Tag Archives: mariano ching


All Around Town: DAGC Gallery, Pablo Fort, Manila Contemporary, Blanc Peninsula, and Pinto Art Gallery

Noi Gonzales, "Pakikisama", at Pinto Art Gallery

I’ve been stranded in the seven kingdoms of Westeros these past few weeks, ensnared by the five mammoth volumes of The Game of Thrones.  I thought it high time to come back to reality, to catch up on Manila’s art scene—my original form of escape.  I wanted to see some exhibits that were due to close, and to make sure I made it to some of this weekend’s more promising openings.

My two-day art binge took me from the heart of Taguig’s Global City, to the streets of Makati and yonder, all the way up to the hills of Antipolo. Continue reading →


ArtHK 2012 Diary: Day 2, Pinoy Power

Jose John Santos III, "Clockwise", detail

While briefing  the press right before officially opening the doors to ArtHK 12, Magnus Renfrew, fair director, announced that beginning next year, Art Basel officially takes over the Hong Kong art fair. Henceforth, it shall be known as Art Basel Hong Kong, the third fair in the franchise after the original Art Basel (the one that actually takes place in Basel) and Art Basel Miami Beach. Continue reading →


Yasmin Sison Explores What’s Underneath The Sky Plus Alternative Collages and Nikki Luna’s Menagerie of Lilies

Yasmin Sison, "Haraya (Underneath The Sky)"

Yasmin Sison revisits familiar elements in this solo exhibit, her first in Manila since her 2009 show, Into The Woods, at SM Art Center.  She returns to her portrayals of children.  This set brings them indoors, away from the forest and the shore that have served as settings for her more recent depictions of kids at play.  These hark back to 2007’s Gingerbread Girls, with the kids seated against a plain backdrop, looking squarely at the viewer. Continue reading →


On The Range at Blanc Compound

Mariano Ching, "Under The Western Sky Series 3"

The exhibit’s title did puzzle me, but it should have clued me in.  Clint Eastwood in Hats On, Bottoms Off shows works inspired by Westerns—the cowboys and Indians variety, an odd, unexpected choice of concepts.  But a chat with artist Allan Balisi, who had thought this up with Cos Zicarelli, revealed that there is nothing more to this than a bunch of cowboy movie enthusiasts getting together to produce work.  Everyone in the group was game enough to stick to the plan. Continue reading →


Mariano Ching And His Portrait Series

Mariano Ching, "Portrait Series: Dog-Faced Boy"

The glossy, hyper realistic, gigantic celebrity portraits of American artist Richard Phillips stimulated the concept behind Even Bad Days Are Good, Mariano Ching’s solo exhibit now on view at SLab.  Phillips’ glammed up subjects, sourced from photographs of the famous, icons of popular culture, and even soft-porn movie stars, look out vacantly from within their frames.  They stare stiffly back at viewers, frozen in their perfection, devoid of emotion. Continue reading →


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 →


Of Skulls and Butterflies: ARTHK 10

Damien Hirst, "Transcience Painting"

 

Skulls and butterflies may as well have been the  mantra of ARTHK 10, this year’s edition of the Hong Kong Art Fair. You saw them everywhere, most notably those of the Damien Hirst variety. Continue reading →


Dragons at Manila Contemporary Gallery

Mariano Ching, "Stigmata (Left Hand)"

Mariano Ching, "Stigmata (Left Hand)"

I get wary when an exhibit’s list of artists reads like your Friends on Facebook (well, not mine).  All too often, these mega-group shows have walls merely carpeted with paintings.

Mariano Ching, "Stigmata (Right Hand)"

Mariano Ching, "Stigmata (Right Hand)"

Galleries end up like your third grade art classroom, everybody’s works just hang there with no rhyme or reason.

So to be honest, I hesitated to see this.  But I suppose when you have Ronald Achacoso and Nilo Ilarde working to put together an exhibit, they manage to steer it from the usual mishmash.  The show’s title, Here Be Dragons, comes from the tradition of medieval map makers to mark the unexplored and the unknown with serpents and other such creatures.  Frankly, I had to ask about the

concept that tied things together.  As the way of group shows of this size,  works came out uneven.  And maybe, it isn’t such a good thing when pieces we’ve seen before get rehashed to fit into another

Exhibit installation view from top

Exhibit installation view from top

idea.  But that doesn’t mean that you don’t find gems.  This show has its share.  Nilo’s installation makes it easy to appreciate each of the artists’ pieces.  It must have been difficult figuring out which works to group together.  That you do not feel stifled and overwhelmed must be credited to his use of  the gallery’s wonderful space.  And the natural light streaming in from the floor to ceiling windows helps make for very agreeable viewing.

Felix Bacolor, " Philippine Geographical Maps from National Mapping and Resource Information Authority"

Felix Bacolor, " Philippine Geographical Maps from National Mapping and Resource Information Authority"

I loved Mariano Ching’s Stigmatas, wooden hands embellished with pyrographs and acrylic images of serpents, lions, crusading ships, and Catholic missionaries.  Felix Bacolor’s installation has a great story behind it.  He

Yasmin Sison, "After Chabet's Boat"

Yasmin Sison, "After Chabet's Boat"

trekked to the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority to seek discards.  Instead they gave him the run of closets full of pre-war Philippine maps.

He shows just a fraction here, the others to be used for future projects.

Funny that I mentioned a grade school classroom project earlier.   Yasmin Sison actually brought one with her in After Chabet’s Boat where she uses paintings of Philippine maps by students of the Cavite Institute.

Whether or not they fit into the show’s concept, Johnny Alcazaren, Bernie Pacquing,  Gerardo Tan, and Trek  Valdizno always deliver quality. Nilo and Chabet as usual,  make us think.

Alwin Reamillo and Juliet Lea, "Kakainin Ba Nila ang mga Saging"

Alwin Reamillo and Juliet Lea, "Kakainin Ba Nila ang mga Saging"

Next to Nano Ching’s piece, I would love to take home  Alwin Reamillo and Juliet Lea’s Kakainin Ba Nila Ang Mga Saging. Unfortunately, unlike the President, I can’t afford the cost of a  dinner at Le Cirque.  Come to think of it, that money would have been better spent on this.

Detail, "Kakainin Ba Nila Ang Mga Saging"

Detail, "Kakainin Ba Nila Ang Mga Saging"

View of installation with works of Bernie Pacquing(left) and Jonathan Olazo (right)

View of installation with works of Bernie Pacquing(left) and Jonathan Olazo (right)

Gerardo Tan, "Track 1"

Gerardo Tan, "Track 1"

Here Be Dragons with Ronald Achacoso, Alex Aguilar, Johnny Alcazaren, Poklong Anading, Felix Bacolor, Ringo Bunoan, Bea

Louie Cordero,

Louie Cordero,"Norwegian Wood"

Camacho, Roberto Chabet, Mariano Ching, Lena Cobanbang, Louie Cordero, Bembol dela Cruz, Dodo Dayao, Nilo Ilarde, Manuel Ocampo, Jonathan Olazo, Jayson Oliveria, Bernardo Pacquing, Gary Ross Pastrana, Alwin Reamillo, Raul Rodriguez, Juni Salvador, Gerardo Tan, Jay Ticar, Trek Valdizno, Cris Villanueva, Reg Yuson runs from 15 August to 6 September 2009 at the Manila Contemporary Gallery, Whitespace, 2314 Chino Roces Ave, Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati.  Phone (632) 844-7228 or visit http://www.manilacontemporary.com

Johnny Alcazaren, "Slow Leak"

Johnny Alcazaren, "Slow Leak"


Mariano Ching’s Minimalist Apocalypse

Mariano Ching, "Slight Ripples on a Dim Horizon"

Mariano Ching, "Slight Ripples On The Dim Horizon"

Mariano Ching, "Slight Ripples On The Dim Horizon"(Detail)

Mariano Ching, "Slight Ripples On The Dim Horizon"(Detail)

For works influenced by comic books and cartoons, Mariano Ching’s images feel surprisingly quiet.  You first notice his empty spaces, both on his acrylics

Mariano Ching, "Wonder Boy"

Mariano Ching, "Wonder Boy"

on large canvases and on his smaller paper pieces.  You would expect, just as in Japanese anime novels,  surfaces brimming over with forms and figures rendered in loud, bold colors.  Sort of like Takashi Murakami or even Louie Cordero.  Instead you get works that beckon, compelling you to look closely at the

Mariano Ching, "Wonder Boy" (Detail)

Mariano Ching, "Wonder Boy" (Detail)

compact images all scrunched together.  Only then do you appreciate Nano’s  details, so finely and minutely wrought.  You wonder, as I did aloud to him, whether he paints while looking through a microscope or a magnifying glass.

Mariano Ching, "Mounds and Moles 5"

Mariano Ching, "Mounds and Moles 5"

His recent paintings, including those in this show, use a lot of rainbows, arcs of red, purple, green, blue, and yellow.  Because of this, and of the bright colors he employs, you don’t immediately perceive how melancholic or freaky his figures are:  girls with large distended heads, severed body parts, distorted faces, a pile of garbage and muck.  That the show brings

Mariano Ching, "Mounds and Moles 8"

Mariano Ching, "Mounds and Moles 8"

us to an imaginary wasteland, a site that reels from an environmental disaster, becomes apparent only after awhile.  His minimalist sensibilities, acquired from his two years as a printmaking major at the Kyoto Arts

Mariano Ching, "Divine Hammer", one of his two painted signages

Mariano Ching, "Divine Hammer", one of his two painted signages

University, seem at first in direct opposition to his preoccupation with science fiction and apocalyptic images.  Yet, this dichotomy actually makes him more interesting.

I love his wall-bound sculpture, what he calls painted signages.  Manufactured from metal sheets, laser cut and shaped with precision, he paints them as he would his canvases.  They come out not only so well-fabricated, he has made them so distinctly his own.

Mariano Ching, "Great Deeds"

Mariano Ching, "Great Deeds"

View of the exhibit installation

View of the exhibit installation

Dead Ends And False Starts by Mariano Ching runs from 15 July to 8 August 2009 at SLab, 2F YMC Bldg. 2, 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City.  Phone (632)816-0044 or visit http://www.slab.silverlensphoto.com

Mariano Ching, "Mounds and Moles 7"

Mariano Ching, "Mounds and Moles 7"


America Ain’t That Sweet for Hannah Pettyjohn and Small Wonders at Mag:net Ayala

Hannah Pettyjohn, "DFW RIP (Urban Sprawl) and "American Mary"

Hannah Pettyjohn, "DFW RIP (Urban Sprawl)" and "American Mary"

AMERICAN SWEET BY HANNAH PETTYJOHN

A little more than two years ago, half- American Hannah Pettyjohn spent time in Texas to reconnect with her roots. While there, she worked at a geotechnical engineering lab, lived in a white house that looked exactly like all the other houses in the neighborhood, got to know her father’s family, and read David Foster Wallace. Continue reading →