To what do we owe the surfeit of exciting shows that opened all over the metro this week? It seems the ides of March has swept in
Patricia Eustaquio, "Dear Sweet Filthy World IV"
the muses, with the Silverlens group leading the way:
PATRICIA EUSTAQUIO DEAR SWEET FILTHY WORLD
Trust Patty Eustaquio to steep disaster and catastrophe with poetry and delicacy. Inspired in part by the tragedy of Typhoon Ondoy, an event she could only experience from far away, Patty puts together paintings and sculpture that invoke Mother Nature’s wrath. With the deft, feminine touch that has become her trademark, her pieces, especially her sculpture, simply astound with their originality and exquisite details.
Patricia Eustaquio, "Dear Sweet Filthy World I"
At the foyer of the Silverlens space, a multi-faceted, jagged, rock-like formation greets us. Dear Sweet Filthy World IV reaches almost to the ceiling, and has been constructed completely from cardboard. The piece depicts a neoclassical fireplace trapped and overcome by claw-like stalactites. It seems as if natural stone has awakened in anger, attempting to bring what is man-made back into its depths.
Patricia Eustaquio, "Dear Sweet Filthy World II"
This piece reminds me of Sleeping Beauty’s castle (the Walt Disney cartoon version) after Maleficent’s revenge, when everything had been put to sleep, the grounds had become overgrown, and dense foliage had eaten up the castle’s walls.
At foreground, "Dear Sweet Filthy World III"
In the gallery’s main exhibit space, Dear Sweet Filthy World I and II, paintings both, hang on the walls. The first shows two dead birds, innocent victims of an oil spill. The second utilizes another Patty Eustaquio signature. She paints a collage on shaped canvas, recreating one of her paintings and a collection of shells from a Dutch still life.
What dominates the exhibit area are the three pieces that make up Dear Sweet Filthy World III. Constructed from felt that Patty had cut up like the doilies of pastillas de leche wrappers and then stiffened with epoxy, they resemble lifeboats that have been shredded to rags. Perhaps, like the birds in the painting, they had also gone through an oil spill. Or perhaps, like the cardboard mantel, Mother Nature has reclaimed them, slowly eating away until the shreds disintegrate, becoming like leaves that float along the water.
Detail, "Dear Sweet Filthy World III"
Patty Eustaquio
POSTLOCAL: PAINTING BRUIHN, NONA GARCIA, ANNA VARONA, CURATED BY ISA LORENZO
Four paintings comprise this show, an attempt to bring together three very different styles into one discourse.
Anna Varona has concentrated her recent efforts on doing sculpture and working with ceramics. I did not realize that she started her artistic practice as a painter.
Contemplating "white, blank" by Nona Garcia
Brian Uhing, aka Bruihn of Sagada, reportedly takes months to complete his finely-wrought, usually small-scale, pieces. He paints in the manner of Baroque masters, albeit with a surreal, usually humorous, twist. He portrays a serious Little Red Riding Hood with a painting inside her of the wolf cowering in the woods.
Bruihn, "Little Red Riding Hood"
white, blank attracted the most attention on opening night. We haven’t seen work from Nona Garcia in a little more than a year. But this piece, done in shades of white, depicting the back of an albino girl, reminds us why we love Nona. In white, empty she paints an empty cupboard, continuing her fascination for bereft, abandoned spaces.
Patricia Eustaquio Dear Sweet Filthy World and Postlocal:Painting Bruihn, Nona Garcia, Anna Varona run from 17 March to 17 April 2010 at Silverlens and SLab, 2F YMC Bldg, 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City. Phone (632)8160044 or visit http://www.silverlensphoto.com or http://www.slab.silverlensphoto.com
Anna Varona, "Romance Wizard"
Nona Garcia, "white, empty"
im beginning to sense that silverlens/slab has a predilection for things victorian and none more exemplified in these 2 exhibits.
(the show at the back was a bit off, like a misplaced afterthought, or worse looked like a space filler.)
brian uhing’s painting technique has me a bit floored and makes me cringe for the other painters in the show, because obviously the glazing technique reminiscent of 15th/16th c dutch painters takes a whole lot of patience, and time. it’s a very slow process, it’s not for the contemporary artist who is always on demand, always invited to shows, to be in this art fair, to be attending openings, etc.it is a luxury for one to be able to just paint, it’s a dream really. but one has to really decide what to be master of and to be a master of one thing, and one thing only, has to lose all the baggage of fame and sense of entitlement.
Are you telling me it is better to mas produce ? Then it all boils down to money and fame. Not art.
that’s the usual process of entering the gallery method for contemporary artists.if one exhibited his/her work and become established,-irregardless of vision however sublime or absurd, genius or shocking, the artists work would be converted into an art commodity and will be an endless victim of commodification in art.
it was the curator, art dealer and speculator who created the trend, who packages the art and sell it for business for the collections of the wealthy individuals.The most famous artworks is equal to the most expensive.