Leeroy New's interventions on the CCP's main staircase
I decided to come early this time around, and felt amply rewarded for my efforts. There is much to recommend the 2012 Thirteen Artists Awards exhibit, and I wanted the opportunity to savor it on my own pace. Continue reading
Jigger Cruz, "Dead End", detail
Between awaiting this upgraded site and attending to a ton of work, September just whizzed by me. Manila’s art scene yielded some incredible shows. While I did get the chance to catch most of them, I couldn’t find the time to sit down and write. For posterity’s sake, I thought I’d document them here anyway. Here are September 2011’s highlights: Continue reading
Kaloy Sanchez, "Flightless"
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. Continue reading
Mariano Ching, "Under The Western Sky Series 3"
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. Continue reading
Costantino Zicarelli, "1:11:00 (after the birds)"
Cos Zicarelli veers to the dark side. Literally. In this show, we are the kids that your parents warned you about, which opened a few days ago at Art Informal, he makes liberal use of the color black for his paintings on canvas, works in ink on paper, and for the installation that serves as his show’s most commanding piece. Continue reading