Many of her colleagues teasingly refer to Mac Valdezco’s February show, In Focus, as a mini-retrospective (See this blog’s
Mac Valdezco, "Plastic Ghost", from cling wrap, wire, and masking tape
February 2010 Archives). That exhibit inaugurated the art program of the Picasso Boutique Serviced Residences, and curator Albert Avellana did bring out choice pieces from Mac’s body of work. For the artist, seeing all the pieces she had put together posed a challenge. How would she achieve the same effect for her next solo outing? Mac decided that she needed to push herself, pit her pieces against each other, set new ones up against the old, spur herself to outdo previous work in the same media. Continue reading →
Appropriating Kippenberger: Dear Painter, Paint For Me
So what exactly is a painting? That seems to be the question that Nilo Ilarde asks us to consider as we make our way around the colossal pieces of Painting As Something And The Opposite of Something, his solo exhibit currently on view at Finale Art File.
On a visual level, the show is spectacular. We get that wow factor without feeling overwhelmed by the number and the size of his work. While we see treatment that recall past pieces (words scraped on the wall, empty tubes of paint), we come upon surprising additions.
We all know that Nilo puts his curatorial stamp on a good number of shows in Manila. So he knew exactly how to work with Finale’s expansive Tall Gallery. But we also know that Nilo challenges on another, more cerebral, level. And his exhibits engage all the more because of that.
For starters, we have been asked to suspend our conventional notion of paintings, and accept the five pieces he has on view as his paintings, unorthodox as that may sound.
The first of those five immediately catches our eye. Scratched out in gigantic letters that fill most of the gallery’s long wall, Nilo appropriates Martin Kippenberger’s cheeky request: Dear Painter, Paint For Me. The line comes from the title of Kippenberger’s seminal suite of works from 1981 that also turned painting on its ear. Kippenberger had a sign painter execute his portraits in various stage-managed tableaux. In Nilo’s piece, the statement on the wall is itself the finished product. You have a painting, albeit one that had undergone the reverse process from the norm. Paint has carefully been stripped off wood, rather than brushed on it.
At the foreground, "The Void Speaks In Each Painting, Between The Brushstrokes"
Across from this, we see a glass receptacle that houses hundreds of used paint tubes. We saw about half this amount in 2009, as I Have Nothing to Paint, and I’m Painting It. Now with double the number collected from various artists, Nilo has transformed the piece into The Void Speaks In Each Painting, Between The Brushstrokes. Here we see the response to Kippenberger’s plea: Nilo’s colleagues, dear painters all, have indeed painted for him. Composer John Cage once said that the gap between the notes can also be considered as music. Discarded paint tubes make up a painting’s gap. Thus, these repositories of paint, from which several paintings had been created, collectively make up a painting too.
Beside the amassed tubes hangs a boxing ring’s old floor,
A closer look at the collection of empty paint tubes
resurrected, with much cajoling, from the Elorde Sports Center storage. This massive square of printed canvas acts as Nilo’s third painting. He installs this as a diamond, a nod to Mondrian’sVictory Boogie Woogie. Filled with drips of sweat accumulated from the numerous boxers who have sparred on it, their DNA served as the paint that completed the piece.
The Boxing Ring
How can we miss The Road To Flatness? A crushed blue car suspended high above the gallery’s far wall and installed just as a large-scale painting will definitely receive its share of attention. A hired pay loader went to work on an old Volkswagen Beetle until the car had been completely squashed. The pay loader mimicked an Abstract Expressionist, levelling the car’s figure, obliterating all but it’s basic form.
In Making Nothing Out Of Something, Nilo goes further than merely scraping off paint from the gallery’s walls. With the intent to start afresh–he uses the term Tabula Rasa– he completely removed all traces of what had been in that portion of the wall, layer by layer, until only empty space remains. But the irony is, because the emptiness gives us a peek into what we did not see before (Finale’s backroom), he hasn’t really created nothing. We get a framed look at more paintings—Nilo’s final painting of stacked paintings.
“The paintings are about paintings thinking about paintings”, is how Nilo explains his work. We could probably say the same thing about his impact on us. Once we’ve gone beyond the visual feast, the show gets us thinking about paintings too. Well, it did me.
Painting As Something And As The Opposite Of Something runs from 9 July to 2 August at the Finale Art File, Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound, 2241 Pasong Tamo, Makati City. Phone (632)813-2310 or visit http://www.finaleartfile.com
Just like the gradual onset of the rains that signalled the end to a long, hot summer, the word first went out in whispers that soon turned into a downpour of furious text messages. Winner Jumalon had finally finished work on his show, but nobody knew what to expect. And apparently, neither did the folks at Boston Gallery. Continue reading →
I find them quite amusing, these globs and squirts and drips that Pow Martinez uses for his paintings. I first came across his work a little less than a year ago at West Gallery. Aptly titled 1 BillionYears, that show introduced us to Pow’s unique way of rendering figures, somewhat like the crude illustrations of primitive man. He had small pieces, nothing bigger than 2ft x 2ft, or 2ft x 3 ft if I remember correctly, of faces made from smears and clumps of paint. The kind you could also imagine up on the walls of a kindergarten. Continue reading →
In what must be a first in Manila, the newly-opened Picasso Boutique Serviced Residences in Salcedo Village in Makati has
launched its art program. Done hand-in-hand with Art Cabinet Philippines, the hotel makes its public areas and third floor gallery available as venues for showcasing art. Along with room service, guests can look forward to changing exhibits, even on each
For those willing to brave the winter winds and record temperature drops of New York in January, Robert Williams‘ exhibit of paintings and sculpture, Conceptual Realism, runs until the third week of the month. For the rest of us, the James Kalm Report of artist Loren Munk provides a great taste of this show on YouTube. Next month, Williams, founder of Juxtapoz magazine, will exhibit more of his work at the Whitney Biennial. Continue reading →
It turns out, I chose one per quarter. These are personal favorites, exhibits in commercial spaces I found unforgettable. I don’t expect universal approval. Feel free to disagree. Here goes (in chronological order): Continue reading →
Ateneo Art Awards Short-listed Artists with Fr. Nebres of the Ateneo, Richie Lerma of the Ateneo Art Gallery, judges, and sponsors (photo from Rani Jalandoni)
Michelline Syuco with a piece from "Armadillon"
Well, I got two of the three winners right, and the third I actually picked as a runner-up, so I guess I didn’t do too badly in predicting this year’s recipients of the Ateneo Art Awards. I had a feeling the two-dimensional pieces would be passed over, no matter how excellently-made. All in all, the quality of the short-listed artists only bodes well for the future of Philippine art. I am proud to say I saw all but two of the shows in situ. It was great to relive them at the Ateneo Art Gallery’s display at Shangri-La Plaza Mall. Of course the experience does not come close to actually viewing the shows (where was Patty’s lace piano?), but still, you do get a feel for the sensibilities of each of the artists. How exhilarating to witness the diversity!
Detail from Michelline Syjuco's "Armadillon", shown at Mag:net
Raul Manzano, Editor-In-Chief of Metro Society, one of the night's sponsors
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 Philippine art seventy years ago. Continue reading →
Philippine art seventy years ago.