Author Archives: manilaartblogger


Goldie Poblador Goes Deep Within

Goldie Poblador, "Immensity", detail

To conceptualize this show, Goldie Poblador turned to the writings of Jesuit paleontologist and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.  Throughout his life, Teilhard de Chardin courted controversy as he tried to bridge the gap between his scientific ruminations with the teachings of the Church.  He posits that all matter undergoes evolution, and one day all will be integrated into one consciousness.  Goldie attempts to capture this integrated consciousness by reducing living organisms to their essences, their souls.  How does one transform a soul into a tangible object we viewers

Goldie Poblador, "You #23"

can visualize?  Goldie returns to glass, a medium she works very comfortably with, to— literally— crystallize each of the souls of her living organisms.  As a nod to Teilhard de Chardin’s work as a scientist, she mounts her essences/souls inside glass boxes, mimicking specimens in a natural history museum.

Previously, Goldie captured essences of a different sort.  For her senior thesis project in UP, she mixed liquid scents of

Goldie Poblador, "You #5"

the city: squalor, pollution, the aroma of coffee.  She contained them in glass bottles that she inflated herself.  Her installation resembled a department store’s perfume counter.  Goldie received critical acclaim for this piece.  She made it to the Shortlist of the 2009 Ateneo Art Awards, and the Singapore Art Museum asked her to reprise a portion of it for their exhibit of Filipino art last November.

Goldie Poblador, "You #10"

In this show, The Within, Goldie plays to her strengths and delivers another winner.  Her organisms, made with glass she again has blown herself, are delicate, fragile, wispy, yet full of detail—transparent facsimiles of the real things, exactly as souls should be.  She has insects,

Goldie Poblador, "You #15"

spiders, jellyfish, plankton, fishbones, and coral, all true to size. Goldie covered the gallery’s walls with cut fabric that I thought resembled scales.  She says that she had meant to fill the walls with feathers, but she could not gather enough of them. No matter, the fabric does a good job of providing a textured backdrop to her glass specimen boxes.

Goldie Poblador, "You #11"

Goldie partially enclosed the rear of the gallery to house her best piece.  How does one capture the human soul?  With clear glass balls attached to steel rods as she does with Immensity.  Here is a human reduced to its barest form, even its visage has been stripped away, clasped before it by hands detached from its main body. Yet something of its essence remains.  Pin lights inserted amidst the life-sized form give off an ethereal glow, emitting the presence of some form of life within.

Goldie Poblador, "Immensity"

The Within runs from 3 November to 3 December 2010 at the 4th Floor, The Picasso Boutique Serviced Residences, 119 LP Leviste St., Salcedo Village, Makati City.  Phone (632) 828-4774 or visit http://www.artcabinetphilippines.com or visit http://www.picassomakati.com

Goldie Poblador, "You #12"

Installation of insects and a soul

Goldie Poblador

Installation view


Plet Bolipata’s Fearless Flamboyant Women and Mad Mosaics

Plet Bolipata, "A Strong Wind Blowing North Summons An Army of Chairs", oil and collage on canvas, 48 x 48 in.

Detail, "Three Lives and A Party of Chairs"

If Plet Bolipata’s works came alive and transformed into celebrities, they would be Paris Hilton or Kimora Lee Simmons— flamboyant, vivacious, and unabashedly luxe.  From the jewel tones she uses as backdrop for her collages, to the florid and audacious patterns she mixes onto her mosaics, her works brim with opulence and confidence.  Her pieces are meant for joyous celebrations, the kind where everyone nibbles on foie gras and toasts martinis without thought for tomorrow.  Quiet introspection can come another day. Or for someone else’s art. Continue reading →


Ateneo Art Gallery at 50: Lee Aguinaldo and Modern Masterpieces

Lee Aguinaldo, "Monday", 1959 August 10

Fifty years ago, Fernando Zobel, artist and heir to one of the country’s industrial fortunes, donated his art collection to the

Lee Aguinaldo, "Homage to Pollock", 1953 Jan. 16

Ateneo de Manila University.  Continue reading →


Riel Hilario and His Apostles

Riel Hilario, "Gazing into the horizon while it gazes back at you", carved and polychromed friutwood, 70x24x20 cm

When sculptor Riel Hilario sits before a chunk of wood, he has no preconceived forms in his head.  Like a shaman, he lets the wood guide him, allowing it to tell him what to do.  On occasion, he even lets his dreams dictate the directions of his hands. What he consciously aspires for is the  creation of contemporary sculpture using the woodcarving traditions he grew up with.  In this exhibit of new works at The Drawing Room, Riel taps into his Ilocano heritage to once again bring us his rebultos, art that is in the round, derived “from the block”. Continue reading →


The TUP Implosion

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 →


Julie Lluch and Her Girls Do Their Home Works

Julie Lluch, "Aba's Yellow Christ", terracotta and acrylic

Being with family means having the freedom to relax, get goofy, be yourself.  It implies the comfort to do as one pleases. Where else would  Kiri Dalena, artist and activist who takes us to the scenes of massacre and murder, show her irreverent side other than with her family?  Or will her sister Sari share a self-portrait that unabashedly glories in her protruding pregnant belly? Home Works, at the AFM Total Gallery, captures the

Julie Lluch, "Cat", terracotta and acrylic

casual, humorous, and playful atmosphere of a family get together.  The group exhibit presents works by the celebrated sculptor, Julie Lluch, and her three equally-talented daughters.

Aba Lluch Dalena, "Buhay Aso", terracotta and acrylic

Julie brings out intimate pieces, clay and marble renditions of domestic animals and decorative objects that one encounters within the sphere of one’s home.  As we enter the main exhibit area, her sculpture of a startled cat greets us.  Produced in what has now been recognized as a Julie Lluch trademark, she depicts the animal with its hackles raised, its teeth bared, half snarling, half surprised.  The cat’s comical expression in the many versions of this piece never fails to get a laugh out of me.

Julie Lluch, "Crucifix After Aba", terracotta and acrylic

Nearby, as a counterpoint to Cat, we see the first of Aba Lluch Dalena’s works:  two dogs joined together, caught in flagrante, seemingly oblivious to the humans in their vicinity—just as they would be in real life.  Three versions of a crucifix adorn one of the gallery’s walls. Aba’s Yellow Christ is the only one of the three where Julie completes the details of Christ’s head and face.  While I have seen several of Julie’s crucifixes, I have not seen any of these particular ones before.

Aba’s sculpture has been set amongst her mother’s work.

Aba Lluch Dalena, "Home Works 2 (Daddy in Pakil, Laguna)", terracotta and acrylic

Along with Askal,  another  stray pup, and Palaka, a giant green toad, she created four miniature tableaux  full of wonderful detail.

Home Works 2 (Daddy in Pakil, Laguna) shows their father at work, the great Danny Dalena seated before a canvas. It includes a small facade of Pakil’s famous cathedral, echoing

Aba Lluch Dalena, "Home Works 1 (Mommy and her Cacti Heart Sculptures)", terracotta and acrylic

the actual view from the Dalena ancestral home.  Home Works 1(Mommy and Her Cacti Heart Sculptures) is my favorite.  It depicts Julie amidst many of her most recognizable work:  the busts of Van Gogh and Gauguin, spiky cacti, her clay hearts.  Both pieces include playful dogs wiggling on the floor.

Kiri Dalena, "Five Words To Read Aloud (After Daddy)", neon

I thought Kiri’s work the most surprising of all.  Her pieces in this show depart completely from the socio-political commentaries we have come to associate with her.  She cast three larger than life blown up condoms in resin, painted in baby pink, black, and white.  The three have been placed before a neon sign with the

Kiri Dalena, "White Condom (After Daddy)", resin and automotive paint

words teeth, thing, mall, lamb, bought.  If we do as the title suggests, Five Words To Be Read Aloud (After Daddy), we realize why her condoms have such odd shapes!

Exhibit installation of Kiri's work

Beside the condoms, Kiri’s Penis Line (After Mommy) forms a single procession along the entire length of the wall.  Dozens of thumb-sized terracotta penises appear to wiggle, bow, or stand in attention. One can choose to acquire them singly or in groups.  Take your pick!

Two self-portraits complete the show.  One of them is of Julie, an acrylic painting from 1972.  In contrast, Sari represents herself in video, a piece for the 21st century.

Kiri Dalena, "Penis Line (After Mommy)", detail

Home Works runs from 5 to 28 October 2010 at the AFM Total Gallery, Alliance Francaise de Manille, 209 Nicanor Garcia St., (Formerly Reposo St.), Bel Air 2, Makati.  Phone (632) 897-7757 or visit http://www.alliance.ph

 

Kiri Dalena, "Penis Line (After Mommy)", terracotta and acrylic

Julie Lluch, "Self Portrait", acrylic on canvas, 1972

Sari Lluch Dalena, "Self Portrait", video loop

Aba Lluch Dalena, "Askal", terracotta and acrylic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Tony Twigg and the Spaces in Between

 

Tony Twigg, "Making Mambo In White", oil on canvas, 137x199 cm.

 

Tony Twigg has not mounted an exhibit of his paintings since his art school days.  Art circles in Southeast Asia—the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore—and in his native Australia, know him for his wonderful wall-bound and freestanding timber constructions.  He uses strips of found wood to create abstract patterns that play with positive and negative spaces.  He leaves gaps in between these bands of milled wood that do as much to complete each piece as the wooden portions. “Just think of a donut”, Tony explains.  “What is important is what is not there.”

 

Tony Twigg, "The Vibrafon", enamel on timber construction in 16 parts, 120x38406.5 cm

 

It is these spaces in between that have led him to the new direction his art has taken for The Entropy Shuffle and Other Compositions From The Vibrafon, now on view at Galeria Duemila.

One looks at the exhibit as a visual progression that starts with The Vibrafon, a three-dimensional piece in wood, and ends with Standing Vibrafon, a three-dimensional piece in metal.  In between the two points, Tony plays with patterns drawn from The Vibrafon and transforms them into two-dimensional abstract paintings.  He used The Vibrafon’s wooden slats as stencils.  Paint serves as the medium that highlights these patterns for us.  Tony compares his paintings to HR Ocampo’s pieces:  contrasting colors fill in the gaps of what had been negative spaces.  Munchkins have been made from donut holes.

 

Tony Twigg, "The Entropy Shuffle No. 4 and 5", oil on canvas, 120 x 305 cm.

 

For his nine canvases, Tony adopts a palette reminiscent of mid-20th century mod.  The variations in black, white, gray, red, dark brown, mustard, and dull blue give off a retro vibe that one finds in movie posters or print ads from the late 1950s to the early 1960s.  They have a feel that a 21st century audience can relate to because of the TV series Mad Men.  My personal favorites are the simple ones, black and white, or grays with the touch of red.  They remind me of the early Luz abstracts and the Luz mural now installed at the CCP.

 

Tony Twigg, "Standing Vibrafon", milled steel construction, 170 x170 x 6.8 cm.

 

The titles that Tony has chosen for his paintings, with their musical connotations (mambo, waltz, shuffle), give us the impression that his artistic process mirrors the composition of music.  One piece, when rearranged, can yield a range of scores, all equally enjoyable.

Tony Twigg’s works in wood have always been beautiful examples of contemporary abstraction.  Now, with the addition of his paintings, and even his foray into metal,  they have become even more so.

 

Tony Twigg, "The Entropy Shuffle #1", oil on canvas 122 x152.5 cm and "The Entropy Shuffle #2", oil and graphite on canvas, 122 x 152.5 cm

 

The Entropy Shuffle and Other Variations from The Vibrafon runs from 9 October to 2 November 2010 at Galeria Duemila, 210 Loring St., Pasay City.  Phone (632)831-9990 or visit http://www.galeriaduemila.com

 

Tony Twigg, "The Entropy Shuffle #3", oil on canvas, 122 x 152.5 cm

 

 

Tony Twigg, "Blue Sky Waltz 5 and 6" (Diptych), oil and enamel on canvas, 244 x 61 cm

 

 

Tony Twigg, "Blue Sky Waltz #1 and 2" (Diptych), oil on canvas, 122 x 122 cm

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ChLoYIPBg


Pow Martinez Gets LOST

Pow Martinez, "Flushed", oil on canvas, 6ftx 7ft

I got lost getting to LOST.  I made a wrong turn the first time I dropped in on LOST Projects, Manila’s newest alternative art space.  I came two days before the venue formally opened, and the sign outside had still been covered up.  The ground floor gallery slash artist’s studio smelled faintly of paint, and its walls dazzled with a fresh white coat. Continue reading →


Luis Lorenzana Revels With Beer Fairies

 

Luis Lorenzana, "The Summon of Emperor Fragile with the Green Yuki Girls", 48"x36, oil on canvas

Luis Lorenzana’s personal journey as an artist can rival his paintings’ fantastic elements.  The Tales of The Beer Fairies, now running at SLab, takes us to Luis’s fanciful woodlands.  Here, trippy beer bottles flutter around, getting drunk on the emotions of humans who wonder within their proximity.  The paintings take the point of view of the fairies.  Through their eyes, humans themselves appear like enchanted creatures— with soulful eyes and clown faces, possessing two heads, and levitating through fields of green. Continue reading →


Don Salubayba Pops Up!

Don Salubayba takes on the role of storyteller in Lamat, his one-man exhibit now on view at Tin-Aw Art Gallery. He

Don Salubayba, "Pinag-uugatan", mixed media on wood, 12"x24"

turns to his inclinations as an animator, honed through his involvement with the Anino Shadowplay Collective, in this attempt to bring to life a legend on the origin of the Philippines. Continue reading →