Tag Archives: manila art blogger


Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s Hong Kong Intervention, Alfredo + Isabel Aquilizan’s Address, and Sandra Palomar and Nolet Soliven’s Flesh at UP Vargas

Artists Sandra Palomar and Sun Yuan

I’m a big fan of Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu.  Ever since I saw Angel, a hyper realistic sculpture of a dead angel splayed on the ground, I have sought to keep abreast of their work.  Made from silica gel and fiberglass, the most striking feature possessed by the wrinkled seraphim is a pair of molted wings.  His feathers have withered away, and instead, he is left with wings of flesh and bone; they resemble chicken wings after they’ve been dressed. I saw it when it came up for auction last year.

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ManilArt 11: Art In The Dark

Tatong Recheta Torres, "Untitled (Diptych)", at Art Informal

The invitation said be there at six, and I thought I’d be fashionably late.  I arrived close to seven pm, wondering if I could get away with not strictly following the Filipiniana dress code.  I need not have stressed.  I got there to find the venue in darkness, tons of people jostling about in the sidelines, trying to get past usherettes standing guard, preventing guests from crossing the red cordon that ringed the venue.  Apparently, the ribbon had yet to be cut.  Music blared from a stage at the far end where song and dance numbers were going on.  Was this an art fair?  The crowds could but peer at the pieces on display as tempers flared.  Incredibly, this state of affairs continued for an hour and a half, until the last politician had given what sounded like filibuster from a privilege speech.  Only then did the lights come on.  A surreal, truly chaotic, Only in da Pilipins, tableau unfolded on the vernissage of our city’s sole art fair.

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Pow Martinez Destroys Planets

Pow Martinez liberally throws around the word astig.  He uses it nonchalantly, with a casual shrug.

George Condo, the American artist who paints caricature-like figures with pursed lips, bulging eyes, and scrunched up heads?  He’s astig.  Philip Guston and his cartoonish renderings?  Yup, him too.  Ditto the Scottish animator David Shrigley, and provocateur Dash Snow, he of the hedonistic lifestyle who died of an overdose two years ago.  On the local front, the word is reserved for the likes of Manuel Ocampo and Jayson Oliveria, purveyors of chaotic and sexually explicit images. Continue reading →


Peewee Roldan and Maxine Syjuco at NOW Gallery

Norberto Roldan, "What Is The Color of Faith 2"

NOW OPEN!  Pasong Tamo Extension just welcomed another art space. Now Gallery, a venture of collector Patrick Reyno, opened its doors last month.  Together with Silverlens/SLab, Manila Contemporary, and DAGC (Department of Avant-Garde Clichés), it will cement the strip’s reputation as the place for exciting contemporary art.  Now (no pun intended), if they could just all coordinate their openings!

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Romeo Lee and Pow Martinez Wreak Mischief and Mayhem

Romeo Lee and his mural

The exhibit may have taken its name from Manuel Ocampo’s favorite wine,  but Mischief and Mayhem perfectly suits the works of Romeo Lee and Pow Martinez.  Those who follow these two know that their art hews closely to the messy, racy, and raunchy aesthetic, favored by the likes of Jonathan Meese and indeed, by Ocampo himself.

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Brouhaha at the CCP

At first I was inclined to dismiss the debate as a tempest in a teapot.  But when my favorite daily read (www.artdaily.com) carried the story of the furor over Mideo Cruz’s piece, Poleteismo, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, I thought I had better make time to see for myself what the fuss was about.  I admit, I had no plans to drive down to view Kulô, a group exhibit of UST alumni, during the show’s run.  From photos I had seen of its opening night, I figured that majority of the artists who participated in the show chose to submit old works, most of them I had already seen before.  But with the issue of blasphemy vs. artistic freedom dominating the headlines and television news programs, how can any observer of the Manila art scene not take a stand?

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A Return to Megamall, Street Art at The Crucible

As recently as five years ago, checking out Manila’s entire art scene essentially meant a stroll down the fourth floor corridor of SM Megamall in Pasig.  Perusing art did not differ much from malling, the Pinoy’s favorite pastime.  While having the galleries stand side by side along that stretch certainly made art more accessible and democratic, we didn’t get much of the diversity and multi-sensory experiences we enjoy today.  Unless, of course, the exhibit was “big” enough to merit booking the Art Center; definitely, this space hosted its share of memorable shows.

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The Origin of Symmetry by Wesley T. Valenzuela

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of The Origin of Symmetry, Wesley T. Valenzuela’s solo exhibit at Art Informal.  A chat with the artist revealed that his intent had been to simply create balance and harmony among discordant pairs.  Hence, we are confronted with figures that combine Darth Vader and Buddha, man and machine, skulls and guns set in patterns that echo mandalas.  Indeed, as one enters the gallery, the show’s installation gives off an air of serenity and peacefulness:  the gallery’s pristine walls, freshly coated in white, set off the precisely placed pieces in red and black. Continue reading →


Riel Hilario’s Recreates the Night Sky while Neil Arvin Javier Packs Them In

Riel Hilario, "From The Wreckage, A Silent Reverie", detail

RIEL HILARIO, ASTRAL PROJECTIONS

Karl Jung defines projections as issues that our consciousness cannot face, concerns we may end up expressing via our dreams.  Riel Hilario has mined this explanation, along with a youthful obsession for astronomy, to create two sets of works for Astral Projections, currently on view at The Drawing Room.  The exhibit features his most recent series of sculpture, pieces that draw on his background as a wood carver from an Ilocano family of santo makers. This heritage continues to frame Continue reading →


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 →