Rodel Tapaya Takes Us Through His Memory Landscapes

"Dancing In The Moonlight" with Rodel Tapaya

From a raconteur that brings oral traditions to life, Rodel Tapaya has turned into a chronicler of countryside vistas.  In this latest body of work that make up Memory Landscapes, Rodel’s exhibit at The Drawing Room in Makati, he moves away from his narrations of forgotten Philippine folk tales.  Instead of regaling us with the fantastic creatures that people his visual narratives, he invites us to witness the panorama that surrounds his Bulacan home.

Rodel Tapaya, "Passing By The Calm Waters"

Rodel imbues his landscapes with a mystical, eerie, air.  For this series, he starts with a dark base of  chrome and black underpaint, the ground from which he piles on layers of brighter, lighter colors.   In the manner of British artist Peter Doig, he creates tapestries that feel almost abstract, where lines blur into a nearly indistinct mass of tangled drips. This stylistic shift extends to how Rodel renders his figures.  Here, they flit through his paintings like ghostly apparitions, like the misty shadows that dart through our consciousness as we dream.  He paints his figures in hazy, blurry clumps of mostly white and gray; they seem like pasted paper cutouts that belong to a different plane, but somehow blend into the landscape.

Rodel Tapaya, "The Road Less Travelled"

Witness the celebration that goes on in Dancing In The Moonlight. Yellow pools of light twisted amongst brambles of midnight blues and browns serve as the backdrop to couples clasped in close embrace.  With Rodel’s treatment, you could almost imagine that you stumbled on a wedding, perhaps of goblins or changelings, otherworldly creatures that populate an enchanted forest, rather than a fiesta in the backfields of Hagonoy. A benign banca ride through fish pens in Passing By The Calm Waters feels more like a glimpse of the mythical Charon rowing down the River Styx.  The calesa traversing a country lane of The Road Less Traveled seems like a sighting of a ghostly gallop through overgrown foliage.  Even the innocuous activity of gathering flowers in a field dotted with fireflies takes on a spectral atmosphere.  What is that creature that grasps a bunch of marguerites in Fireflies Season?

Rodel Tapaya, "Fireflies Season"

The 30-year-old Rodel moved to Bulacan in 2008 after marrying fellow artist Marina Cruz.  They built a studio next to the house where Marina grew up.  The two, both self-effacing and unfailingly polite, are considered one of the power couples of the current contemporary arts scene.  Their list of sold out solo exhibits, plus Philippine Art Awards and Ateneo Art Awards appearances, attest to their critical and commercial successes.  Earlier this year, they mounted a two-person show at the Ark Galerie in Jakarta.

Rodel Tapaya, "A Bountiful Harvest"

Rodel himself has just come off a busy year.  Last June, he made his Beijing debut with Mythical Roots at the SOKA Art Center.  In November, the Singapore Art Museum invited him to participate in Thrice Upon A Time, a special exhibit to celebrate 40 years of bilateral relations between the Philippines and Singapore.  He also remains a favorite in the Southeast Asian auction circuit.  His pieces command respectable prices from both Sotheby’s and Christie’s clientele.

Rodel , Jun Villalon, and "Hot Topic"

Before his marriage, Rodel worked out of a cramped studio on busy Maginhawa Street at UP Teachers Village, just off Diliman.  His earliest paintings reveled in this urban setting.  He caricatured characters in this neighborhood:  the beer garden habitué, the local gossip, the Wowowee hopeful.  When he relocated, he admits to an initial disconcertment at the change in his surroundings.  “Siyempre, mahirap mag-adjust.  Malayo ang mall.  Mabagal ang buhay. Pero natuto na din ako.”

Because they live next to salt beds and fishing grounds that overflow when the tide comes in, Rodel has learned to read moon charts. He rediscovered Filipino traditions and his love for local legends.  He started to enjoy his proximity to nature, to live with the quiet.  And his art has followed suit.

Rodel Tapaya, "A Windy Day and A Swirl"

“For this show, nag-enjoy lang ako sa process”, Rodel reveals.  He luxuriated in applying stroke upon stroke to canvas. He relished the rhythm required to put his pieces together.  For those of us who have followed Rodel’s career, the show brings another facet to his body of work, another exciting iteration.  The pieces beg us to come closer, to scrutinize the details indiscernible from the photographs:  the furious brushwork, the scratches that reveal color underneath.

Rodel Tapaya, "Chicken Feeding"

“There is something more primal about painting”, Peter Doig has been quoted as saying.  Rodel Tapaya Garcia will definitely agree.

Rodel Tapaya, "Moving With The Carabaos"

Memory Landscapes runs from 22 May to 14 June 2010 at The Drawing Room Contemporary Art, 1007 Metropolitan Ave, Metrostar Bldg, Makati City.  Phone (632)897-7877 or visit http://www.rodeltapaya.com or visit http://www.drawingroomgallery.com

Rodel Tapaya, "Secrets Of The Forest"

This post has been reworked  from an article in the May 2010 issue of Rogue magazine.  Check out http://www.rogue.ph

Rodel Tapaya, "Testing The Waters"

Exhibit installation view

Fellow artists show support

Rodel and Marina Take Jakarta

Rodel Tapaya and Marina Cruz introduce their paintings to a new audience through a joint exhibit that opened last week in

Rodel Tapaya, "Top Secret"

Jakarta.  Looking Back allows both of them to continue exploring their different takes on the concept of memories.  Rodel looks back at folk tales that have been passed down through oral tradition.  He once again immortalizes them through his painted narratives. His fantastic characters and wonderful colors bring these stories to life, beautifully compressed in one frame.

Marina Cruz, "Drops On The Antique Cabinet"

Marina paints from photographs of houses in her neighborhood that have been abandoned after the onslaught of flood.  This continues her series of using spaces to celebrate recollections.  She chooses a palette that while vivid, infuse her pieces with a nostalgic feel.   Unlike purely photrealistic still lifes, Marina adopts a somewhat flat perspective that makes her pieces quite interesting.  She leaves it up to the viewer to imagine how these rooms once brimmed with life.

Rodel Tapaya, "Star Girl"

Marina Cruz, "A Backyard Scene of Random Objects"

Looking Back runs from 10 March 2010 at Ark Galerie, Jl. Senopati Raya 92, Jakarta, Phone (6221) 725-4934 or visit http://www.arkgalerie.com

Rodel Tapaya, "The Invincible"

Marina Cruz, "A Sacred Nook"

Marina Cruz, "Drying The Sheets"

Rodel Tapaya, "The Sacrifice"

Marina Cruz, "Faded Floor Tiles"

Rodel Tapaya, "To Break Free"

Marina Cruz, "Kitchen Patterns"

Rodel Spins Folk Tales in China, Bogie Dances the Kotillion in Singapore, and Annie Takes Us Through Art History in Manila

Rodel Tapaya, "Aponitolau and The Great Flood"

Rodel Tapaya, "Bringing Fire to the Earthworld"

Two of my favorite artists, Rodel Tapaya Garcia and Jose Tence Ruiz, take their art to Beijing

Rodel Tapaya, "Origin of the Mountains"

and Singapore respectively, with solo shows of mainly works on canvas opening seven days from each other.  Meanwhile, back home, Annie Cabigting opens her first major exhibit in almost two years. For fans of Filipino paintings who happen to be traveling around Asia these next few weeks, here are three good shows to catch:

Rodel Tapaya, "Aran the First Woman", diorama detail

MYTHICAL ROOTS, RODEL TAPAYA

Once again, Rodel plays the raconteur of forgotten Philippine

Rodel Tapaya, "Guardian of Heaven"

myths and legends.  Like Scheherazade of One Thousand and One Nights, he hasn’t run out of stories to tell.  Through

Rodel Tapaya, "Sun, Sky, Moon, and Stars Myth"

his signature devices of exaggerated and grotesque figures set against fantastic landscapes, he

Rodel Tapaya, "Transformation of Feathers"

brings us visual narratives, an alternative avenue for appreciating our folk tales.  In this Beijing show, he weaves his fables via large scale acrylic on canvas  pieces (76 x 60 in) and his dioramas from found objects and hammered metal sheets, decorated and embellished both within and without.

Even if  Rodel continuously mines local Filipino material for his chronicles on canvas, his works retain their appeal to an international audience.  I know, I’ve said that many times before. I just find it pretty amazing.

Mythical Roots runs from 26 June to 26 July 2009 at SOKA Art Center in Beijing.  For more information, visit http://www.rodeltapaya.com or http://soka-art.com

Jose Tence Ruiz, "Madonna Bellumbella"

BLUSKREEN BALLROOM, JOSE TENCE RUIZ

Just like popular depictions of  Marie Antoinette, Bogie’s Kotillion ladies  have  become caricatures for the indifferent elite who scoff at suffering that does not directly interfere with their excesses.  This time he takes them global, to Singapore,  a city which he called home in the early 1990s.  Once again, he imbues his voluminously-clad females and their pouf a la reine hairdos with features of today’s celebrities, the better to drive across his views on the correlation between the adoration of beauty with the penchant for over consumption (think of the Imeldific!)

Jose Tence Ruiz, "Signorina Marina"

Jose Tence Ruiz, "BluSkreen Dona Guerrerra"

Angelina Jolie lends her features to Blu-skreen Ballroom:  Dona Guerrerra. She brandishes war’s destructive results.  Look closely at her curlicue gown, and see the word “War”

Jose Tence Ruiz, "Mlle Bec Sucre"

repeated several times.  Signorina Marina‘s face is Nicole Scherzinger of the singing group Pussycat Dolls.  Her gown, made of blasted jeepney parts, reflects Bogie’s recurring fascination with his jeepney car bombs.  Chinese superstar Xang Xiyi, aka Mademoiselle Bec Sucre, wears a gown made up of parts for sawing wood and felling trees, ultimate symbols of how our demands denude our natural resources.  And finally, what I think would be my favorite of all the Kotillion ladies I have encountered thus far, Madonna Bellumbella, named for who else?  None other than the Material Girl, the utmost purveyor of the bilmoko mentality of the 1980s.  The folds of her skirt camouflage the words belllum (war) and bella (beauty).

Jose Tence Ruiz, "Katedral/Tubig at Langis"

In the show, Bogie includes two pieces with his trademark Katedral, his allegory for deluded glory in a faith practiced amidst squalor.  In his painting Katedral/Tubig at Langis, he transforms the katedral into an oil rig,

Jose Tence Ruiz, "Semper Fi"

a commentary perhaps on our continued dependence on oil imports, a never-ending cycle that holds our industries hostage to those that control this commodity.

BluSkreen Ballroom is on view at the Artesan Gallery +Studio, 793 Bukit Timah Road, Singapore 269765 from 19 June to 10 July 2009.  For more information, please call (65)984-7817  or contact network@theartesan.net.

Annie Cabigting's "Splitting 32 (After Gordon Matta-Clark)" beside Karen Montinola

PICTURES OF PICTURES, ANNIE CABIGTING

Annie Cabigting’s works make those of us interested in contemporary art history want to head back home to our computers and google

Annie Cabigting, "Destroyed Painting (After Francis Bacon)

the artists she uses as references.  She views her pieces as a way of continuing the work of artists whose works she loves, bringing them to light, putting her stamp on them, making them relevant to our present time.

This current show continues where she last left off  from her 2007 solo show, Something To Do With Art, at Finale’s old space at the Lao Center in Pasay Road.

Then as now, she uses one of the works of “anarchitect” Gordon Matta-Clark.  This time, she paints from a photocollage that documents Matta-Clark’s Splitting 1974, showing the cross-section of a house he had opened up and sliced through.  Her piece, Splitting 32 (After Gordon Matta-Clark), comes together from four separate shaped canvases, angled just as the original image.

In this show’s version of Destroyed Painting (After Francis Bacon), she mourns the loss of yet another piece consigned to the garbage heap by the artist. Again, she paints from an image she came across while doing research on Bacon’s work, bringing back to life what did not meet his exacting standards.  She

Annie Cabigting, "Barnett Newman and unidentified woman who's afraid of red, yellow, and blue"

paints the piece in its destructed state, honoring Bacon by keeping his work as he left it, yet paying him  tribute through this resurrection.  In Barnett Newman and an unidentified woman who’s afraid of red, yellow, and blue she imagines how Newman and his female gallery owner would have surveyed his work after it had been vandalized, an act of desecration not done until after the artist’s death.

She also paints an untitled piece by conceptual artist, Giulio Paolini. Thanks to Annie’s show, I am now a total fan of his installations, and can’t read enough on him.

Annie Cabigting, "Giulio Paolini, Senzo Titulo (Untitled)"

As a touch of whimsy, she includes a painting of a note left by art thieves.

Annie Cabigting, "A note found with painting stolen from the Whitworth Art Gallery"

In a sense, this exhibit brings us the third incarnation of these works of art. From their original state as installations and paintings, they have been transformed into photographs for documentation.  And now,  we see them here as wall-bound paintings on canvas. Can Annie now claim them as her own?  That would be an interesting debate!

In the intervening years since that last solo show, Annie has done a series of works depicting viewers viewing masterpieces.  By doing so, she turns the tables on spectators like us, transforming them from mere onlookers into the work themselves.  In this show, we go back to our role as spectators, an audience to Annie’s kind of art.

Pictures of Pictures is on view from 16 June to 6 July at the Tall Gallery,  Finale Art File,  Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound, 2241 Pasong Tamo, Makati.  Ph (632)813-2310 or visit http://www.finaleartfile.com

April Roundup: Rodel Tapaya, Ling Quisumbing, Lea Lim, Surrounded By Water; May Beginnings: Elmer Borlongan at Sitio Remedios

Rodel Tapaya, "The Aswang Turns Into a Cat"

I arrived from an almost month-long furlough with my husband and kids in busy, bustling, frenetic, and always exciting New York City. I loved rediscovering favorite masterpieces in the great museums and stumbling onto new ones at the contemporary art spaces that dot the city’s art haunts: Chelsea’s Gallery District, the New Museum at Nolita, Soho. But nothing beats plunging headlong into the art scene that never sleeps—that of our very own!

With Melbourne-based curator, Jeff Khan, here for a residency grant with Art Cabinet Philippines, I took advantage of the long May day weekend, and caught up with shows running on their last few days. Aaah— it’s good to be home! Welcome back to me!

DIORAMA BY RODEL TAPAYA

I have always been an unabashed Rodel Tapaya Garcia fan. I discovered his art the first time we organized Art In The Park for the Museum Foundation of the Philippines. Since that sunny June day in 2006, both that annual art event and that small painted face on burlap that I brought home have become very dear to me.

Rodel Tapaya, Cafre of Balayan detail, tin casement

In this show, Rodel continues with his exploration of art beyond paintings. He revisits the diorama, a device that has fascinated him since he started working as a full-time artist. Here, he uses it as a means to narrate the long-forgotten Philippine folk tales that provide substance to his work.

Rodel Tapaya, "Pedro and the Snake"

Rodel Tapaya, Cafre of Balayan, interior diorama detail

In the tradition of an altarpiece, he houses each diorama in tin sheets hammered and decorated like the urnas we find in old Filipino homes. Inside, found objects and sculpted wooden figures depict scenes from the old stories. The beauty of the pieces, though, lie in his artisanship, his embellishment of each casing, painting them with figures and forms that continue the myths told within.

Rumor has it that the Singapore Art Museum appropriated four of the pieces for their collection. True or not, that only proves what I’ve always loved about Rodel: he grounds his work on very Pinoy facets, yet they do not feel at all parochial, appealing to both his loyal, local fans and to art collectors beyond our shores.

Rodel Tapaya, Pedro and the Snake, outside detail

Diorama Rodel Tapaya is on view from 25 April to 16 May 2009 at The Drawing Room, Metrostar Bldg., 1007 Metropolitan Ave, Makati. Ph(632)897-7877 or visit www.drawingroomgallery.com

PENCIL WORKS BY CHRISTINA QUISUMBING

Christina Quisumbing, "Honeycomb"

Ling Quisumbing has resettled in Manila after almost a decade working in art-related projects in New York. In September last year, she exhibited an assemblage of found objects, Madre, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, which took inspiration from the process of renovating her grandmother’s old house into a home for herself. Even then I thought that piece fantastic, and, intrigued, wanted to know more about the artist who put it together. What a wonderful surprise to stumble into her current show at the second floor gallery of Manila Contemporary!

Christina Quisumbing, "Nipple"

The concept of using various pencils as her medium began, like Madre, with the construction of her home. Piqued by the forms and textures of used pencils discarded by the carpenters who labored at the site, she played around with the idea of using these pencils to create art. Accumulating enough pencils proved to be a story in itslelf. To put together Roll Call, for instance, Ling struck a bargain with the principal of Tomas Morato Elementary School: she would replace a new pencil for every used pencil given to her.

Christina Quisumbing, Roll Call, detail

Hence, the thin tower of used pencils, many of them labelled with the names of the students who they belonged to.

Christina Quisumbing, "Querida" and "Heart"

One year and 40,000 pencils later, she brings us interesting sculptural pieces, testaments to her skill and imagination.

Ling is off soon for a two-month residency at Tembi Contemporary in Yogyakarta.

Pencil Works by Christina Quisumbing is part of the group show Parameters+Play+Repetition=Patterns until 10 May 2009 at Manila Contemporary inside Whitespace, 2314 Chino Roces Ave, Makati City. Ph (632) 844-7328 or visit www.manilacontemporary.com

Christina Quisumbing, "Drawing Table"

Christina Quisumbing, pencil on paper works

GIRL BY LEA LIM

When you speak to Lea Lim, you realize how much of herself she puts into her work.  All her seven pieces speak to us of her dreams and longings, her aspirations and reminiscences of things past, her aspirations for the future.

Lea Lim, "Girl"

In the exhibit’s title piece, the quadriptych Girl, she sees herself as holding her life options in hand. The contents of the jar may vary, but all represent different facets of her

Lea Lim, "Pinning Purpose"

person. In Pinning Purpose, she sees herself as a little girl lost in the woods, so many pathways to take, so many choices out there. She continues to ponder these questions in Little Red Riding and Hold.

Lea Lim, "Hold"

Girl by Lea Lim is on view until 16 May at Alliance Total Gallery, Alliance Francaise de Manille, 209 Nicanor Garcia St., Bel Air 2, Makati City. Ph (632)895-7441 or visit www.alliance.ph and www.artcabinetphilippines.com

IN THE OCEAN WITHOUT A BOAT OR A PADDLE, SURROUNDED BY WATER

I must be the only one in Manila who hasn’t seen this exhibit, and I’m glad I caught it. The story of this group of artists parallels the vicissitudes of recent Philippine contemporary art history . How difficult to believe that less than a decade ago, they struggled for opportunities to show in commercial galleries who scoffed at their art. Today, the exhibit list reads like a who’s who in every collector’s wish list. How inspiring is that?

Jonathan Ching, "Pilgrims"

Lyra Garcellano, "Ruptured" and "Broken"

Mariano Ching, "Up The Hill"

I thought that the Ching brothers have come to their own with their works for this show. I loved Mariano Ching’s wall bound sculpture from GI sheets and Jonathan Ching’s origami blackbirds backlit by neon lights.

Geraldine Javier, "Jumping At The Shadows"

What next for the SBW guys? How exciting to see!

The show features works by artists Argie Bandoy, Jonathan Ching, Mariano Ching, Yasmin Sison Ching, Louie Cordero, Christina Dy, Geraldine Javier, Lyra Garcellano, Eduardo Enriquez, Mike Munoz,Frederick Sausa, Keiye Miranda Tuazon, Wire Tuazon, Alvin Villaruel, Ferdz Valencia. Show runs until 14 May 2009 at Blanc Compound, 359 Shaw Blvd. interior, Mandaluyong City. Ph (632)752-0032 or visit www.blanc.ph

Louie Cordero, "Dumbskull"

ELMER BORLONGAN AT SITIO REMEDIOS

A few, a lucky few, received the privilege of a weekend by the beach at Dr. Joven Cuanang’s Ilocos Norte paradise, Sitio Remedios. For this weekend only, reservations came with more than the promise of bagnet and longganisa by the shores of the South China Sea. Elmer Borlongan’s one man show opened, and fifteen of the chosen had their pick of his pieces on exhibit.

Isn’t it about time that Emong, one of the nicest, nicest artists around, allows us mere mortals the chance to see more of his work, before they get snapped up by the hundreds in his waiting list? A curated exhibition at a beautiful space (SM Art Center? Blanc Compound?) in the near future would be great! Hear hear!

For more information on Elmer Borlongan’s show, visit www.sitioremedios.com or contact Boston Gallery at (632)722-9205