"Tamamali", installation view
You can’t separate his alter ego, A.lien, from Neil Arvin Javier. Even when he works within the confines of a gallery, he remains true to his street art roots. I admit a soft spot for his collages, these rowdy, quite anarchical, acclamations of the urban Pinoy. Continue reading
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 Continue reading
Neil Arvin Javier, "It Was So Good", mixed media (collage), 153x183 cm
Alrashdi S. Mohammad, "Expand" and "Active", mixed media, 183x137 cm
With the CCP not exactly in my neighborhood, I debated whether I had the time to swing by Implode, a special exhibit of selected alumni from the Technological University of Philippines College of Architecture and Fine Arts. Luckily, my schedule cooperated, as did the traffic lights on EDSA, and I found myself in the CCP’s third floor gallery in half an hour, right before the show opened. Best of all, save for the artists busy with their last minute arrangements, I had the space all to myself. Continue reading