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Noell El Farol's Bibliography

It comes as no surprise that Bibliography, Noell El Farol’s ongoing show at Art Informal, evinces a scholarly air.  You only have

Noell El Farol, "Diptera"

to meet the slight, soft-spoken, and bespectacled artist, who also happens to be a university professor, and you can imagine that he approaches the creation of his art in the same way he practices archeology:  careful, deliberate, exact.  His list of academic degrees, which include a Bachelor or Arts in Architecture from the UST College of Fine Arts, and a Diploma in Art Education from the Graduate School of Shizuoka University in

Noell El Farol, "Ophiogompus Susbecha (Series No. 2)

Japan,  reads just as long as  his list of art awards.  Last year, Noell received the Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE) Award for Achievement in Sculpture, a recognition of both his small-scale and public art pieces.

Noell’s work in glass and steel have always reflected his interest in

Noell El Farol, "Raw Or Shock"

archeological excavations.  He mounts his pieces like museum specimens, frequently encasing them in glass boxes, treating them like found relics.  In this show, we see him cross over to his interest in books, the scholar’s frequent companion.  He uses wrought iron to fabricate book replicas, engraving these with text, and accenting them with glass details.  The exhibit presents mostly free-standing books.  But I thought the most impressive work were done

Noell El Farol, "Arachnids and Insects"

with the wall-bound pieces, the recreations of reference materials.

Raw and Shock, Diptera, and Ophiogompus Susbecha (Series No. 2) look like notes from field experiments, with samples and sketches scribbled onto its pages.  They are small-scale framed works, around the size of an A4 Bond Paper. All of them have etchings on glass superimposed on engraved metal.  In Diptera, for instance, Noell’s glass etching of a fly’s brain floats suspended above engravings of various-sized flies on

Detail, "Arachnids and Insects"

an oxidized metal strip.  In Ophiogompus Susbech (Series No. 2), a dragonfly engraved on glass hovers faintly above a row of brass dragonflies.  When hit by light at the right angle, the engraving casts a shadow of a large butterfly across the smaller, metal butterflies.

With Arachnids and Insects, Noell produced another facsimile of a research sketchbook, but one that stands in the round.  It resembles a thick tome, perhaps the

Another detail, "Arachnids and Insects"

size of a family bible, opened up to reveal a page folded out.  A magnifying glass is embedded onto this page, from which you can inspect a beetle engraved within a glass sphere, or brass butterflies positioned beside it.

Cooked Book, one of the other free-standing pieces,  has letters forming the word “recipe” wrapped around it.  Inside, you find metal strips engraved with handwritten recipes.  Religious Inventory, on the other hand, is installed like an altarpiece; it rests on red velvet, atop a pedestal from which you view it by taking a few steps up.  I thought these two seemed a bit out of place, given the scientific bent of the show.  That is not to say, however, that they are not well-made.

Noell El Farol, "Box Reconstructed"

I personally prefer Noell’s pieces that use his cast glass forms, those that are more obviously derived from his excavations.  The wrought iron books seem a little too literal for my tastes.  What comes through though, in this show, as well as any that feature Noell El Farol’s work, is his quiet, erudite, fastidious attitude to doing sculpture.

Noell El Farol, "Cooked Book"

Bibliography runs from 2  to 20 September 2010 at Art Informal,  277 Connecticut St., Greenhills East, Mandaluyong.  Phone (632)725-8518 or visit http://www.artinformal.com

Noell El Farol, "Isarithmic Landscape"

Noell El Farol, "Religious Inventory"

Noell El Farol, "Ruins"

Noell El Farol, "Vessel Series 2"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO-OXP-8ImE


All In The Family: Mariano, Yasmin, and Haraya Ching

Mariano and Haraya Ching, "Jelly Ace Series 5" and "Jelly Ace Series 6", pyrograph and acrylic in wood

Mariano and Haraya Ching, "Jelly Ace Series 5" and "Jelly Ace Series 6", pyrograph and acrylic on wood

Just call it family bonding, Ching-style.  To most parents, especially those with busy careers and young children, spending time with their families means doing things together, mostly on weekends:  eating out, catching a movie, indulging in sports, visiting grandparents.  To artists Yasmin Sison and Mariano Ching,  it is inevitable that in addition to these, art plays a large part in their interaction with their five-year-old son, Haraya. They have  both just come off from doing work for shows out of Manila (Yasmin’s solo, Spaces In Between, was at Artesan in Singapore in June, while Nano participates in Japan’s Aichi Triennale this month). In this exhibit, Games For Growing, at Blanc Peninsula,  they come together as a couple and as a family, showing individual and collaborative work borne out of their role as parents to a precocious child.  To quote from Yasmin’s exhibit statement,”…the exhibition Continue reading →


Chati Coronel's Hour In A Glass Balloon

I had not realized how much I missed seeing an exhibit of just paintings until I dropped by SLab this week for their trio of

Chati Coronel, "Hula Hooped Bubble Gum Moon", acrylic on canvas, 5ftx4ft

openings.  At the moment, all the other shows worth visiting in Manila feature sculpture, installations, a variety of media except paintings on canvas.  I’m not complaining.  But sometimes, you do enjoy simply engaging your sense of sight, viewing a show with nothing too cerebral, just pieces that make you feel good by merely looking at them.   In that respect, Chati Coronel’s An Hour In A Glass Balloon works perfectly.

Chati Coronel, "The Knitters", acrylic on canvas, diptych, 5x4.5ft per panel

Chati has just moved to Manila after seven years in LA.  This exhibit brings her back to the Manila art scene, where she used to be an active participant.  She has shown with Surrounded By Water, the seminal artist- run space of the late 1990s.  She also spent time in Vermont on a residency grant, before her long-term move to the States.  Now she brings out a suite of large-scale paintings (they stand at 5 and 6 feet tall)  inspired by the retro palette and patterns that fill her grandmother’s house, the family home

Chati Coronel, "A New Buddha Head", acrylic on canvas, 6x4 ft

she has returned to.

I don’t normally go for art that can be described as pretty.  But while you can say this about Chati’s paintings, you know they are also so much more.  Her brilliant colors exude  joy and ebullience, with dreamy, romantic titles (Hula Hooped Bubble Gum Moon, Turning Dakini). Her svelte and elongated females hint at the elegance of Mogdiliani’s women. They possess sophistication and a certain je ne sais quoi, nothing that feels contrived.  I especially liked Wedding Day, one of her two diptychs, with its barely discernible figures.  She painted them white, invisible amidst the patterns that swirl through her sky blue backdrop.

Chati Coronel with her acrylic on canvas diptych, "Wedding Day", 6x4ft per panel

It won’t take an hour to enjoy Chati’s glass balloon.  And even if you did spend more than that viewing the show, you’ll do so because her paintings are easy, uncomplicated, relaxing.

An Hour In A Glass Balloon runs from 1 to 29 September 2010 at SLab, 2F YMC Bldg, 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City.  Phone (632) 816-0044 or visit http://www.slab.silverlensphoto.com

Chati Coronel, "An Hour In A Glass Balloon" and "Turning Dakini", both acrylic on canvas, 6x4 ft each

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNMAw5IOoI4


Dick Daroy Takes His Time

Roderico Jose Daroy, Untitled, 1985-2010, termite-ridden glass on collage

They captivated me immediately, these blackened, flaked, seemingly battered pieces from Roderico Jose Daroy.  They reminded me of photos salvaged from our office after Typhoon Ondoy had wreaked its havoc.  We lined them up on the driveway to bake under the sun.  They curled up and cracked, and never looked the same again.

There’s something fascinating about these weathered images that Dick Daroy has put

Roderico Jose Daroy, Untitled, 2007-2009, collage

on the walls of The Drawing Room for his exhibit, and of time.  He framed them in metal, embellished and duly ornate, or in dark wood, classic and severe, bestowing elegance and stateliness to his murky, smeared collages and drawings.  Mr. Daroy creates from photos, prints, paper objects that catch his eye.  He loves to accumulate things from his travels, and collects reproductions from old books and magazines.  He never hurries his process.  He lives with his images for weeks, or months, or years, however long it takes for them to feel complete.  He sticks them up on the walls of his studio and gets to know them, and only then does he work on them.  When you see his pieces up close, you realize that they cannot be rushed, he can use no shortcuts.  Each piece is made up of layers, each process adding another coating, another tale, that transforms the original.

Roderico Jose Daroy, Untitled, 2007-2010, collage

The exhibit carries 36 of these framed works in the main gallery.  A few more hang in the secondary space, The Drawing Room’s office.  For one of his pieces, Mr. Daroy used a portrait by Nazi photographer Leni Riefenstall and worked on it in his kitchen, where he prepares his family’s meals.  He ran over the piece with a burnt pot, until it turned dark and viscous, with only traces of the original image discernible from underneath.  Another has been drawn over with squid ink, while others have been exposed to the elements.  He put together a collage 25 years ago, in 1985, but had not found the perfect frame for it until this year.  He mounted this beneath glass that harbored a colony of termites, and let nature take its course.  A suite of 16 pieces hang on the gallery’s main wall, all of them identical in size.  These are damaged photographs from a trip to Vigan, crackled and frayed, worked over with charcoal.  The figures have not been obliterated, just transmuted into

Roderico Jose Daroy, Untitled, 2009-2010, collage with coaster

abstract forms.

I had never seen Mr. Daroy’s work before.  His last exhibit was eight years ago, before he embarked on a nomadic life, traveling Asia with his wife. I had a nice chat with him over the phone about this show.  To learn more about him, I turned to Jose Tence Ruiz,  Mr. Daroy’s fellow artist and colleague, also a fount of information on the local art scene.  Bogie sent me an article written by Reuben Ramas Cañete, Fade To Black, published 1999 in transit magazine.  And from this I quote:

Roderico Jose Daroy, Untitled, 2009-2010, collage with book and coaster

“Dick Daroy’s pieces takes time to get used to—both on the conceptual and material level.  Art dealers will no doubt shake their heads at the viability of preserving and selling works that are predestined to self destruct before one’s very eyes….and this perception is perhaps one reason Daroy’s works are seldom seen outside the museum circuit.  They require a power of utmost concentration and meditation to search for the sudden flash of insight so popular among Zen practitioners, and this itself is the reward that the few courageous collectors of Daroy reap.  Beyond the blandly commercial consideration of owning a work long enough to dispose of it to the next highest bidder, Daroy’s work speaks of facing up to the inevitability of death; of accepting the fading of life from light to black.”

Roderico Jose Daroy, Untitled, 1995-2010, collage

and of time runs from 21 August to 11 September 2010 at The Drawing Room Contemporary Art, 1007 Metropolitan Avenue, Metrostar Building, Makati City.  Phone (632)897-7877 or visit http://www.drawingroomgallery.com

A suite of 16 Untitled pieces, all charcoal on damaged photos, collage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7jeCDwRAAc


Helping Out Some Glorious Bastards

By the end of September, a group of Filipino artists head for Berlin, to the city’s Freies Museum, a space that proudly calls itself

Jayson Oliveria, untitled oil on canvas piece

“…a place for art and artists in all its contemporary manifestations.”  Manuel Ocampo curates Bastards of Misrepresentation:  Doing Time On Filipino Time, a group show on Manila’s cultural scene.  Running from October 1 to November 10, the exhibit brings together a whole range of work from  15 artists—-from Bea Camacho’s performances, Pow Martinez’s sound installations, Jayson Oliveria and Robert Langenegger’s paintings, to Poklong Anading’s photographs.  Scheduled to coincide with Art Forum Berlin and Berlin Liste, the city’s two important art fairs, the show presents an exciting opportunity to unveil Philippine contemporary art to a city at the forefront of important art movements.

Bea Camacho, "Modules"

Two weeks ago, Blanc Compound played host to an art raffle, one of several efforts mounted by the group to raise funds for this upcoming show.  As we all know, events like this do not get any financial support from our cultural

Nona Garcia, Louie Cordero, Argie Bandoy, Vic Balanon

institutions.  Artists must rely on their own initiative.  Thirty collectors showed their support for this one, and, in addition to enjoying cans of ice cold beer, went home with works by the participating artists (some of which I’ve posted here).

David Griggs, "Bullet 3"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bastards of Misrepresentation:  Doing Time On Filipino Time will feature work by Poklong Anading, Argie Bandoy, Bea Camacho, Lena Cobangbang, Maria Cruz, Gaston Damag, David Griggs, Robert Langenegger, Romeo Lee, Pow Martinez, Manuel Ocampo, Jayson Oliveria, Jucar Raquepo, Gerry Tan, and MM Yu.

For more information, and for those interested to help the artists out,  visit http://www.bastardsofmisrepresentation.wordpress.com

 

Gerardo Tan, untitled collage

Jay Amante and Pow Martinez

Jucar Raquepo, "Horror Picture Show"

Lena Cobangbang, "From the Eggs to the Apples", embroidery on used napkin

Manuel Ocampo, untitled

Marcel Crespo and Rachel Rillo

Maria Jeona Zoleta and Romeo Lee

MM Yu, "Rescind"

Pow Martinez, untitled oil on canvas pieces

Robert Langenegger, "Stoney Knows How"

Robert Langenegger, "Stoney Knows Where"

Romeo Lee, "Elepanty" and "Moon Lee"

Poklong Anading and Paolo Picones

Jucar Raquepo and Migs Rosales

By Gaston Damag

 


Pablo Capati Is In His Element

Pablo Capati III, "Sunken Treasure"

Ten years ago, Pablo Capati III spent his nights running Rokuro, his restaurant in Malate, on hip Nakpil Street.  Rokuro is the Japanese word for pottery wheel. Even then, the allure of what had been a craft learned in high school was undeniable.  As a teenager, Pablo lived in Japan.  And it was there where he learned the basics of stoneware, of expressing

Pablo Capati III, "Tsubo"

himself through his creations in clay.

In 2003, Pablo moved to Batangas, to his family’s farm, and committed himself to pottery full time.  Seven years later, as we come to view Element, his first solo exhibit, we see the beautiful results of that fateful choice.

Pablo Capati III, "Baal"

As art collector Rene Guatlo explains in his notes for this show, anagama is an ancient process that uses wood to fire pottery.  Pablo built his own wood-fired kiln by drawing on his experiences in Japan, and using books as references. Getting the desired finish and texture for the surfaces of his stone pieces requires patience and multiple attempts of trial and error.

Pablo Capati III, "Stone 4" and "Stone 5"

In the last few years before this show, Pablo kept his work to traditional vessels— vases, jars, tea services, utilitarian pieces that we normally associate with pottery.  For this show, he wanted to translate pottery into his own language, explore its infinite possibilities through sculptural forms.  As the photos attest, he has wonderfully carried a revered tradition into the realm of contemporary art.

Pablo Capati III, "Pablo's Gold"

Element runs until 28 August 2010 at Art Informal, 277  Connecticut St., Greenhills East, Mandaluyong.  Phone (632) 725-8518 or visit http://www.artinformal.com

For more information on Pablo Capati III and the anagama process see http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/artsandbooks/artsandbooks/view/20100802-284396/Art-of-anagama-pottery

Exhibit Installation View

Pablo Capati III, "Aura" and "Jar"

Seashell detail, "Stone 5"

Another installation view

Pablo Capati III, "Vessel"


Mac Valdezco Versus Mac Valdezco

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 →


Manny Montelibano Calculates Greater Than Or Equal To Infinity

Manny Montelibano, "Pamunti", video still

Several years ago,  in the early 1990s, when Manny Montelibano first started his involvement with VIVA-EXCON (Visayan Islands Visual Arts Exhibit and Conference), he had a hard time convincing the organizers to let him mount a video installation.  This biennial event, now a prestigious coming together of visual artists from the Visayas, had then concentrated its efforts on showcasing paintings and sculpture, pretty much mirroring the inclinations of the rest of the country’s art community at that time.  But Manny, with his background as a filmmaker who worked with the likes of Peque Gallaga and Eric Matti, managed to convince them otherwise.  His forays into video and sound installations stemmed from his association with the Black Artists of Asia, the group of  visual artists from the Bacolod headed by Charlie Co and Dennis Ascalon.

What a difference two decades make to a country’s cultural landscape!  When Greater Than Or Equal To Infinity opened last week at the Nova Gallery in Makati, Manny welcomed an audience eager to sit down and savor his four film installations and sound loops.  I myself wanted to make sure to catch this solo show as I had always regretted missing Manny’s Escabeche, at Galleria Duemila, in July of last year.  I did not make it to Manny’s opening either, but I managed to find time to

Manny Montelibano, "Girls Talk", video still

drop by to see this show this week.

If there is any gallery in Manila perfectly suited for watching videos, it would be Nova.  Its cozy size, the absence of any sources of natural light, and its second-floor loft, made it perfect for navigating Manny’s show.  At first, I felt a bit disconcerted at the barrage of images and sound bites that confronted me as I entered the gallery’s main space.  But since I had the gallery almost all to myself (save for a couple who left soon after I arrived), I slowly found my bearings, and was able to focus, segregating which sound went in tandem with which video.

Manny Montelibano, "Up A Head", video still

Manny’s videos show uncomplicated, simple scenes that I found easy to appreciate, especially when viewed with his sound choices.  The two films on the gallery’s two main walls, Girls Talk and Up A Head, were filmed with live sound.  Both show three different scenes that when put together, blend to feel like one.  Girls Talk deals with the emotions of three different women.  Manny leaves it up to the audience to interpret this as they will.  I thought it was about a woman recalling a lost love.  Up A Head showed the butchered carcass of a pig, a close up of oil bubbling as food fried, a fly buzzing on some slaughtered pork, then, of all things, a live cow in a pasture.  Again, the unrelated scenes may or may not make up a story.

On the gallery’s second floor, Manny mounts the other two installations. In Panilag (Observe), he plays around with a market scene of caged chicken and ducks, and a dog that lolled about between the two cages.  He transforms the images into negatives, then into abstract patterns, like that of a kaleidoscope, with sound that mirrors the cadence of the changing images.  He even dubbed a recorded

Manny Montelibano, "Panilag", video still

speech by Idi Amin to go with the close up of the dog.

The last video, Pamunti, is the one I enjoyed most.  Manny filmed a man fishing beside a highway in Negros, then transformed the image into one of high contrast, turning it into a black and white blur with only a spot of color. He runs the film in extreme slow motion, yet chooses to accompany the images with the sound of a Formula 1 car going at top speed.  The vroom of the vehicle contrasts sharply with the unhurried exertions of the man fishing.  Here you have two disparities—that of the image’s high contrast lighting, and the incongruous pairing of the film’s sound with its subject’s movements.

I recommend Manny’s show to those who have half an hour to spare, and relish freeing their minds to take in sights and sounds that don’t require too much to derive pleasure from.

Another video still from "Panilag"

Greater Than Or Equal To Infinity runs from 6 to 27 August 2010 at Nova Gallery, Warehouse 12A, La Fuerza Compound, 2241 Chino Roces Ave. (Pasong Tamo), Makati.  Phone (632) 392-7792 or visit http://www.novagallerymanila.com


The 2010 Ateneo Art Awards

Just like everybody else in the audience, I eagerly awaited the announcement of winners for this year’s Ateneo Art Awards.  The

Shattering States: The Ateneo Art Awards 2010 Winners: Pow Martinez, Leslie de Chavez, and Mark Salvatus

Ateneo Art Gallery staff kept the final results under tight guard, even to us jurors.  Thankfully, they paced this year’s awards night programme so that none of us had long to wait. Continue reading →


Terracotta Origins

Joe Geraldo, detail, "Parada Tinik"

Two years ago, I had my first encounter with the sculpture of Roedil “Joe” Geraldo and Israel “Noi” Gonzales.  Together with other artists from the Visayas, they came to Manila, to the Alliance Francaise Total Gallery, in June 2008, and introduced their terracotta pieces.  This month, they return to that very same gallery in a three-man show with Mark Valenzuela, a critically-recognized artist who also shares their passion for working with clay.

Mark Valenzuela, "M" and "Source"

The terracotta that these three artist choose to fondle and shape comes from the richness of the earth where they make their homes. All three have been nourished in Western Visayas, the base from which they work.  As Mme. Deanna Ongpin-Recto, President of Alliance Francaise de Manille, remarked during the exhibit’s opening reception, all three see terracotta as a pure and spiritual medium.  They enjoy a special closeness with this material as it is literally borne from the soil they inhabit.

Israel Gonzales, "Sa Kapawa"

In this show, which they have dubbed Gingikanan or Origin, they use this clay to explore their roots, to look back to their ancestors and forebears, to revisit experiences that have shaped their persons.

Joe, who won first prize at this year’s GSIS Art Competion for sculpture, exhibits the most polished pieces.  Early on in his career, he chiseled his figures out of woodblocks.  He takes inspiration from the rituals of daily

Mark Valenzuela, "Exhibitionist"

life in his native Bacolod to bring us work that strike me as three-dimensional versions of Ang Kiukok’s paintings.  Mark, who has been a short-listed artist for the Ateneo Art Awards, brought out
Exhibitionist, a life-sized piece from his own collection.  I felt, though, that his work and that of Noi’s, who both showed mostly busts, looked interchangeable.  Perhaps they should both start looking beyond past pieces for their future work.

Joe Geraldo, "Diin Padolong"

Mme. Ongpin-Recto also used the exhibit’s opening  to announce the launch of the Alliance Francaise de Manille-Philippine Artists Residency Program. This grant, to be awarded on an annual basis, will allow for one Filipino visual arts practitioner to enjoy a three-month residency in Paris.  As far as I know, this is open to artists 45 years old and below.  Now, that is what I call a great opportunity!

Israel Gonzales, Joe Geraldo, and Jon Pettyjohn with Joe's piece, "Owang"

Origin runs from 3 to 26 August 2010 at the Alliance Francaise Total Gallery, 209 Nicanor Garcia St., Bel Air 2, Makati City.  Phone (632) 895-7585/ 895-7441.

For more information on the Alliance Francaise de Manille-Philippine Artists Residency Program, you may visit the Alliance Francaise or http://www.alliance.ph

Israel Gonzales, "Mal-Am (Elder)"

Mark Valenzuela, detail of "Last Full Show"

Israel Gonzales, "Kusog Tawhanon"

Mark Valenzuela, "Getting Louder Everyday"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B6dIxFMaLg