo of one of the houses that have taken part in Diokno’s beautification project. The boxes have been arranged in rows, rather like pigeonholes.
Diokno Pasilan, "Masinlo Project", detail
The walls of The Drawing Room’s alternate space, the section of the gallery used as an office, have been filled with more of Diokno’s older works. Presented here are his works on textiles, more examples of his community involvement. This time, the pieces showcase his work with weavers who have been experimenting with batik techniques on piña cloth.
Here, There, and Everywhere runs from 25 June to 13 July 2011 at The Drawing Room, 1007 Metropolitan Avenue, Metrostar Bldg, Makati City. Phone (632) 897-7877 or visit http://www.drawingroomgallery.com
The artist welcoming his guests
Paintings of the view from Diokno's window in Perth
Viewing Diokno's work on pina
Textile piece, batik method
Jun Villalon of The Drawing Room with guests at the exhibit opening
It will hit you, as you make your way around the Singapore Art Museum’s (SAM) galleries, that we share so much of the same sensibilities as our Southeast Asian neighbors. Now on its last week, Negotiating Home History and Nation- Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1991-2011 presents a survey of works from within the region by 54 artists whose pieces belong to the museum’s permanent collection. While the overt references to Catholicism obviously originated from the Filipinos, the palette and images that majority of the artists adopted could have come from anywhere: the streets of Manila, KL, Jakarta, Hanoi, or Bangkok.
By Manit Sriwanichpoom
SAM has made it its mission to serve as the repository of the best of Southeast Asian art. In recent years, the museum has aggressively acquired work to boost their
I-lann Yee, "Sulu Seas Series" (image courtesy of MCM Worldwide)
holdings. Of all the countries in the region, Singapore certainly has the financial clout to oversee this. This exhibit makes you appreciate SAM’s efforts to highlight this common heritage and outlook.
The pieces on view had been produced in the last twenty years and cover a variety of media— painting, photography, installation, performance, and video art. They tackle political, social, and religious issues. I found the selection of
Installation of Alfredo + Isabel Aquilizan's "Wings"
photographs quite commanding, especially the works of Thai artist Manit Sriwanichpoom. He inserted his persona of a dapper, somewhat sleazy, gentleman in pink into archival images of violent events in Thailand’s history. Malaysian photographer I-lann Yee’sSulu Stories is equally potent. She has looked across the archipelago from her native Sabah to create digitally
With Alfredo + Isabel Aquilizan's "Wings"
manipulated dramatic and brooding seascapes. These are statements on the kinship she shares with the people of Sulu, physically so close to her home, but officially categorized as belonging to another country. Poklong Anading’sAnonimity series has been installed as a wall of light boxes flanking a flight of stairs that connects two galleries. It also serves as an effective commentary on urban street life.
Another view of "Wings"
A room had been sectioned off for Jose Legaspi’s graphic renditions of his personal experiences, violent portraits of family members in pastel on paper. Other Pinoy works include the impressive trio of wings from rubber slippers collected from
Jose Legaspi, "Untitled"
Singapore inmates by Alfredo + Isabel Aquilizan. One of Jose Tence Ruiz’s kariton cathedrals is also on display, along with Peewee Roldan’sInvicibilitus Est. 1. Nearby stand an assortment of Roberto Feleo’svirinas. On another floor, Briccio Santos’sHeritage Tunnel is also on view.
Jose Legaspi, "Untitled"
I loved the flying puppets of Indonesian artist Heri Dono and was fascinated by a morbid video on unclaimed bodies at a morgue (unfortunately, I did not note the artist’s name!).
Jose Legaspi, "Untitled"
We should be so lucky that the Singapore Art Museum has chosen to focus on work emanating from our part of the world. Can you imagine the wealth of information and resource that will be available for our children to appreciate?
Jose Legaspi, "Untitled"
With Jose Tence Ruiz's "Paraisado Sorbetero (Orange)"
Negotiating Home History and Nation, Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1991-2011 runs from 12 March to 26 June 2011 at the Singapore Art Museum, 71 Bras Basah Road, Singapore 189555. For more information visit http://www.singaporeartmuseum.sg
At the exhibit entrance
Roberto Feleo Virinas
By Roberto Feleo and Wang Hoy Chong
Norberto Roldan, "Invisibilitus Est 1"
With Agus Suwage's "Gloria Patria", detail
Apotik Komik, "Under Estimate", detail
Apotik Komik, "Under Estimate", detail
Baya Utomo Radjikin, "Lang Kacang"
Heri Dono, "Flying Puppets"
Mella Jarasma, "Saya Goreng Kamu II", detail of snakeskin on fiberglass stand
Paintings by Natee Utarit
Is he real? Navin Rawanchaikul, "Where Is Navin?"
Nandityo Adipurnoma, "Hiding Rituals in Mass Production 2"
Appreciating Pinaree Sanpitak's "Nann Nam"
Rubbing etchings carved on school desks
Vassan Sitthiket, "Committing Suicide Culture: The Only Way Thai Farmers Escape Debt"
Suzann Victor, "Expense of Spirit in a Waste of Shame"
As recently as five years ago, checking out Manila’s entire art scene essentially meant a stroll down the fourth floor corridor of SM Megamall in Pasig. Perusing art did not differ much from malling, the Pinoy’s favorite pastime. While having the galleries stand side by side along that stretch certainly made art more accessible and democratic, we didn’t get much of the diversity and multi-sensory experiences we enjoy today. Unless, of course, the exhibit was “big” enough to merit booking the Art Center; definitely, this space hosted its share of memorable shows.
artists had done this before, at Manila Contemporary in November 2010 (for Painting With A Hammer To Nail The Crotch of Civilization: A Group Show of Wall Works and Tattoo Imagery) and earlier this year, at West Gallery, in an installation paired with Manuel Ocampo’s solo (Boycotter of Beauty and the Theoretical Steroid Defiled Modernist Chicken). 
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