Gilda Cordero Fernando, "Biyaheng Pinoy"
(This piece comes out in the November issue of Town And Country Magazine. In the course of writing this, I spent an exhilarating afternoon with GCF. As an added bonus to the great conversation, she allowed me to wander through her art collection. I am sharing pictures of her pieces in this post.) Continue reading
"Realms Of The Senses" and Andy Barrioquinto
I had always been drawn to Andres Barrioquinto’s faces, especially the monochromatic ones of recent history, rendered almost flat, in tones of blue. Continue reading
View of Sungdu-an Installation
While other countries regularly mount their biennials or triennials, our Sungdu-an is the closest thing we have to a nationally
Christine Sicangco, "Thou Son's Cranes"
organized visual arts event. Continue reading
Rodel Tapaya, "Espiya ni Pedroso"
The first day of the week brought in the sunshine, a welcome balm to a city reeling from images of misery and destruction. Later in the day the rains may start pouring again, pounding relentlessly on bodies and belongings that haven’t recovered, still not inured to another onslaught. I thought to seize the best of the day, to take a few hours break from dismal reality. I headed north, and after
Rodel Tapaya, "Tumana"
seeing Boston Gallery’s current exhibit, knew I had made the right choice. Continue reading
Joel Alonday, "The Disguise"
What a welcome development for the art scene that the creative minds behind Art Informal have decided to devote half of their line up for the year to sculpture exhibits. Already, they’ve chalked up some pretty good ones: glass and stone pieces from Noell El Farol and Mervy Pueblo, works on clay in Himasmas, woodwork
Joel Alonday, "Posporo"
from Riel Hilario. Even more exciting, Joel Alonday, one of the gallery’s prime movers and its resident curator, also the 2008 Metrobank Foundation awardee for Achievement in Sculpture, finally shows his own pieces. Because of his responsibilities in developing AI’s exhibits and conducting its workshops, Joel’s fans and collectors have had to wait three years for this solo appearance.
Joel Alonday, "Makiling"
Few of us know that Joel’s background in industrial design led him to a stint as an exporter in the 1980s. Not content with merely developing products for foreign markets, he also learned how to fabricate them. He honed his skills in basketry and sewing, carving wood, welding iron, and working with resin. Eventually, his nine to five job crossed into more creative pursuits. As his firm exported papier mache products in 1987, he joined the art group Hulo and exhibited life-sized papier
Joel Alonday, "Missing A Leaf"
mache sculpture. It took a few years before his first solo show. In 1994, at the CCP, he presented mixed media assemblages. By 1997, he committed himself fully to sculpture, collaborating with curator Bobi Valenzuela, showing first in Hiraya, then Boston Gallery.
Joel Alonday, "Oh Jonah"
Markings signals a departure for Joel, a break from monumental pieces in cold cast marble. This time, he holds off on busts of our national heroes and denizens of classical mythology. Instead, he takes us on an intimate journey through his personal and artistic life. He works with clay, occasionally combining it with wrought iron, experimenting with different glazes to finish his pieces. He installs his pieces chronologically, grouping together works that recall specific periods and events.
Joel Alonday, "Mortuus Mens"
We begin at the gallery’s foyer. In Fairytale, Joel portrays a mermaid’s tail as a fragile and delicate skeleton, gently curving as if ready to swish. Through its slightness, he illustrates how easily a myth crumbles with the onset of adulthood. He uses locally-sourced clay for this piece, a variety developed by potter Jon Pettyjohn. Mortuus Mens means death of the mind. It is a depiction of the god Shiva, atrophied from the inactivity of its brain. You first notice that this figure wears its brains like a rapper’s skullcap. Its torso has six arms and they hang limply on its side. Before devoting his days to his art, Joel felt brain dead, paralyzed by his daily corporate grind.
Joel Alonday, "Fairytale"
Joel lets us into his internal struggles with his faith via two pieces. The humorous Mooning portrays the devil burrowing his way back to the underworld with only its long and spiky tail visible to us on earth. Seed takes a more sombre tone, with its bust of Padre Pio, recently canonized, a source of miracles.
Joel Alonday, "Mooning"
Joel Alonday, "Seed"
My favorite piece, Disguise, speaks of past heartbreak at the hands of women who are not what they seem to be. Lift up her hair and voila, she takes on a different persona. Almost unnoticed, the tips of her wig end in goat horns. Posporo is the last piece Joel finished for this show, at the point when he felt spent and burnt out.
Joel Alonday, "Medusa"
While the tragic events brought on by Typhoon Ondoy make the art scene seem irrelevant for now, it would be a pity to miss out on Joel’s show. After all, we may have to wait another three years for the next one.
Joel Alonday, "Lady By The Sea"
Markings by Joel Alonday runs from 24 September to 24 October 2009 at Art Informal, 277 Connecticut St., Greenhills East, San Juan. Phone (632) 725-8518 or visit http//:www.artinformal.com
Geraldine Javier, "Temple of My Familiar"
These days, Geraldine Javier gets off on creepy crawlies. Nope, she doesn’t harbor the hots for some congressman. Not with that kind of a low life. We’re talking literally. You know, praying mantis longer than the average guy’s hand span. Giant beetles that turn
Geraldine Javier, "Wallflowers"
a luminous shade of chartreuse depending on which angle you look at it. We’re talking dragonflies and damselflies with exoskeletons that give off a dull metallic glint when hit by the late afternoon sun. These days, as Ghe transforms into a hermit, spending months cocooned in her studio, she keeps company with dozens of insects, frozen, lacquered, and preserved to her exact specifications. Continue reading
Alfredo Esquillo Jr., "Pangakong Langit"
When we think of Cavite, we think of Emilio Aguinaldo hoisting the flag of the first Philippine Republic from his balcony in Kawit, of the tulisans that struck fear and terror on average folk, of Ramon Revilla, as Nardong Putik, brandishing his agimat against the forces of evil. We also know the agimat as the anting-anting, an amulet against danger and death, one’s defense against bodily harm. Continue reading
Lyra Garcellano, "Turning and Turning in the Widening Gyre"
Lyra Garcellano needed to bring herself out of a rut. We can all relate to that. Sometimes it just feels better to slosh around
Lyra Garcellano, "Nessum Dorma" and "Last Tango"
in self-pity. It takes too much effort to rise above a bad patch. You can’t imagine yourself out of the shadows.
Lyra Garcellano, "Parabola"
Through her paintings, Lyra attempts to mirror these emotions. She depicts her subjects as they lie immersed in the blues, floundering, helpless. She paints in sepia, tones she has been using for most of her recent pieces. Lyra fills her pieces with dainty details, soft folds on clothing here, windblown grass there. She treads delicately on despair.
In the throes of despair
She also exhibits two large- scale charcoal drawings of subjects on a free fall. These hang from way up on the gallery’s far wall. At
Lyra Garcellano, "How Deep Is The Ocean, How High Is The Sky I and II"
the center of the space, she mounts an installation of a ladder that casts a looming shadow in white cement. The first few of the ladder’s rungs stand broken, illustrating the difficult climb ahead.
Lyra Garcellano
Eventually, like Lyra, you expect her subjects to get a grip, get a move on, get going with life. But for the meantime, what a wondrous way to wallow!
Old Pain by Lyra Garcellano runs from 9 to 30 September 2009 at Finale Art File, Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound, Pasong Tamo, Makati. Phone (632) 810-4071 or visit http://www.finaleartfile.com
Riel Hilario, "A Piece of Bread: St. Roch"
Riel Hilario does his best work when he goes back to his roots. Trained by santo carvers in his native Ilocos, he revisits this skill in his latest show, Aniwaas, at Art
View of exhibit installation
Informal in Greenhills. The Ilocano believes that a person possesses four souls. Aniwaas is that which stays earthbound, not as a ghost but as an imprint that lingers on. The Aniwaas may take the form of animals, tiny creatures like birds and butterflies.
Riel Hilario, "Even Monkeys Fall From Trees"
In this show, Riel exhibits small birds with human faces. These images have recurred in his dreams, that of Santo Niños transformed into birds that retain the Holy Infant’s facial features. Another device that occurs repeatedly in his work, that of disembodied hands, harks to an invisible object, an unseen other that interacts with the piece but remains beyond our visual plane. He uses this in The Wanderer. We also see this in The Reverie of Reason Produces…,his
Riel Hilario, "At Sea, One Weekend Journey"
attempt at Velasquez’s Santa Maria Infanta. He injects a dose of humor in The Fire Girl and Better To Burn Out Than Fade Away, his depictions of children with their heads on fire, inspired by witnessing his daughter throwing a tantrum.
The most beautiful pieces, the ones that make us appreciate Riel’s skill the most, are the larger ones: No Longer to Dream But to Be Dreamt Of, Even Monkeys Fall Out of Trees, Flock Birds of the Same: Whispering St. Francis, and the invitation piece, Birds In My Ear, Spectre in My Shoulder. At Sea,
Detail, "At Sea, One Weekend Journey"
One Weekend Journey serves as a receptacle for corals and other found objects from the serene Ilocano seaside at Sitio Remedios.
Riel Hilario, "The Fire Girl" and "Better To Burn Out Than To Fade Away"
I first encountered Riel’s pieces at Pinto Gallery in Antipolo, shortly after Kakaduwa, his 2005 solo show at Boston Gallery. Kakaduwa refers to another of our souls, the doppelganger that the Ilocanos believe travels in our sleep. Even then, I could sense his affinity to wood, his instinct for chiseling and bringing this medium to life via pieces that meld his background as a santo carver and contemporary sculptor. I am so glad he’s back, coaxing wood into art.
Riel has left a personal memento inside each one of these pieces. This ritual allows the sculptor to give a part of himself to his work. Thus, true to the show’s title, we can look at these wooden forms as Riel’s own Aniwaas.
Riel Hilario, "No Longer To Dream But To Be Dreamt Of"
Aniwaas by Riel Hilario runs from 3 to 20 September 2009 at Art Informal, 277 Connecticut St., Greenhills East, San Juan. Phone (632)725-8518 or visit http:// www.artinformal.com
Riel Hilario, "Birds In My Ear, Spectre In My Shoulder"
Another view of installation
Maya Munoz, "Epilogue"
Maya Munoz, "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her Face"
The last time we saw Maya Munoz she gave us bleak landscapes, infinite horizons of black and white and gray. These days, as she
Maya Munoz, "The Romanticist"
muses on the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice, she injects something different. She surrounds her paintings of singular figures with a joyous palette: backgrounds in vivid purple and ocean blues, splashes of rouge and yellow, blossoms in mandarin and fuchsia. But don’t take that to mean that Maya’s work has resorted to triteness, to illustrating love through sunshine and flowers. At the foreground of her pieces, she depicts her figures in silhouettes, dark shadows that portend sad endings. Every great romance culminates in tragedy after all. Nothing illustrates this more than the tale of Orpheus, Apollo’s son, who braves the underworld to bring his Eurydice back to light, only to lose her forever with a glance.
Maya Munoz, "12 Minutes, Coz"
The Romanticist by Maya Munoz runs from 29 August to 19 September 2009 at The Drawing Room, 1007 Metropolitan Avenue, Makati City. Phone (632)897-7877 or visit http://www.drawingroomgallery.com
Maya Munoz, "There She Goes My Beautiful World"
Maya Munoz, "For Orpheus, The Necessity of Dreaming"
Maya Munoz, "Tonight When You Dream of the Sun"
