Tag Archives: Finale Art File


Into The Woods With Yasmin Sison

yasmin delicate earthquakes

Yasmin Sison, "Delicate Earthquakes"

Yasmin Sison, "The Bird And The Fox"

Yasmin Sison, "The Bird and the Fox"

Blink and you discover that you’ve missed around five good exhibits.  At least that’s how I feel after returning from a short trip and finding myself swamped with so much work that art had to take a back seat for a few days.  It seems I have so much to catch up on.  I decided to make my first foray back into the art scene with the most high profile of shows, Yasmin Sison Ching’s Into The Woods at the SM Art Center.

Yasmin A fistful of impermanence

Yasmin Sison, "A Fistful of Impermanence"

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Lyra’s Lyrical Pain

Lyra Garcellano, "Turning and Turning in the Widening Gyre"

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"

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"

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, exhibit installation

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"

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

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


Rodel Spins Folk Tales in China, Bogie Dances the Kotillion in Singapore, and Annie Takes Us Through Art History in Manila

Rodel Tapaya, "Aponitolau and The Great Flood"

Rodel Tapaya, "Aponitolau and The Great Flood"

Rodel Tapaya, "Bringing Fire to the Earthworld"

Rodel Tapaya, "Bringing Fire to the Earthworld"

Two of my favorite artists, Rodel Tapaya Garcia and Jose Tence Ruiz, take their art to Beijing

Rodel Tapaya, "Origin of the Mountains"

Rodel Tapaya, "Origin of the Mountains"

and Singapore respectively, with solo shows of mainly works on canvas opening seven days from each other.  Meanwhile, back home, Annie Cabigting opens her first major exhibit in almost two years. For fans of Filipino paintings who happen to be traveling around Asia these next few weeks, here are three good shows to catch: Continue reading →


Viewing The Paulino Que Collection of Young Contemporary Artists (aka, The I Wish They Were Mine Show)

Three years ago, Ambeth Ocampo arranged for the

Kim Atienza and Ayala Museum's Ken Esguerra with Jojo Legaspi's "St Thelma"

Kim Atienza and Ayala Museum's Ken Esguerra with Jojo Legaspi's "St Thelma"

Board of Trustees of the Museum Foundation of the Philippines to view Paulino and Hetty Que’s collection of Philippine art and historical objets.  Ambeth, perhaps only half-kidding, dubbed the occasion the tour of the”… real National Gallery”.  As he took us through the assembly of works, from Juan Luna’s canvases, to Fabian dela Rosa’s landscapes, then onto the Amorsolos, and the Thirteen Moderns, from the Ben Cabs to the Ang Kiukoks, we realized what Ambeth meant.  The staggering display covered the whole gamut of Philippine art history from Damian Domingo’s Academia de Dibujo to the 1980s.   Continue reading →


Two Little Shows That Could: Patty Eustaquio at 20 Square and Felix Bacolor at Finale

Isn’t it great when you stumble on fantastic art when you least expect it?  Not all the hype guarantees a great show, so when you come upon shows that deliver the wow factor sans the ballyhoo and waiting lists, doesn’t that just make your day?

After Mme Moitessier as Bone China, The Edible Vase, and Miss Manners by Patricia Eustaquio

After Mme Moitessier as Bone China, The Edible Vase, and Miss Manners crochet scuplture by Patricia Eustaquio

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Alcazaren/Pacquing at Finale, Andoi’s First Solo Show, and a Carnival at Blueline Gallery

 

Alcazaren and Pacqing at Finale

Alcazaren and Pacqing at Finale

As Israel pounds the Gaza strip, Barack Obama prepares to take his oath for the presidency, and the Alabang Boys reveal family secrets, the art scene in Manila forges ahead.  Try and catch these three shows before Jan turns into Feb, and we find ourselves with one -twelfth of 09 already gone.

JUAN ALCAZAREN/ BERNARD PACQUING AT FINALE

Younger artists look to Johnny Alcazaren as a beacon,  a former professor who until today inspires them to continue experimenting with their craft.     When you come and view his two-man show with Bernie Pacquing, you  understand why.  The two artists worked closely with curator Nilo Ilarde to come up with site-specific, monumental pieces that take full advantage of Finale gallery’s cavernous space, putting together a fantastic, breathtaking display of paintings, hanging scuplture, floor installations.    You  imagine  yourself transported to a show in Chelsea in New York, or one of the warehouses in the 798 District in Beijing.

Casting Aspirations by Juan Alcazaren

Casting Aspirations by Juan Alcazaren

In my favorite piece, Casting Aspirations,  Johnny reworks his pieces from his December show at Mo Art Space.  Drawing inspiration from  a Louis Vuitton window in Kuala Lumpur, his own fixation with mirrors, and Alice in Wonderland, he arranges plaster pieces cast from household objects atop square mirrors in a checkerboard pattern at a corner beside the gallery’s entrance.  Once hit by light positioned at an angle

True Inspirations by Juan Alcazaren

True Inspirations by Juan Alcazaren

from above, the whole piece comes together like a prism, entrancing diamond patterns reflecting on the wall.  In another beguiling piece, True Inspirations,  he lights used plastic chopping boards from behind, installing them randomly on the gallery’s far wall.

 

alcazaren-5

Paintings and Installation by Juan Alcazaren

Johnny’s large-scale paintings transfix with seemingly-repeated diagrams that mimic a television screen’s test pattern.  Come closer and words come together:  Nervous Painting enumerates parts of our nervous system, Muscular Painting lists down our muscles, and Bloody Painting details the different arteries.  All three inspired by his father’s medical books.

Bernie’s Perfect Storm dominates the gallery’s central portion.  About 480 bamboo reeds hang from seven-foot nylon strings attached to a painting mounted on the ceiling.  Bernie painstakingly coated each one white before gluing feathers at gradated distances throughout the pole.  The result?  A  piece at once majestic and light, appearing to float quietly, hovering between ceiling and floor.

The Perfect Storm and Ochre, Surrounded by Gray Matter by Bernard Pacquing

The Perfect Storm and Ochre, Surrounded by Gray Matter by Bernard Pacquing

 

 

He also has two paintings, done in his signature Abstract Expressionist style:  Ucello’s Chalice in a Firestorm, a diptych done in vivid orange to dark red, and Ochre Surrounded by Gray Matter, his more subdued triptych.

One MUST try and catch this show.  Go in the late afternoon when the shadows lengthen, and the lights from Johnny’s and Bernie’s pieces come out brighter.  Once you do, you’ll want to come back.  I know I do.

Ucello's Chalise in a Firestorm by Bernard Pacquing

Ucello's Chalise in a Firestorm by Bernard Pacquing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Juan Alcazaren Bernard Pacquing is at Finale Art File from 13 January to 7 Febuary 2009.  Finale is at Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound, Pasong Tamo, Makati City.  Tel (632)813-2310 or www.finaleartfile.com

ADAM EN GRISAILLE, ANDOI SOLON AT KAIDA GALLERY

Prevailing Prayers by Andoi Solon

Prevailing Prayers by Andoi Solon

At the opposite end of EDSA from Finale, inside a small gallery quietly making a name for itself in busy and bustling Kamuning,  Andoi Solon marks his first solo show by celebrating a series of firsts.  Curated by artist Ruel Caasi, Andoi’s pieces pay homage to Adam, the first man in the story of creation.  Andoi mimics the Mannerist figures of El Greco and Cesar Legaspi, painting in grisaille, traditionally used as a foundation for painted images. 

Adam's Apples by Andoi Solon

Adam's Apples by Andoi Solon

Andoi shifted careers, leaving behind a marketing job with a telecom supplies company.  He went back to school, graduating from the UP College of Fine Arts in 2008.  He has been generating a bit of a buzz among local art collectors.  Next up for him is another solo show, this time at Utterly Art in Singapore, scheduled for March.  Definitely one artist that bears watching!

 

L'Absence de Mary by Andoi Solon

L'Absence de Mary by Andoi Solon

 

 

 

 

 

Adam En Grisaille runs from 11 to 28 January 2009 at Kaida Gallery, GFO Building, Kamuning Road, Quezon City. Tel (632)414-4777 or www.kaidagallery.com or visit www.andoi.co.cc

 FUNNY CRY HAPPY, CLAIRELYNN UY AT BLUELINE GALLER

You find art in the most unexpected places.  Stroll around the 4th floor in Rustan’s Makati, and squeezed in between suitcases in the luggage section and the towels and linen in the home section you stumble onto an exhibit by Clairelynn Uy.  In this solo show of five

Smile by Clairelynne Uy

Smile by Clairelynn Uy

paintings, she moves on from her usual photorealistic images of children’s toys and takes us to a carnival, bringing to life the carousel and bump cars that we so love to ride.  Once on, we are transported out of our realities to a world of magic.  Just as Clairelynn’s pieces do. 

Baby Aint Got Horn by Clairelynn Uy

Baby Aint Got Horn by Clairelynn Uy

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funny Cry Happy is at Blueline Gallery from 29 December 2008 to 29 January 2009,  4F Rustan’s Department Store, Makati  www.bluelinegallery.multiply.com