On The Range at Blanc Compound

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


Thirteen Artists at the CCP 2009

 

Exhibit entrance

Exhibit entrance

With the crowds surging around me, it felt like Megamall a day before Christmas rather than the middle of July at the bastion of Philippine culture.  Thirteen artists stood onstage, each one clutching what looked like mega-sized, brightly-colored, multi-layered  snow cones.  The ceremony marked the formal recognition of the triennial Thirteen Artists Awards, given to progressive artists below the age of 40, successors to the original Thirteen Moderns who had challenged the accepted notions of ccp other entrancePhilippine art seventy years ago. Continue reading