It must have been ages since Ronald Ventura mounted a show of mostly small works. We’ve come to associate his astronomical auction prices to equally colossal pieces. Whether or not he conceptualized his paintings and sculpture for Converging Nature with an eye towards making them accessible to his Manila collectors, I thought that their scale worked very well with the gallery’s space. I even felt that his bond paper-sized paintings trumped his bigger ones in terms of subject and detail. 
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Tag Archives: manila art blogger
Rodel Tapaya and Marina Cruz Keep It Simple
Rodel Tapaya and Marina Cruz
In Simple Depictions, which opened this week at the Alliance Francaise de Manille’s Total Gallery, Rodel Tapaya and Marina Cruz both exhibit small paintings. All of Rodel’s works, save for one piece, are acrylic on paper pieces. He continues with his series of landscapes and vignettes of everyday life from around their Bulacan home. Continue reading
Hanna Pettyjohn Brings Glad Echoes while Nikki Luna Channels the Easter Bunny
Two ladies, both counted among the most exciting visual artists working today, take over SLab and 20Square to give us two very distinct experiences: Continue reading
Iggy Rodriguez and Mike Adrao Go Mano a Mano
Iggy Rodriguez, "Toxin", acrylic ink on arches paper, 45x34 in.
In the November 2010 issue of Vanity Fair, an article on Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, makes passing mention of three schools he set up to run programs that keep traditional arts alive. One of them is the Prince’s Drawing School, organized as a means of “reviving traditional methods that had largely been abandoned by the art-education establishment….” The article goes on to say that the idea for the drawing school came about because “…the Slade, the Royal Academy, the Royal College—all the big graduate schools in London— were closing their life rooms.”
Mike Adrao, "Demakina 5", ballpoint ink on paper, 11.5x8 in.
In our part of the world, art enthusiasts maintain a healthy respect for the technical skills of our artists. Perhaps because most notions of what comprise art still veer towards the traditional. Paintings, however, tend to receive the bulk of attention. So when Iggy Rodriguez and Mike Adrao decide to mount a show of purely drawings, majority of them no bigger than a standard A4 bond paper, it feels like a novelty. Mano Mano makes us pause and appreciate this return to the basics. Both, as we can see from the images, are clearly masters of drawing, of capturing the most minute details while working with ink and charcoal. Prince Charles will definitely approve.
Iggy Rodriguez, "Delusions of Grandeur", acrylic ink on arches paper, 48x48 in.
Mano Mano runs from 16 to 30 November 2010 at Blanc Compound, 359 Shaw Blvd. (Interior), Mandaluyong City. Phone (632) 752-0032 or visit http://www.blanc.ph
Mike Adrao, "Demakina 4", ballpoint ink on paper, 11.5x8 in.
Iggy Rodriguez, "Sa Kaibuturan ng Pag-unlad", acrylic ink on arches paper, 24x24 in.
Mike Adrao, "Demakina 8", ballpoint ink on paper, 11.5x8 in.
Mike Adrao, "Demakina 10", ballpoint ink on paper, 11.5x8 in.
Mike Adrao, "Mekanismo 3" and Iggy Rodriguez, "Coming of Age"
Mike Adrao, "Mekanismo 2", charcoal on paper, 48x48 in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFV-GALrZfc
Bad Boys at Manila Contemporary
Albert Oehlen, "Wandbild"
First, graffiti in a museum. Now, tattoos in a gallery. Witness as Bad Boy art turns legit, and Manila’s welcoming response to this development. A show that carries a title as provocative as Painting With A Hammer To Nail The Crotch of Civilization with artist Manuel Ocampo as the curator is bound to draw in the art scene denizens. Throw in work by his colleagues, the likes of international art superstars like Albert Oehlen, plus free tattoo sessions on selected days of the show’s run, then you even get the dwellers of the alternative art scene to trek to Makati.
Manuel Ocampo mural
Extensions and More at the Lopez Museum
Detail, Pilipinas Street Plan mural
What do you get when the Lopez Memorial Museum allows two collectives, one hip artist, and a group that works with prison
Another detail, Pilipinas Street Plan mural
inmates to rifle through its archives and art collection? One of the best exhibits I’ve seen this year! (And I think I’ve seen quite a bit.)
Another detail, Pilipinas Street Plan mural, a response to 1734 Velarde map of the Philippines
The curatorial team of the Lopez Museum have always been great at weaving the current into their treasure of trove of Filipino masterpieces. Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez and Chit Ramirez manage to inject their exhibits with the unexpected, coming up with an inspired mix of artists that have yet to deliver anything boring. Two years ago, they actually made Amorsolo fun. Kiri Dalena’s piece for Keeping the Faith (in 2008) also sticks out in my memory. It captured a turbulent period in Philippine history in an accessible manner, without detracting from its
Pedro Murillo Velarde, "Mapa de las yslas Philippinas", 1734
seriousness. And now, they’ve done it again.
Extensions reiterates that a venerable institution need not get caught in a time warp. It can find novel ways to interact with a contemporary audience. Pilipinas Street Plan is made up of a core group of ten artists who believe in creating ephemeral public art. In other words, graffiti. They have made their
Detail, Pilipinas Street Plan mural with vinyl toys
mark in several locales around the country, adopting nom de guerres to conceal their true identities. By day, we know them as practicing visual artists whose works grace Manila’s galleries. After, they transform into street artists. The acceptance of graffiti as art is, of course, nothing new. Street artists all over the world have been legitimized into the mainstream by an accepting public. Witness how the most famous of them all, Banksy, has achieved
More vinyl toys from Pilipinas Street Plan
record auction prices for his pieces. City councils now consider his works as cultural landmarks. Perhaps having the group work on the Lopez Museum sanitizes the whole concept of graffiti as subversive, as art that appears in unexpected venues. Still, when the walls of a museum fill up with spray painted graphics juxtaposed against an 18th century map of the Philippines, a painting by Fernando Zobel, and a mixed media assemblage by National Artist J. Elizalde Navarro, you can’t help but relish the experience.
Fernando Zobel, "La Vision", 1961
The murals started out as a response to Pedro Murillo Velarde’s Mapa delas yslas Philippinas from 1734. The street artists rendered their own version of the country’s map, using stickers to mark the sites where their works can
J. Elizalde Navarro, "Untitled", 1975
be found. Lightboxes and small framed pieces add detail to the painted walls. They also laid out their own versions of vinyl toys —duly graffiti-ed— on the floor. During the exhibit’s opening, cans of spray paint stood on a makeshift shelf, an encouragement to guests to add their
Detail from Pilipinas Street Plan mural
own piece of art to what had already been done.
In another area of the museum, another collective exhibited its work. Instead of reacting to a piece in the museum’s collection, Plataporma chose to respond to the geographic history of the
Another detail, Pilipinas Street Plan mural
museum itself. For now/here, they play video recordings of random interviews about the Lopez Museum conducted within a 1 kilometer radius of the past, present, and future museum sites. By the entrance to their exhibit space, the artists recreated a Manansala mural that had been demolished when the old museum in Pasay was torn down. To enter into their space, one crosses a short wooden bridge. This symbolizes the transition from the “old” museum to its current site. The bridge crosses over a stylized excavation site filled with mud that had actually been transported from the museum’s original location.
Cans of spray paint ready for use
Maya Muñoz takes over the first gallery, across the reception desk at the main entrance. The museum uses this space to house works that transit from different locations. Maya herself is an artist who works in two locales: Manila and Bicol. Her painting, Coming and Going, deals with
Maya Munoz, "Coming and Going", 2010
exile and home. She started this piece after she had done a series of drawings that depicted either Ninoy Aquino on the tarmac or a triumphant Manny Pacquiao, two hometown heroes who have had to leave home to achieve glory. Her massive quadriptych (its four panels measure a total of about eight feet by 16 feet) started out as a self-portrait which evolved into a painting of planes. The piece echoes the journeys inherent to the life of a person who commutes between two places she calls home.
Maya Munoz, from "Days Go By" drawings series
Loob at Labas, from Rock Ed Philippines, completes the exhibition. Their volunteers have undertaken Rock The Rehas to use art, specifically creative writing, to give inmates at the National Penitentiary in
More drawings from Maya Munoz "Days Go By" series
Muntinglupa access to new experiences. Photos of the New Bilibid Prison taken from the Lopez Museum archives, crafts created by the prisoners, and objects taken from within the prison add even more power to a video that runs images of the prisoners’ written work.
Extensions runs from 11 November 2010 to 20 April 2011 at the Lopez Memorial Museum, Ground Floor, Benpres Building, Exchange Road cor. Meralco Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig. Phone (632) 631-2417 or visit http://www.lopez-museum.org
Maya Munoz, "Days Go By" drawings series
Federico Alcuaz, "Filipiny XIV", tapestry, 1983
For "Loob at Labas", Rock Ed Philippines, photos from Lopez Museum archives of New Bilibid prison
Photos from Lopez Museum archives, New Bilibid Prison
Photo from Lopez Museum archives, New Bilibid Prison
From Lopez Museum photo archives, New Bilibid Prison
Rock the Rehas
For "now/here", Plataporma recreation of Manansala Mural at old Lopez Museum in Pasay
For "now/here", Plataporma installation
For "now/here", Plataporma videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WT4LIRKGRtE
Bogie’s Spectacular Surprise
Just as we wondered how many more Kotillion ladies Jose Tence Ruiz can whip up from his imagination, he springs a major
Jose Tence Ruiz, "Dama de Noche"
surprise. Continue reading
Goldie Poblador Goes Deep Within
Goldie Poblador, "Immensity", detail
To conceptualize this show, Goldie Poblador turned to the writings of Jesuit paleontologist and philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Throughout his life, Teilhard de Chardin courted controversy as he tried to bridge the gap between his scientific ruminations with the teachings of the Church. He posits that all matter undergoes evolution, and one day all will be integrated into one consciousness. Goldie attempts to capture this integrated consciousness by reducing living organisms to their essences, their souls. How does one transform a soul into a tangible object we viewers
Goldie Poblador, "You #23"
can visualize? Goldie returns to glass, a medium she works very comfortably with, to— literally— crystallize each of the souls of her living organisms. As a nod to Teilhard de Chardin’s work as a scientist, she mounts her essences/souls inside glass boxes, mimicking specimens in a natural history museum.
Previously, Goldie captured essences of a different sort. For her senior thesis project in UP, she mixed liquid scents of
Goldie Poblador, "You #5"
the city: squalor, pollution, the aroma of coffee. She contained them in glass bottles that she inflated herself. Her installation resembled a department store’s perfume counter. Goldie received critical acclaim for this piece. She made it to the Shortlist of the 2009 Ateneo Art Awards, and the Singapore Art Museum asked her to reprise a portion of it for their exhibit of Filipino art last November.
Goldie Poblador, "You #10"
In this show, The Within, Goldie plays to her strengths and delivers another winner. Her organisms, made with glass she again has blown herself, are delicate, fragile, wispy, yet full of detail—transparent facsimiles of the real things, exactly as souls should be. She has insects,
Goldie Poblador, "You #15"
spiders, jellyfish, plankton, fishbones, and coral, all true to size. Goldie covered the gallery’s walls with cut fabric that I thought resembled scales. She says that she had meant to fill the walls with feathers, but she could not gather enough of them. No matter, the fabric does a good job of providing a textured backdrop to her glass specimen boxes.
Goldie Poblador, "You #11"
Goldie partially enclosed the rear of the gallery to house her best piece. How does one capture the human soul? With clear glass balls attached to steel rods as she does with Immensity. Here is a human reduced to its barest form, even its visage has been stripped away, clasped before it by hands detached from its main body. Yet something of its essence remains. Pin lights inserted amidst the life-sized form give off an ethereal glow, emitting the presence of some form of life within.
Goldie Poblador, "Immensity"
The Within runs from 3 November to 3 December 2010 at the 4th Floor, The Picasso Boutique Serviced Residences, 119 LP Leviste St., Salcedo Village, Makati City. Phone (632) 828-4774 or visit http://www.artcabinetphilippines.com or visit http://www.picassomakati.com
Goldie Poblador, "You #12"
Installation of insects and a soul
Goldie Poblador
Installation view
Plet Bolipata’s Fearless Flamboyant Women and Mad Mosaics
Plet Bolipata, "A Strong Wind Blowing North Summons An Army of Chairs", oil and collage on canvas, 48 x 48 in.
Detail, "Three Lives and A Party of Chairs"
If Plet Bolipata’s works came alive and transformed into celebrities, they would be Paris Hilton or Kimora Lee Simmons— flamboyant, vivacious, and unabashedly luxe. From the jewel tones she uses as backdrop for her collages, to the florid and audacious patterns she mixes onto her mosaics, her works brim with opulence and confidence. Her pieces are meant for joyous celebrations, the kind where everyone nibbles on foie gras and toasts martinis without thought for tomorrow. Quiet introspection can come another day. Or for someone else’s art. Continue reading
Ateneo Art Gallery at 50: Lee Aguinaldo and Modern Masterpieces
Lee Aguinaldo, "Monday", 1959 August 10
Fifty years ago, Fernando Zobel, artist and heir to one of the country’s industrial fortunes, donated his art collection to the
Lee Aguinaldo, "Homage to Pollock", 1953 Jan. 16
Ateneo de Manila University. Continue reading