Pow Martinez Destroys Planets

Pow Martinez liberally throws around the word astig.  He uses it nonchalantly, with a casual shrug.

Pow Martinez, "Punk House #1", detail

Exhibit installation view

George Condo, the American artist who paints caricature-like figures with pursed lips, bulging eyes, and scrunched up heads?  He’s astig.  Philip Guston and his cartoonish renderings?  Yup, him too.  Ditto the Scottish animator David Shrigley, and provocateur Dash Snow, he of the hedonistic lifestyle who died of an overdose two years ago.  On the local front, the word is reserved for the likes of Manuel Ocampo and Jayson Oliveria, purveyors of chaotic and sexually explicit images.

Clearly, the inclinations of this boyish, 28-year-old Ateneo Art Awards winner do not lean towards order and discipline, or anything remotely intense. He admits that his decision to become an artist stemmed from a distaste for academic work.  “Hindi ako mahilig mag-aral”, a realization that prompted him to attempt UP College of Fine Arts.  He discovered that that too required some sort of effort.  Pow moved to Kalayaan College’s program after UP kicked him out for his grades (“Sumobra sa inom at sa jutes!”).

Pow Martinez, "Earth 3040 1"

While in Kalayaan, classmate and friend, Robert Langenegger, drew him to the independent art space Big Sky Mind where Roberto Chabet, the iconic UP professor and former director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, conducted workshops and lectures.

Pow Martinez, "Earth 3040 2"

“Para siyang Jedi Master”, Pow describes Chabet, considered by Manila’s art community as the pioneer of Philippine conceptual art.  Here he found kindred spirits.  “I realized na puede pala yung ganun, yung art na impolite, na messy. Yung art na gusto ko.”

Initially, Pow was drawn to more conceptual works, producing sound installations that jive with his predilection for punk music.  He decided to paint two years ago, filling his canvases with thick dabs and smears of brightly colored paint, with crude figures that gravitate to the lowbrow, a nod to German artist Jonathan Meese (another astig).  He called his paintings ridiculous. But that 2009 exhibit at West Gallery, 1 Billion Years, wowed the Ateneo Art Awards panel of jurors for its refreshing move away from the photorealistic images that permeated the auction circuit.

Three more solo exhibits have since followed: Hyper Blast Abominations in Mag: net and March of the Pigs at LOST Projects in 2010,

Pow Martinez, "Wreck Yard #1" and "Wreck Yard #2"

and Cut Hands Has The Solution, a return to West Gallery early this year.  In between, Pow has been featured in numerous group shows.  He also participated in a survey of contemporary Philippine art organized by Manuel Ocampo for the Freies Museum in Berlin last October.  He laughingly recalls how one of the museum visitors told him that his work was the worst painting he had ever seen in his life.  “Ok lang ‘yon. I want my paintings to take up your space. Na touch ko pa rin siya.”

Destroyed Planets, Pow’s solo exhibit at Pablo Fort, has drawings, paintings, an installation piece, and featured a performance from Pow on opening night. His paintings and drawings keep to his cluttered, rough, and raunchy aesthetic, but play with more abstracted forms.

For someone with such a laidback, relaxed approach to art, Pow counts among the busiest of today’s young visual artists.  Concurrent to the Pablo show, he has a two-person exhibt at DAGC Gallery, and has works on view at NOW Gallery.  He draws every day, filling sketchbooks in the Commonwealth Avenue studio he shares with girlfriend and fellow artist, Maria Jeona Zoleta.

There is an authenticity that emanates from Pow’s work despite his seemingly inconsequential subjects. He brushes off his success, almost as if it were accidental, even irrelevant.  He would not do things any other way.  As he scans the half-finished canvases that lean against the walls, Pow describes the essence of what he hopes to convey: “What if gago ang mundo?”

Is that astig or what?

Pow Martinez, "Destroyed Planet #3", detail

Destroyed Planets runs from 20 August to 24 September 2011 at Pablo Fort, Unit C-11 South of Market Condominium, Fort Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.  Phone (632) 5060602 or visit http://www.pablogalleries.com

An edited version of this post appears in the August 2011 issue of Rogue Magazine.  See http://www.rogue.ph

Reclaiming Esqui

 

Siyam-Siyam

I have Alfredo Esquillo Jr. to blame for my art addiction.  In 2003, I stumbled upon his work while viewing The American Effect, an exhibit at the Whitney Museum in New York.  That piece, Mamakinley , depicting a bonneted and beribboned William Mckinley cradling a little brown Filipino baby in his claws, stayed rooted in my mind, so

Prodigal Son

arresting and powerful it was.  Up til then, my exposure to Philippine art had been that of the so-called masters, the artists of my parents generation.  I did not realize that the art of my own time could be just as compelling.

 

 

 

 

 

School at Bontoc

Five years after that personal epiphany, Esqui’s works can still make me stop and think.  The ideas he has explored in his 15 years as an artist just never seem to lose their impact.  Whether he delves into the man on the street’s religious rituals, or manipulates old sepia photographs to comment on Philippine history, or uses himself to theatrical effect,  you know you have seen images that will keep playing in your head.  And like a true addict, you just gotta get your fix. 

Holy Debate

Reclamation Project is on view from 7 to 28 November 2008 at Tin-Aw Art Gallery, Somerset Olympia, Makati Ave.  www.tin-aw.com

Mamakinley 2

 

 

 

 

Crucimorph 2

Art Beijing, 798, and Two Great Restaurants

Possessed of airline miles that had to be redeemed before the month was out, I conceived the idea of flying to Beijing after all the Olympic hoopla had settled.  My friend, Dindin Araneta of Art Cabinet Philippines, signed up to participate in Art Beijing, from September 5 to 9, and I thought it would be interesting to tag along.  Art, history, good friends, the perfect mix for a much-needed respite.  I definitely got more than I bargained for, but Beijing did not disappoint.

VIP night at Art Beijing, sponsored by Volkswagen

From the moment we landed at the immense, majestic, dragon-shaped, brand new Terminal 3, I was programmed to be impressed.  Whatever else television and a hastily chosen guide book in Hong Kong had to say about the city, I did not expect this ultra-modern, wide avenued, seemingly spotless metropolis.  I prepared myself to enjoy its sights for the next seven days.

Art Beijing Entrance Installation

ART BEIJING

Christopher Zamora, Pam Santos, and Mac Valdezco

Much has been made of the triumph of the Chinese contemporary arts scene, and the commercial and iconic heights Chinese artists like Yue Minjun and Zhang Xiaogang have scaled.  Art Beijing, founded by Dong Mengyang, sought to ride on this success, hoping to bring to Beijing

From Schoeni Gallery of Hong Kong

the international community of art collectors, dealers, and galleries that have made the Shanghai art fair an annual destination.  While it is the Beijing art fair’s third year, it is still considered the “younger sister” of the other Chinese events.  I would still recommend it to art lovers and other Pinoy art fair virgins like myself, whose typical exposure is still rooted to oil on canvas works.  I thoroughly enjoyed the sculpture, installations, and video art on view.

Art Cabinet Philippines was the only Filipino participant, and for a day or two, things got a bit

Art Cabinet Philippines

hairy.  Quarantine, so strict at this time because of the Paralympic Games happening at the same time, refused to release the crates from the Philippines.  It took a whole day of negotiations before they  agreed to let the cargo out, and another day to finally set up the booth in time for the fair’s VIP night.  There went the day originally scheduled for traversing the Great Wall!  But no matter, it was all in the service of Philippine art.

Wang Jin Sculpture from Pekin Fine Arts

All that hard work was rewarded in the end, judging from the audience’s reaction to the Filipino work on display. The artists were Anton del Castillo, Ambie Abano, Albert Avellana,  Jonathan Ching, Eugene Jarque, Lea Lim, Leeroy New, Erwin Catral Leano, Jose John Santos III, Pamela Yan Santos, Don Salubayba, Mac Valdezco, and Christopher Zamora.   Anton del Castillo’s mixed media series, Pattern for Chaos, was definitely a huge draw, as was Mac Valdezco’s biomorphic forms made from cotton string. However, I can honestly say, without any biases, all the Filipino artists on display had their own share of fans.

Anton del Castillo

For more information on Art Beijing and the Philippine art on view, visit www.artcabinetphilippines.com and www.artbeijing.net

Erwin Leano and Leeroy New

798 ART DISTRICT

No art aficionado’s visit to Beijing will be complete without a day spent at the 798 District, a vast compound of old factories and warehouses that have been converted into galleries, bars, restaurants, and small shops.  I only had half a day to spare on my last day in Beijing, and I had to limit myself to three shows:  Pace Gallery’s Encounters with the contemporary art greats from their New York space, De Feng Art’s Robert Rauschenberg exhibit, and my favorite, Microscopic Narration: Social Images by Zhang Xiatao and Li Yifan at Iberia, the Spanish contemporary art space.

Entrance to 798

Pace Gallery had works by Jeff Koons, Chuck Close, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Warhol, Cindy Sherman, and other million dollar names that collectors in Beijing have started to acquire.  More than just the show, the gallery itself, set up so that the space seems as if it floats in a pond of lillies, adds to the whole experience.

With a piece by Chuck Close

Jeff Koons at the Pace Gallery

Da Feng Art is a small gallery in a far corner of the 798 complex.  It is owned and run by William Isler, an American.  Their show, the late  Robert Rauschenberg’s Lotus Series of photocollages, poignantly reminds one of the Beijing of the 1980s, way before the government opened up and allowed the city to flourish into the supercity we see today.

By Zhang Xiaogang

I stumbled onto the Iberia Center for Contemporary Arts as I made my way to the Robert Rauschenberg show.  As I peeped inside, I couldn’t help but be drawn in by the sight of about a thousand clear fiberglass skeletons lined up on the rafters, piled atop two dump trucks, hanging from pulleys.  This was the first portion of a two-man show by Chinese contemporary artists Zhang Xiatao and Li Yifan. The pictures just don’t capture the powerful scale of the installation, a commentary on the effects of social and environmental change in the name of progress.

By Takashi Murakami

Microscopic Narration at the Iberia Center for Contemporary Arts

798 Art Zone is at Jiuxianqiao Road, Chaoyang District

DUCK DE CHINE AND THE YIN BAR THE EMPEROR HOTEL

If I needed further proof on how cosmopolitan life in Beijing can be, two restaurants I tried on consecutive nights certainly sealed the deal.

Duck de Chine is a series of charming brick pavilions burrowed beneath the high rise buildings in the Sanlitun shopping area.  You enter through an art gallery that connects via a glass-enclosed passageway to the restaurant’s main dining area.  There is also an outdoor bistro and the ubiquitous karaoke bar further inside one of the pavilions.  But the main attraction of the place is their duck, roasted Peking or French style, either way so delicious, that we waited for 45 minutes for our table, despite having reservations.

Another view

I was with an ex-colleague now based in Beijing, so he knew not to order too many side dishes.  Focus on the duck.  We opted for the local version, and it arrived with a choice of wraps:  the usual pancakes, or more traditional for Beijing, small round sesame buns.  Superb!

The next night, I intruded on a client dinner of fellow art fair participants at the rooftop Yin Bar of the newly-opened Emperor Hotel.  It was a bit of a drive from our hotel, but well worth the frustration of trying to communicate with the taxi driver.  The hotel is part of the Design Hotels group of luxury boutique hotels.  It is a retro, mod, marvel of neon brights and white walls, all of 55 rooms.  They served us dinner in the open-air bar where we enjoyed a breathtaking view of the Forbidden City, gloriously lit up on that breezy evening.  The food, served from the kitchen of the Shi restaurant on the second floor, was fusion, a modern take on traditional Chinese dishes.  We had a sampling, all small portions, most made a bit too spicy for my taste.  But the setting, incomparable.

Duck de Chine @ 1949 – The Hidden City is at Gong Ti Bel Lu, Chaoyang District

Yin Bar , The Emperor Hotel, is at 33 Qihelon St., Dongcheng District

Entrance to Microscopic Narration exhibit

Detail: Microscopic Narration at the Iberia Center