Tag Archives: manila art blogger


Ronald Ventura’s Humanime In Taiwan

Ronald Ventura changes gears once again for Humanime at the Fine Art Center in Tainan, Taiwan.  In this one-man show, which ended this week, Ronald exhibited large-scale paintings and life-sized sculpture, embracing an aesthetic that hews close to the superflats of artists like Takashi Murakami and Aya Takano.  He has incorporated anime elements in most of his recent works, but this marks the first time he has mined this concept so thoroughly. Ronald enjoys a tremendous following in Taiwan.   He pulled out all the stops for this exhibit, opening with a live performance involving models costumed in the cutesy-provocative style of Harajuku girls, an event duly covered by the city’s media. Continue reading →


Alfredo Esquillo Jr.’s Kalooban Narratives

Alfredo Esquillo Jr., "Fruit Of Thy Womb", detail

The Filipino-English dictionary translates kalooban into three words:  heart, mind, will.  Alfredo Esquillo Jr. considers it the most spiritual word in the Tagalog language.  “We can use it in our daily living or we use it in our relationship with God. That we have this one word must mean it is innate in us.” Continue reading →


Kaloy Sanchez, His Missives, And More at West Gallery

Kaloy Sanchez likes to be alone.  The twenty-nine-year-old artist recluses himself in his studio, painting the environment that exists within what he calls a bubble, the world that encompasses only his immediate surroundings.  He hardly ventures out, not even for the receptions that open his group shows.  He chooses to keep largely to himself despite his recent rise into the consciousness of Manila’s art collectors. Continue reading →


A Photography Collection at silverlens

Neil Oshima, "Gummy Worms", 2009

I’ve had the good fortune to view pieces from Isa Lorenzo and Rachel Rillo’s private art collection before, an invitation I wouldn’t have passed up.  The chance of savoring Rachel’s cooking served as an equally strong lure as the superb art they laid out for our enjoyment. I think that it’s great that they’ve mounted selected works at silverlens, the gallery they own and manage.  A Photography Collection allows their clients and supporters to share in their affinity for an art form that they both practice so well. Continue reading →


Realities, The Ronald Ventura Book

At the book launch

These days, Ronald Ventura carries one of the most recognizable names in Philippine—even Asian— art.  We constantly discuss the millions of pesos (and after the Christie’s Spring Auctions in May, the million dollars) his pieces command in the salerooms in Hong Kong.  While we marvel at his incredible technique, we moan about the impossibly long waiting list for any of his works. Many of us, even the most ardent art collectors, tend to forget that Ronald’s success today has meant more than a dozen years of consistency and confidence, of pushing the boundaries, of staying ahead of the game, of ignoring the skeptics and enduring controversy. Continue reading →


Maria Jeona’s Teenage Mutant Fantasies

Maria Jeona Zoleta, "Playground Love"

Even with a title like Tricky Sexy Sodomy or The Case of The Attention Seeking Whores, by Maria Jeona’s standards, you could call this show restrained.  No bloodstained feminine napkins, no panties and bras hanging anywhere.   Certainly a touch more circumspect than we’ve seen from her before. Continue reading →


Cosmetic Order at MO Space

Exhibit installation view

Three colleagues come together for Cosmetic Order, the exhibit now running at MO Space.  To quote from the wall notes, this show “…takes from the artists’ fairly recent entanglements with superficiality.” Continue reading →


Kiko Escora’s Circa Circus

I can’t remember the last time Kiko Escora mounted a solo exhibit. We’ve kept up to date with his work largely through The Drawing Room’s participation in art fairs and his own intermittent appearances in group shows around Manila.  This one, then, is long overdue. Continue reading →


Manila Welcomes Natee Utarit

Natee Utarit, "Economy Lesson"

For many of us who keep abreast of the Southeast Asian contemporary art scene, Natee Utarit is a rock star.  Arguably Thailand’s best-known painter, he enjoys the same stature that Manila accords Ronald Ventura or Geraldine Javier.  Like them, he is a familiar presence in the auction circuit.  Natee has exhibited extensively throughout the region, including solo shows in China and Korea. Last year, the Singapore Art Museum mounted a mid-career retrospective of the 41-year-old’s work. Continue reading →


Skull Overload at Secret Fresh

By Jigger Cruz

The skull must be to us as the peace sign was to the hippies and rebels of the 1960s and 70s.  We see it everywhere, on everything. The visual arts, especially, has adopted it an all manner of works.  Damien Hirst’s For The Love of God counts as one of the more notorious ones in recent history, platinum cast and encrusted in diamonds, priced at close to $100 million dollars.  Unfazed by the controversy created by the sale (or non-sale, depending on which report one subscribes to), the artist made another one, this time using the cast of an infant’s skull, to inaugurate the Gagosian Gallery’s Hong Kong branch early this year.  He called this second version For Heaven’s Sake. Continue reading →