Pete Jimenez Puts Together Body Parts

"Body Parts" exhibit installation view

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a life-sized bloom with slightly rusting petals ready to unfurl! Pete Jimenez relishes nothing more than taking on a backyard full of scrap and transforming it into whimsical metal sculptures. This man of steel creates art using discarded materials and found objects, a practice borne out by more than ten years of solo exhibits. An advertising professional with a degree in Visual Communications from the University of the Philippines, he turned to sculpture in the late 1990s after good friend, artist and gallery owner Rock Drilon, encouraged him to do so. Both belong to the UP Artists’ Circle Fraternity. This month, Drilon’s Mag:net Gallery in Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City welcomes Jimenez back for Body Parts, a suite of sculptures put together from a dismantled VW Beetle and other vehicles. Continue reading →

May

2010

Hyper Blast Abominations from Pow Martinez

Pow Martinez, "Sidekick"

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 Billion Years, 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 →

Mar

2009

Marija Draws on Bad Manners, Jayson Manipulates Life

Count on Mag:net to bring something novel to

Marija Vicente, Bad Manners Series

to the current crop of shows. Whether exhibiting works of an award-winning contemporary artist, or introducing a promising art student, you can bet that both shows bring us light, easy, uncomplicated pieces. In a word, fun.

BAD MANNERS BY MARIJA VICENTE

Marija still has two years to go as a Painting major at the UP College of Fine Arts. Already, she has made it to Rogue Magazine’s list of women artists to watch. She gives us a chance to find out what the fuss is about as she presents 10 drawings, what she calls foolish

Marije Vicente, Bad Manners Series

portraits. All pencil on paper pieces, she captures uninhibited, even crass, behavior from subjects who have no qualms to embarassment. Would be interesting to see what Marija does next.

Marija Vicente, Bad Manners Series

LIFE EXPECTANCIES BY JAYSON OLIVERIA

Jayson Oliveria, "No Sign of Life" installation, Not to Inspire Awe Series of paintings on printed canvas

Jayson puts together a show of mixed media wall-mounted and free-standing pieces, all culled from the pages of LIFE magazine. He paints over printed canvases, applying smudges, smears, and figures, taking over the images, leaving his imprint, and making them his own. Not bad.

Jayson Oliveria, "Not to Inspire Awe 8" and "Point Blank"

Jason Oliveria, Not to Inspire Awe Series

Bad Manners by Marija Vicente runs from 7 to 26 March 2009, Life Expectancies by Jayson Oliveria runs from 7 March to 8 April 2009. Mag:net Katipunan is at Agcor Bldg, 335 Katipunan Ave., Loyola Heights, Quezon City. Ph (632) 929-3191 or visit www.magnetgalleries.com