Tag Archives: manila art blogger


Geraldine Javier Gets Bugged

Geraldine Javier, "Temple of My Familiar"

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"

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 →


Anting Anting Turns Ten

Alfredo Esquillo Jr., "Pangakong Langit"

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’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


Riel Hilario’s Ilocano Soul

Riel Hilario, "A Piece of Bread: St. Roch"

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

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"

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"

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"

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"

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"

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"

Riel Hilario, "Birds In My Ear, Spectre In My Shoulder"

Another view of installation

Another view of installation


The Romantic in Maya Munoz

Maya Munoz, "Epilogue"

Maya Munoz, "Epilogue"

Maya Munoz, "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her Face"

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"

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"

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, "There She Goes My Beautiful World"

Maya Munoz, "For Orpheus, The Necessity of Dreaming"

Maya Munoz, "For Orpheus, The Necessity of Dreaming"

Maya Munoz, "Tonight When You Dream of the Sun"

Maya Munoz, "Tonight When You Dream of the Sun"


The Attack of Tatong and Leeroy

Tatong Recheta Torres, "All Star Cast"

Tatong Recheta Torres, "All Star Cast"

At foreground, Leeroy New's "Rust Cloud"

At foreground, Leeroy New's "Rust Cloud"

As a child growing up in downtown Manila, Tatong Recheta Torres would escape into the world of movies.  Enveloped in

Exhibit installation

Exhibit installation

the darkness of Recto Avenue cinemas, his imagination transported him from the bustle of a congested city.   Off he went, out into the realm of Bioman, and Godzilla, Darna and Valentina.

Leeroy New, "Red Venus"

Leeroy New, "Red Venus"

In this show, Odeon Universal Galaxy,  Tatong teams up with Leeroy New.  Their first exhibit together  takes its name  from the most well-known movie theaters in Avenida.  They take us into a flick of their own making, one that brings us to the world of  sci-fi, horror, and Japanese anime they devoured as kids.

Leeroy New, "From the Deep"

Leeroy New, " The Thing From the Deep"

When you walk into Blanc Compound’s main exhibit space, you feel just like Obi Wan and Luke as they enter the cantina in search of Han Solo.  Only a bit less PG.  Tatong’s painting on the center wall, All Star Cast, depicts backstage of a beergarden somewhere across the Milky Way from Pluto.  Leeroy’s human-sized creatures mill around, enjoying the entertainment.

Another view, "Red Venus" and "The Thing From The Deep"

Another view, "Red Venus" and "The Thing From The Deep"

Detail, "The Thing from the Deep"

Detail, "The Thing from the Deep"

Leeroy, himself reared on Blade Runner and The Thing, allows his imagination to take flight once more.  This time, his fiberglass and polyurethane sculpture have more detail.  You can’t help but scrutinize and enjoy the clear figurines he piles atop two of his works, like some sort of space age barnacles.

Leeroy New, "Fear and Desire At the Gate"

Leeroy New, "Fear and Desire At the Gate"

It would’ve been good if Tatong had one other painting.  But perhaps that couldn’t have been helped.  Tatong and Leeroy should make movies more often.  This was so much fun!

Tatong Recheta Torres and Leeroy New

Tatong Recheta Torres and Leeroy New

Odeon Universal Galaxy runs from 24 August to 10 September 2009 at Blanc Compound, 359 Shaw Blvd, Mandaluyong City.  Phone (632)750-0032 or visit http://www.blanc.ph


West End Boys: Jonathang Ching, Kaloy Olavides, Lawrence Bersoto, and Dennis Gonzales

I set out early from Makati on the day I caught West Gallery’s opening of four shows, one for each of its exhibit spaces.  I arrived

Jonathan Ching with his pieces, "Deja Vu (After Edouard Manet)"

Jonathan Ching with his "Deja Vu (After Edouard Manet)"

just as they set up the coffee station, the aroma of freshly-brewed beans keeping me company as I criss-crossed the gallery’s rooms, taking in the works on the walls.  Quite a melange from relatively young artists  with very distinct styles and subject matter.

Jonathan Ching continues his series on immortality which he first explored in his show in KL a few months ago.  In the main wall of his space, three portraits lend their

Jonathan Ching, "Gang of Four: Larry, Moe, Curly, and Me"

Jonathan Ching, "Gang of Four: Larry, Moe, Curly, and Me"

titles to the show, If Its White and In a Bottle, It Must Be Milk.  These paintings depict Princess Diana and the late rap superstar Francis Magalona in life, and the last, the Dalai Lama.  As Jon explains, the title comes from the words of  Alexandre Dumas as he delves on the difference between perception and reality, especially the reality that these immortals had to contend with vis-a-vis their high profile lives.

Jonathan Ching, "If It's White and In a Bottle, It Must Be Milk" series

Jonathan Ching, "If It's White and In a Bottle, It Must Be Milk" series

I thought that the mixed media piece, Deja Vu (After Edouard Manet), which combines a cast iron bull positioned above Jon’s depiction of Manet’s slain matador came off as the most interesting.  It may even have the potentials of spinning off into another show, perhaps the beginning of a series of similar mixed media wall works.

"You Are A Moment" and Lawrence Bersoto

"You Are A Moment" and Lawrence Bersoto

Lawrence Bersoto and Dennis Gonzales stick to what they’ve done before.  Lawrence captures photographic moments with his usual skill.  Dennis reveals hidden lives and desires.

Lawrence Bersoto, "April 202009"

Lawrence Bersoto, "April 202009"

Dennis Gonzales, "Eat All You Can"

Dennis Gonzales, "Eat All You Can"

You can just imagine how much work Kaloy Olavides puts into his collages.  He begged, borrowed, and, maybe, stole magazines from family, friends, and strangers to gather enough photographs to complete his pieces.  Kaloy works with repetitive images painstakingly put together.  In his Need Extension series, he has hundreds of hands appearing to reach out to man’s three basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter.  In Etherealscape, the eyes have it.  As with the hands, he cut, pasted, and lacquered more than 100 eyes for this one piece.

Dennis Gonzales, "Princess" and "Finding Bambi"

Dennis Gonzales, "Princess" and "Finding Bambi"

If Its White and Its in a Bottle It Must Be Milk by Jonathan Ching, Chaotic Serenity by Kaloy Olavides, Nothing New Under the Sun by Dennis Gonzales, and You Are A

Kaloy Olivades, "Etherealscape" (detail)

Kaloy Olavides, "Etherealscape" (detail)

Moment by Lawrence Bersoto runs from 13 August to 14 September 2009 at West Gallery, 48 West Ave., Quezon City.  Phone (632) 411-9221 or visit

http:// www.jonching.com http://www. westgallery.org

Kaloy Olivades, "Etherealscape"

Kaloy Olavides, "Etherealscape"

Kaloy Olivades, "Need Extension" Series

Kaloy Olavides, "Need Extension" Series

Kaloy Olivades, "Need Extension" (detail)

Kaloy Olavides, "Need Extension" (detail)


Bolipata and Borlongan, A Two-Part Invention

Elmer Borlongan, "Pamilyang Menthol", 1994

Elmer Borlongan, "Pamilyang Menthol", 1994

Elmer Borlongan, "Girl in a Bathtub", 2009 and Plet Bolipata, "

Elmer Borlongan, "Woman In The Bathtub", 2009 and Plet Bolipata, "Variations on the Blue Hour: Appassionata", 2008

In this show, Elmer Borlongan and Plet Bolipata bring out selected pieces of their own paintings from their personal collection. As the exhibit notes explain, the title of the show comes from a musical movement where two distinct melodies play simultaneously.  Continue reading →


Roberto Feleo at The Drawing Room

Roberto Feleo, "Ang Pinteng ni Pedro Mateo", note flaming headress for decapitated Ifugao warriors

Roberto Feleo, "Ang Pinteng ni Pedro Mateo", note flaming headress for decapitated Ifugao warriors

When an artist of Roberto Feleo’s stature puts together a show of recent works, you try and make time to see it.  Admittedly, art took a back seat this past week. I stayed glued to the tv or to my laptop following current events as they unraveled, leading up to the momentous People’s Funeral of President Cory Aquino.  But an exhibit by Feleo does not happen every year, and with The Drawing Room just a fifteen-minute car ride away, I found myself taking a break from all the news. Continue reading →


Cory Aquino the Artist

cory painting

Today we pay tribute to a former president who, after she stepped down from office,  dabbled a bit in the arts.  She painted mostly flowers, admittedly not my favorite of subjects. She gave away her work as personal gifts.  Although her pieces may not fall into the cory 2category of fine art, it would be safe to assume she never aspired for them to be considered anything other than pretty pictures.  How wonderful to think though, that she, like us, found comfort and enjoyment in the visual arts.

Thank you President Cory!  You’ve made us proud to be Pinoy.