Lyra Garcellano’s Epistolary

Lyra Garcellano, "Aria"

After disappearing for a year, spending six months of 2010 in an Asian Cultural Council grant in New York, Lyra Garcellano has come back with wonderful new work.  In Epistolary, her solo exhibit at Finale Art File, Lyra has treated us to five paintings she describes as imprints.  Faint figures whisper from her canvases, barely discernible through her loose pastel strokes.  All of women, their floral frocks blur into the background, creating sheer, almost abstract, patterns.  Her paintings have always stood out for their delicacy and softness, and evoke a sense of romantic melancholia.  This set keeps to that sensibility,  progressing naturally from her previous pieces.  To me, they seem to project a more confident Lyra.

Lyra Garcellano, "Etcetera"

The show runs as one of three, all by women artists.  At Finale’s Tall Gallery, Keiye Miranda Tuazon has turned portraits into giant lockets for her show Strangely Familiar.  Marija Vicente, meanwhile, has taken over the gallery’s Video Room.

Lyra Garcellano, "Pentimento"

Epistolary by Lyra Garcellano, Strangely Familiar by Keiye Miranda Tuazon, and something something by Marija Vicente run from 2 to 27 September 2011 at Finale Art File, Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound, 2241 Pasong Tamo, Makati City.  Phone (632) 813-2310 or visit http://www.finaleartfile.com

Lyra Garcellano, "Aria" and "Mise-en-Scene"

Lyra Garcellano, "Enamore"

Keiye Miranda Tuazon's locket portraits

Marija Vicente, "something something", exhibit installation view

 

Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s Hong Kong Intervention, Alfredo + Isabel Aquilizan’s Address, and Sandra Palomar and Nolet Soliven’s Flesh at UP Vargas

Artists Sandra Palomar and Sun Yuan

I’m a big fan of Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu.  Ever since I saw Angel, a hyper realistic sculpture of a dead angel splayed on the ground, I have sought to keep abreast of their work.  Made from silica gel and fiberglass, the most striking feature possessed by the wrinkled seraphim is a pair of molted wings.  His feathers have withered away, and instead, he is left with wings of flesh and bone; they resemble chicken wings after they’ve been dressed. I saw it when it came up for auction last year.

Hong Kong Intervention, installation view

Another celebrated piece, Old Persons Home, also works with silica gel and fiberglass fabricated by the pair into elderly personages.  In this one, the artists assembled a group of world leaders (Churchill and Arafat, to name a few), sculpted as doddering and drooling ancients on electric wheelchairs.  Famously exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery in London, the figures would occasionally bump into one another as their wheelchairs moved about the space.

Hong Kong Intervention, installation view

When I heard that the duo would bring one of their more recent pieces to Manila, I made sure to make the time to meet them. They have worked together to produce a whole range of work, frequently causing controversy for their audacious use of materials (baby cadavers and human fat). Unfortunately, only Mr. Sun travelled to Manila.  Ms. Peng could not get a visa in time, and stayed in China.

Hong Kong Intervention, from 2009, and reprised at the 2010 Sydney Biennale, currently runs

Hong Kong Intervention, installation view

at the Jorge B. Vargas Museum in UP.  A project that involved 200 Filipino domestics in Hong Kong, the piece debuted at Osage, a gallery for contemporary art in the SAR.  It is through the cooperation of the Osage Foundation that this work made it to Manila. Perhaps, this counts as one of the duo’s tamer pieces, but it does ring close to home.

Hong Kong Intervention, detail

For this piece, the artists gave each of the Filipino OFWs a toy grenade.  The Pinoys stuck their grenades around the houses they work in and then photographed them.  They paired each of their resulting photos with one of themselves with their backs turned, concealing their identities from viewers.  One gets a thrill out of looking over the photographs mounted on the Vargas Museum walls.  You feel like an intruder allowed a forbidden peek, or an eavesdropper who unwittingly stumbles on an intimate conversation.  It is also fascinating to examine the images, guessing at the lifestyles suggested by the spaces.  In a sense, this mischievous piece captures the Pinoy penchant for chismis, for making uzi, for the unwarranted way we stick our noses into other people’s business.  If only the amos knew what their household helpers were up to when they weren’t around!

Hong Kong Intervention, detail

Address, a piece by another artistic tandem, has been mounted at the museum’s lobby.  This one, by Alfredo + Isabel Aquilizan, touches on the process of migration, an issue frequently tackled by these two artists.  It is one familiar to the subjects of Hong Kong Intervention.  The two exhibits relate to each other through this common thread.

Hong Kong Intervention, detail

In Address, we see rows of balikbayan boxes set beside what we presume to be rows of their contents, all precisely arranged.  They signify life stories reduced and compressed into cubes, transported and transposed into alien territories.

Sandra Palomar and Nolet Soliven have installed Flesh at the museum’s third floor space.  The exhibit illustrates their reactions to work in the Vargas Museum collection.  They deliberately chose two nudes made by uncelebrated artists (Nude Study, Marcelino Sanchez, 1935 and Sultana, Antonio Dumlao, undated), and dictionaries that translate Filipino tribal dialects.

Alfredo + Isabel Aquilizan, "Address"

Nolet’s Fleshcape dominates the space, bisecting the room.  He draws and paints magnified impressions of female body parts on both sides of a long sheet of paper.  Sandra’s Reflection Piece 001 stands between this and the Sanchez painting.  One is meant to peep inside to see refracted impressions of both the nude and Nolet’s work.

Another view, Alfredo + Isabel Aquilizan, "Address"

On the other end of Nolet’s drawing, Sultana is posed atop a set of drawers.  Arranged inside the drawers are the dictionaries, vintage photographs of tribal Filipinos, an image of Nora Aunor, and some sculpture.  Like the kayumanggi in the painting, the assortment celebrates our Filipino ethnicity.

Interview and translation exercise 001 is a video by Sandra.  It includes the written recollection of a young Manobo’s initial experiences in Manila.  A transplant into the capital city, he too is a migrant— like the domestics photographed for Hong Kong Intervention.  He knows only too well  the displacement explored by the Aquilizans in  Address.

Nolet Soliven, "Fleshscape", detail

Hong Kong Intervention, Address, and Flesh run from 31 August to 29 October 2011 at The Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center, Roxas Ave., University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.  Phone (632) 928-1927 or visit http://www.vargasmuseum.org

At right, Marcelino Sanchez, "Nude Study"

Antonio Dumlao, "Sultana" over an open set of drawers

A peek inside "Reflection Piece 001"

Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, "Angel", image from Christies.com

Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, "Old Persons Home", image from rebelart.net

ManilArt 11: Art In The Dark

Tatong Recheta Torres, "Untitled" at Art Informal

The invitation said be there at six, and I thought I’d be fashionably late.  I arrived close to seven pm, wondering if I could get away with not strictly following the Filipiniana dress code.  I need not have stressed.  I got there to find the venue in darkness, tons of people jostling about in the sidelines, trying to get past usherettes standing guard, preventing guests from crossing the red cordon that ringed the venue.  Apparently, the ribbon had yet to be cut.  Music blared from a stage at the far end where song and dance numbers were going on.  Was this an art fair?  The crowds could but peer at the pieces on display as tempers flared.  Incredibly, this state of affairs continued for an hour and a half, until the last politician had given what sounded like filibuster from a privilege speech.  Only then did the lights come on.  A surreal, truly chaotic, Only in da Pilipins, tableau unfolded on the vernissage of our city’s sole art fair.

Dex Fernandez, "Suspend" series at Pablo

This opening night debacle definitely cast a pall on ManilArt 11.  On paper, this fair seemed to have everything going for it.  The organizers scaled it down to 24 galleries but set aside bigger spaces for each participant.  They chose to mount it at the highly accessible NBC Tent at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.  And once the lights turned on, I could tell that my favorite galleries prepared new pieces especially for the event.  The physical arrangements, though, seemed to diminish their efforts.

Leeroy New's solo exhibit "Terrorium" at Manila Contemporary

Manila Contemporary, for instance, opted for a solo show by Leeroy New.  He brought in freestanding hybrid creatures, lit from within hallowed out bellies filled with multi-colored plastic toys.  The gallery, however, could not get permission to paint the walls of their booth.  Why?  Leeroy’s work deserved a proper setting.

Leeroy New, "Terrarium IX" at Manila Contemporary

Pablo got around this restriction by bringing their own panels to the fair.  A wise choice as, once again, they had the best booth.  But why would they have to resort to that?  They carried works by Dex Fernandez, Jason Moss, and the fantastic duo of Ivan Despi and Pauline Vicencio.  The booth’s layout managed to squeeze in a room where Ivan and Pauline’s video, Babel, played.  I’d love to see what else these two come up with. Exciting things seem to be in store for this talented twosome.

Ivan Despi and Pauline Vicencio, "Babel", video still at Pablo

Dex exhibited his Suspend series, a variation on his manipulated photographs.  This time he altered his photos with cut outs—patterns he painted and illustrated then cut and pasted onto his images.

Maria Jeona Zoleta at Finale

Maria Jeona Zoleta lorded it at Finale’s booth.  She made the gallery stand out in neon pink glory.  Blanc brought out new pieces by Art Sanchez, an impressive Lao Lianbien, and various Louie Cordero paintings on canvas and on paper.  I just love Louie’s kitschy, Pinoy komiks, over the top, slasher aesthetic.

Art Informal had a wonderful new Tatong Recheta Torres.  We must really welcome Tatong back into his first life— and never allow him to leave again!  Silverlens, the art fair pros, simply knew how to work their booth.  Patty Eustaquio’s Diving Bell (Cloud Country) took center stage, a teaser for her upcoming show.  They also had pieces by Leslie de Chavez, Ryan Villamael, Chati Coronel, Isa Lorenzo, and pyrographs on wood by Mariano Ching.  As always, Nano rocks!

Mariano Ching, "Pillars Series 3" at Silverlens

New discoveries:  Jacob Lindo at Silverlens with his small graphite works, and Carina Santos at West Gallery.  She exhibited Joseph Cornell-like boxed assemblages using sliced books.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of those.

Lee Amante, Rachel Rillo, and Isa Lorenzo beside Elaine Navas, "Polidori's Sofa" at Silverlens

By Jacob Lindo, "Avoid Rivers, Strivers, and Voyeurs" at Silverlens

Speaking of West Gallery, they seem to have been the only ones who came prepared with a handout that detailed their available pieces.  It also outlined a schedule of their upcoming shows.

Over at Duemila, a very tame, almost pretty, Mideo Cruz painting hung on one wall.

CANVAS debuted a novel initiative utilizing the iPad.  Rizalpabeto borrows from the tradition of Letras Y Figuras, a 19^thcentury art form whereby artists rendered letters of the alphabet, usually to spell out a patron’s name, in stylized forms.

Jay Pacena and Marika Constantino, curators of Rizalpabeto project

This project celebrates Jose Rizal’s 150^th birth anniversary.  Vim Nadera composed a poem on the National Hero, one verse for each letter of the alphabet.  Elmer Borlongan executed a letra for each of the verses, but did this completely on his iPad.  A colonial genre has been taken to the 21^st century.

My verdict on ManilArt 11?  A handful of galleries spent time and effort to bring out new works for collectors to acquire.  I found pieces that I did want to take home, more this time than in the last two fairs.  Nothing groundbreaking, as the galleries played it safe.  They predominantly kept to the two-dimensional and wall-bound.  A good number of the participants, though, as in the past, seemed to have simply emptied their backrooms.

Elmer Borlongan's "K" from the "Rizalpabeto" project

Dr. Joven Cuanang at Boston Gallery. He sits on a piece by Plet Bolipata

The flimsy fixtures gave the fair a shabby air.  Unfortunately, the galleries who worked to spruce up their spaces could not overcome this overall impression.  It felt like a bazaar.  And as much as I preferred the NBC Tent’s accessibility, it probably isn’t suited to this event.

Did the fair mirror our dynamic art scene?  Unfortunately not. Neither did it seek to educate and elevate standards.  A pity, and a missed opportunity, as judging by the number of people that took the time to drop by, ManilArt 11 captured quite an audience.

ManilArt 11 runs from 24 to 27 August 2011 at the NBC Tent, Fort Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.  Visit http://www.manilart.com

Secret Fresh

 

Elmer Borlongan, "Duyan Sa Kwarto" at Boston Gallery

Jason Moss at Pablo

Pablo's installation

Pancho Francisco, Marina Cruz, and Rodel Tapaya at Art Informal

Patty Eustaquio, "Diving Bell (Cloud Country)" at Silverlens

Leslie de Chavez, "Hungry Gods" at Silverlens

Kaloy Sanchez, "Untitled" at Paseo Gallery

Gabby Barredo at Art Verite

Lynyrd Paras, "Huwag Mong Sirain Ang Isang Bagay Na Totoo" at Art Verite

Pow Martinez and Soler Santos by West Gallery space

Jigger Cruz, "Plinth for the Psychedelics" at West Gallery

West Gallery installation

Art Sanchez, "Impermanence 1" at Blanc

Janet Balbarona and her painting at Blanc

Louie Cordero with Eric Encinares of The Sleepyheads

Louie Cordero, "Space Is The Haze" at Blanc

Louie Cordero, " Magnovelzum", "Arvidzwarn", and "Masangoturp"at Blanc

Blanc installation

Photos by Rudolf Schwarkogler at Galerie Zimmerman Krachtowill

Pieces by Robert Langenegger at the Galerie Zimmerman Krachtowill

At Galleria Duemila, paintings by Romina Diaz and Mideo Cruz

Rodel Tapaya, "Camp Scene No. 1", oil on acrylic with chrome frame at Blueline

In the neighborhood: Sonny Angara, Louie Bate, Jia and Gabby Estrella

Andres Barrioquinto, "Twin Shadow" at Blueline

Winner Jumalon, "Pause" at Blueline

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

Peewee Roldan and Maxine Syjuco at NOW Gallery

Noberto Roldan, "What Is The Color of Beauty? 2"

NOW OPEN!  Pasong Tamo Extension just welcomed another art space. Now Gallery, a venture of collector Patrick Reyno, opened its doors last month.  Together with Silverlens/SLab, Manila Contemporary, and DAGC (Department of Avant-Garde Clichés), it will cement the strip’s reputation as the place for exciting contemporary art.  Now (no pun intended), if they could just all coordinate their openings!

Norberto Roldan, "What Is The Color of Beauty 2", detail

NORBERTO ROLDAN:  THE BEGINNING OF HISTORY AND FATAL STRATEGIES

When TAKSU, the Southeast Asian gallery network with branches in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Bali, submitted their application for Art Stage Singapore in late 2010, they received a surprising directive from Lorenzo Rudolf, the fair director.  For the high-profile 2011 debut of Asia’s newest art fair, Rudolf wanted the gallery to carry the works of only one artist from their roster:  that of Norberto “Peewee” Roldan’s from the Philippines.  “It was very stressful for me,” Peewee intimates.  “They told me in October, and the fair was scheduled for January!”

Norberto Roldan, "What Is the Color of Beauty 1", detail

By the fair’s opening date, however, The Beauty Of History Is That It Does Not Reside in One Place, Peewee’s one-man show, had been wonderfully installed inside the TAKSU booth.  The Singapore Art Museum promptly acquired one of the pieces on view.  Invisibilitus Est 1, an assemblage anchored on an old chasuble, now joins Faith In Sorcery, Sorcery In Faith (1+2),a Roldan piece from 1998, in the museum’s permanent collection.

Norberto Roldan, "What Is The Color Of Beauty 1", more detail

Peewee creates art primarily from putting together an assortment of objects, mostly curios that ascribe to Filipino folk Catholicism. Metal amulets, estampitas, anting-antings, and heirloom vestments are precisely arranged within specially fabricated wooden frames or panels that mimic pigeonholes.  They stand juxtaposed against a variety of bibelots—old fabric, antique photographs, kitschy religious statuettes, vintage toys, brass compacts, colored glass bottles.  Peewee initially culled these knickknacks from his own collection. When he had used up the lot for major exhibits in KL and Singapore in 2009, he turned to street vendors and second-hand shops in the vicinity of his Kamuning studio.

Norberto Roldan, Invisibilitus Est. 4"

The 58-year-old artist, who possesses degrees in Philosophy and Fine Arts, founded Green Papaya Art Projects, Manila’s foremost independent art space, in 2000.  He continues to run its programs. Until 2007, he also worked with ABS-CBN Merchandising, completing two stints as its Creative Director.  Concurrent to his day jobs, he practiced his art, a career that began with his first solo exhibit in 1987 at Hiraya Gallery.

Norberto Roldan, "Invisibilitus Sum 2"

This month, Peewee brings out more of his boxed constructions, a continuation of his April exhibit at Green Papaya.  Invisibilitus Est. 4, Invisibilitus Sum No. 1, and Invisibilitus Sum No. 2, again center on old chasubles.  Peewee confides how difficult these have been to come by lately.  He collected vintage studio shots for both What is the color of beauty? (1) and (2), the two largest pieces on view.  Both diptychs, the first pits the old photographs against clippings from current fashion magazines, composed with a gathering of clear and colored old bottles.  For the second, he has arranged more of these photos inside boxes.  Peewee has encapsulated the stories of an era within the frames inside the piece.

Norberto Roldan, "What Is The Color of Faith 3"

My favorite pieces in the show belong to the series What Is The Color Of Faith?  For the three pieces that make up this group of works, Peewee resurrected devices he has used in previous works.  Amulets, neon figurines, and bottles filled with herbs and finished with carmen-carmen (square bits of cloth pinned on garments of infants to serve as protection) form crucifixes.  Estampitas pasted on holograms create mesmerizing repetitions.

Norberto Roldan, "What Is The Color of Faith 3", detail

At the center of the gallery, a hundred used bottles of perfume inside an heirloom glass cabinet and two crystal chandeliers make up the installation Remembering My Mother’s Long Forgotten Scent.

Norberto Roldan, "What Is The Color of Faith 2"

Peewee’s pieces are social commentaries, discourses on our faith and history through collectibles.  “I consider objects as possessing anthropological values.  I cannot use an object merely on a whim… I put together old and new objects to signify the contemporary in the old,” Peewee explains his method of classifying his assemblages.  “In the end, all the objects participate in making a whole narrative…and to me that’s what makes the work art.  You’re not just telling a straight narrative but you are trying to break the narrative for people to make their own…each [person] can have their own reading of my pieces.”

Norberto Roldan, "What Is The Color of Faith 1", detail

Joaquin and Peewee Roldan with Triccie Luchangco and "What Is The Color of Faith 1"

Maxine Syjuco, "Propensity for Pain"

MAXINE SYJUCO:  A PROPENSITY FOR PAIN

Quite coincidentally, the second exhibit currently running at Now has also made use of found photographs, their sepia tones complementing Peewee’s works.  Maxine Syjuco printed a collection of discovered images on canvas.  She concealed the faces in each of them, replacing visages with painted human hearts.  Wooden frames that have been carved with wings complete each piece.  “Because these people have long passed on,” Maxine explains, “I use the wings to set them free.” Could one also say that they have been transformed into angels?

Maxine Syjuco, "Sans The Seven Dwarves"

A sculpture of a small house atop an open book sits at the center of the room.  Fabricated from wood and concrete, the doors and windows of the house stand wide open, ready to welcome Maxine’s liberated souls.

"A Propensity For Pain" installation view

Maxine Syjuco, "Prayers, Poems, Promises"

Norberto Roldan:  The Beginning of History and Fatal Strategies and Maxine Syjuco:  A Propensity for Pain run together with Pow Martinez:  Nature Paintings from 12 August to 7 September 2011 at Now Gallery & Consulting, Unit M05, Mezzanine, Eco Plaza Bldg., 2305 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City.  Phone (632) 555-0683 or visit http://www.nowgallery.net

An edited version of the write-up on Peewee’s show has been published in the August 2011 issue of Town and Country Philippines.  Visit http://www.facebook.com/townandcountry.ph

Norberto Roldan, "What Is The Color of Faith 2", detail

Norberto Roldan, "Remembering My Mother's Long Forgotten Scent"

Norberto Roldan, "The Beginning Of History and Fatal Strategies"

Norberto Roldan, "Something To Remember Me By"

 

Romeo Lee and Pow Martinez Wreak Mischief and Mayhem

Romeo Lee and his mural

The exhibit may have taken its name from Manuel Ocampo’s favorite wine,  but Mischief and Mayhem perfectly suits the works of Romeo Lee and Pow Martinez.  Those who follow these two know that their art hews closely to the messy, racy, and raunchy aesthetic, favored by the likes of Jonathan Meese and indeed, by Ocampo himself.

Another view of Romeo Lee's mural

The Department of Avant-Garde Clichés or DAGC Gallery supplies something fresh to Metro Manila’s art landscape.  As the only gallery entirely devoted to prints and multiples, the folks behind it have brought our attention to the possibilities of extending printmaking to works of artists who lean to the lowbrow. These have

Examining Pow's prints

included artists from Spain and Germany.  Like all who exhibit in the gallery, they showed pieces produced within the premises. One gets the impression that artists enjoy working in-house. Perhaps, this provides a break from their routines.  The last exhibit, Misprint Messiahs, featured pieces by Louie Cordero and Carlo Ricafort.  Prints and multiples also allow for more affordable pieces, perfect for the young urbanites who flock to the gallery.

Lee and Pow developed prints in black and white, pieces that complement Lee’s mural on the gallery’s long wall.  Pow bound some of his images together, like a comic book one can flip through— a nice alternative to the works on paper installed on the walls.

Image inside Pow Martinez book

Mischief and Mayhem runs from 3 August to 17 September 2011 at The Department of Avant-Garde Cliches (DAGC Gallery), 2289 Pasong Tamo Extension, UPRC III Bldg, Makati.  Phone (632) 8172042 or visit http://www.dagcgallery.com

Framed print by Pow Martinez

Framed print from Romeo Lee

Pow's books and another framed print

 

Brouhaha at the CCP

At first I was inclined to dismiss the debate as a tempest in a teapot.  But when my favorite daily read (www.artdaily.com) carried the story of the furor over Mideo Cruz’s piece, Poleteismo, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, I thought I had better make time to see for myself what the fuss was about.  I admit, I had no plans to drive down to view Kulô, a group exhibit of UST alumni, during the show’s run.  From photos I had seen of its opening night, I figured that majority of the artists who participated in the show chose to submit old works, most of them I had already seen before.  But with the issue of blasphemy vs. artistic freedom dominating the headlines and television news programs, how can any observer of the Manila art scene not take a stand?

As has been said elsewhere, the merits and demerits of the piece, whether it can be classified as “good” art or not is beside the point (Frankly, I find Mideo’s performances more interesting).  Other Filipino contemporary artists have expressed their disdain for the Catholic Church’s local hierarchy in stronger, more provocative terms. Although I personally did not find the piece offensive, I acknowledge that this may not be true for others (an understatement given the passions that have been ignited).  But the artist deserves the right to express his views, especially one consistent with the exhibit’s concept. Calling his work illegal and immoral, and subjecting Mideo to harassment, should not be tolerated.  It smacks of the Inquisition!

If it’s any consolation to Mideo, he stands in good company.  One of Sandro Botticelli’s paintings served as kindle to Savonarola’s Bonfire of the Vanities in Renaissance Florence.  The Taliban dynamited the Buddhas of Bamiyan in 2001 because they considered these ancient stone carvings as idols. Ignorance and mass hysteria have gone hand in hand before. The CCP has at least stood firm against any attempts to close the exhibit, and has chosen to encourage dialogue and debate instead.  In that, they’ve done better than the Smithsonian.  Late last year, the museum’s director caved in to pressure and removed a piece by artist David Wojnarowicz that had proved too controversial.

What a pity that this whole brouhaha has taken the attention away from Kulô. Despite my earlier reservations, I found that I enjoyed the show.

For more on the exhibit and Mideo’s piece, check out Sam Marcelo of Businessworld:

 http://www.bworldonline.com/weekender/content.php?id=35478

The photo that appears on this post is taken from http://www.filipinofreethinkers.org

Postscript:  I suppose it was too much to expect a government institution to stand steadfast against a bloodthirsty mob.  The CCP Board decided to close the exhibit down five days after I originally posted this.  Worse, all the politicians now think they can weigh in with their pompous opinions. How depressing that censorship and intolerance have prevailed.

A Return to Megamall, Street Art at The Crucible

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 with Manuel Ocampo’s solo (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

 

The Origin of Symmetry by Wesley T. Valenzuela

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 TutoK and 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’s Recreates the Night Sky while Neil Arvin Javier Packs Them In

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, "Astral Projections", exhibit installaiton view

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"

Neil Arvin Javier, "3 Mini Cheese Past"

Neil Arvin Javier, "Hate Will Tear Us Apart"