GARBO SA BISAYA

10TH VIVA EXCON PRESENTS “GARBO SA BISAYA” AT BLUEWATERS GALLERY

Now on its 20th year, the Visayan Islands Visual Artists Exhibition Convention (VIVA ExCon) is a coming together of visual artists from all over the Visayas for three days of exhibitions, seminars, interactive projects, performances, workshops, and art congresses to help develop the Visayan artist to be the best of their respective area of expertise. Sponsored by the National Commission for Culture of the Arts, this year’s 10th holding of VIVA ExCon will be held on Cebu city on November 27-29, 2008, and is organized and managed by Pusod, the Open Organization of Cebu Visual Artists, Inc. Additional sponsors include: SM City Cebu, Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort, the University of the Philippines Cebu College, the University of San Carlos – College of Architecture and Fine Arts, Pow! Designs, and the City Government of Cebu.

The last major program of the 10th VIVA ExCon will be the exhibition titled “Garbo sa Bisaya”. To be held at the Bluewaters Gallery of the exlcusive Maribago Bluewaters Beach Resort, “Garbo sa Bisaya”was conceived by the organizers of the 10th VIVA ExCon specifically to address the legacy of these senior artists, by presenting their work to new generations of practitioners in a professionally curated and presented manner similar to a short retrospective of remembrance of those who have gone before. Such a project identifies and includes those senior Visayan artists participating in the exhibition as those who have made a name for themselves internationally and nationally through constant citations and presence in articles, essays, and reports from internationally-respected art publications, art catalogues and monographs, and official histories of art, and whose artworks grace the collections of major national art institutions, art galleries, and are held in high esteem among major art collectors, museum curators, and the art community in general. The project would also wish to prioritize first the living Visayan artists who have achieved this rarified stature, so that they may be honored and celebrated during their lifetimes, and their contributions engaged with by the community not only as a historical fact, but as a living presence.

For this year, the selected artists for “Garbo sa Bisaya” includes: Ceramic artist Nelfa Querubin (originally from Iloilo, and now working in Colorado, USA); master printmaker and painter Ofelia Gelvezon Tequi (originally from Iloilo, and now working in Provence, France); painter Charlie Co of Bacolod City, Negros Occidental; painter Nunelucio Alvarado, of San Carlos City, Negros Occidental; Father of Philippine Printmaking and painter Manuel Rodrguez, Senior (originally from Cebu, and now working in New York, USA); Romulo Galicano (originally from Cebu, and now working in Quezon City); National Artist for Sculpture Napoleon V. Abueva (originally from Bohol, and now working in Quezon City); Raul Isidro (originally from Western Samar, and now working in Parañaque City); and Raul Lebajo (originally from Leyte, and now working in Muntinlupa City). The exhibition will honor these artists with an exhibition of their works, biographies of the artists, and critical commentaries on their works by the curator of the 10th VIVA ExCon, Dr. Reuben Ramas Cañete.

“Garbo sa Bisaya” will open on November 29, 2008, 6PM, at the Bluewaters Gallery, Maribago Bluewaters Beach Resort, Mactan. For more details, please contact: Dr. Reuben Ramas Cañete at reubencanete@yahoo.com; Mr. Yayo Yambao at yayoo_com@yahoo.com; Prof. Dennis Montera at dennismontera@hotmail.com; and Prof. Jose “Javy” Villacin at javy_villacin@yahoo.com.

BASIC PREVENTIVE ART CONSERVATION LECTURE AT UP CEBU

Basic Preventive Art Conservation Lecture at UP Cebu

Deterioration in art conservation may be defined as any undesirable change in the properties of an organic, inorganic and composite materials caused by the essential activities brought about by chemical, mechanical, biological and physical influences. These are well-recognized problem in tropical regions, where environmental factors such as fluctuations in temperatures, relative humidity levels, and heavy rainfall favor the growth and sustenance of a wide variety of living organisms on the objects’ surfaces and such other destruction affecting the artworks.

The effortless and most economical way to look after an object or collection is to prevent its deterioration in its earliest stage possible. Be it in a home or in a museum; the same causes of deterioration apply. Information on basic methods on preventive conservation will be discussed and will concentrate on the environmental factors and other agencies that cause deterioration in material. Preventive conservation is also the least invasive means of protecting the artworks. One must not be a qualified conservator to undertake preventive conservation but must have full knowledge on the situations involved. The topics are aimed to provide an individual the understanding and confidence, which are vital to implement preventive conservation practices.

The seminar talk will feature Mr. Peter John S. Natividad, chief conservation officer of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila and will be held on November 28 at the Conference Hall of U.P. Cebu College starting at 9 o’clock in the morning. The lecture shall cover basic topics on theory, ethics and practice in preventive conservation towards people who are caring and accountable for heritage collections, and will be helpful and appropriate to those working in museums with community and private collections, general cultural public, art schools and all visual artists as well.

The lecture is part of the activities of the 10th Visayan Visual Artists Exhibit-Conference (VIVA EXCON) in Cebu City from November 27-29, 2008 and is brought to you by Pusod, The Open Organization of Cebu Visual Artists Inc., National Commission for Culture and Arts and UP Cebu College through Dean Enrique Avila. For interested participants there is a seminar fee of PhP 500.00 including lunch. For details please contact Prof. Dennis Montera at 09173295626 or log on to www.vivaexcon.tk.

SINUGATAN

SINUGATAN is a parallel conception of the collaborative exhibit Uswag Lambigit Bisaya! of the 10th VIVA Ex-Con. Referring to "presents" and "offering" brought by a traveler, SINUGATAN will allow individual delegates of the VIVA to bring one artwork that they executed themselves, and hang them in the area outside of the main entrance to the Uswag-Lambigit curated show. This concept allows for individual artists to participate in the 10th VIVA ExCon, and was conceived recently due to the availability of additional space for the delegates' art activities. The guidelines are the following:

The artworks should be no larger than 3 x 3 feet (91.4 x 91.4 cm.) for wall pieces, or 1 x 1 x 2 feet tall (30.48 x 30.48 x 60. 96 cm.) for three-dimensional works/sculpture.

Art works must be appropriately framed or in box-frame format. Scroll-type works will be accepted if within the size limitation specified above.

The said pieces shall be displayed in the open area leading to the curated exhibition, and will be offered for sale with a 15% commission for the organizers (as a means of defraying the exhibition space rental-fee).

Only a limited number of slots are available.

The artworks may be brought with the delegates during the conference registration period on the morning of November 27.

Pullout will be on November 30 between 10am-8pm.

All artworks shall be subject to approval based on the Exhibition Policy of SM City Cebu. (Nudity in the works is not recommended in any SM malls)

Art works must be ready for hanging and should not be wet.

Delegates should inform the organizers about their intention to bring an artwork no later than November 22, 2008 by submitting an artist's data sheet (title card information) that includes name of the artist, title of the work, medium, size in cm., year, price, and place where the artist comes from, and artist's contact number.

You can email this information before the deadline to dennismontera@hotmail.com or text us at 0917.329.5626(Sio Montera) or 0927.439.4152 (Javy Villacin)

FULL PRESS RELEASE : 10TH VIVA EXCON PRESENTS “USWAG LAMBIGIT BISAYA” AT SM CITY CEBU

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

10TH VIVA EXCON PRESENTS “USWAG LAMBIGIT BISAYA” AT SM CITY CEBU


Now on its 20th year, the Visayan Islands Visual Artists Exhibition Convention (VIVA ExCon) is a coming together of visual artists from all over the Visayas for three days of exhibitions, seminars, interactive projects, performances, workshops, and art congresses to help develop the Visayan artist to be the best of their respective area of expertise. Sponsored by the National Commission for Culture of the Arts, this year’s 10th holding of VIVA ExCon will be held on Cebu city on November 27-29, 2008, and is organized and managed by Pusod, the Open Organization of Cebu Visual Artists, Inc. Additional sponsors include: SM City Cebu, Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort, the University of the Philippines Cebu College, the University of San Carlos – College of Architecture and Fine Arts, Pow! Designs, and the City Government of Cebu.

Among the most significant aspects of the 10th VIVA ExCon will be the exhibition titled “Uswag Lambigit Bisaya!” To be held at the Trade Hall A, 4th Floor, SM City Cebu, “Uswag Lambigit Bisaya!” is a curated exhibition concept focused on the notion and practice of artistic collaboration. It is composed of two Visayan words that literally mean ‘move forward’ and ‘collaborate’. As an innovation to the VIVA Ex-Con, the participant’s exhibition will present carefully planned works done in collaboration at a predetermined site. The artists or groups will be given a specific area to work with and can even utilize the entire floor and wall area through paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media installations.

Artwork proposals for the exhibition will be accepted on a grouped basis, with at least two to at most five artists collaborating together to submit a single artwork that may be executed and installed in the premises of the exhibition, the CebuTrade Hall of SM City Cebu. The organizers of the exhibition, along with curator Dr. Reuben Ramas Cañete of the UP Department of Art Studies made the rounds to the various islands and cities of the Visayas from late-August to October 2008 to spread the news on this concept, distribute the required forms, and informed the artists of their submission of exhibition concepts, which must be approved before they can mount their arworks at the venue.

The Artwork Proposals that were accepted into “Uswag Lambigit Bisaya!” adhere to the following regulations:
-All artist proponents must fill up and submit to the Organizing Committee the official Application Form for “Uswag Lambigit Bisaya!” Proposals that did not fill up and submit using the official Application Form will not be entertained;
- Acceptable dimensions must be between 5 x 5 x 8 feet and 9 x 9 x 12 feet (length x width x height) for floor-mounted pieces; or 3 x 3 feet and 8 x 8 feet for wall-mounted pieces.
- Can be executed using any medium or combination of media;
- All materials for the collaborative artwork must be sourced by the artist proponents;
- Accepted proposals must be executed and/or installed by the artist proponents. The Organizing Committee will assist in the installation of the artworks;
- Executed proposals must follow the prepared design concept as executed in their submitted Application Form;
- Artist proponents must ensure that their installed artworks do not pose imminent physical and/or chemical hazards that will endanger the safety of visitors and viewers.
-Ingress of approved artwork proposals will be on Wednesday, November 26, from 9 AM to 8 PM, at the Cebu Trade Hall, 4th Floor, SM City Cebu, Cebu City. Exhibition opening will be on November 27, 2008 at 6PM. Exhibition dates are from November 27 to 29. Egress of artworks will be on November 30, from 10AM until 8PM

To be opened at 6PM of November 27, 2008, “Uswag Lambigit Bisaya!” is a testament to the strength, originality, creativity, and unity of the Visayan artist community as they progress forward to the future with a common purpose and vision. For more details on the exhibition “Uswag Lambigit Bisaya!”, as well as other programs of the 10th VIVA ExCon, kindly contact: Dr. Reuben Ramas Cañete at reubencanete@yahoo.com; Mr. Yayo Yambao at yayoo_com@yahoo.com; Prof. Dennis Montera at dennismontera@hotmail.com; and Prof. Jose “Javy” Villacin at javy_villacin@yahoo.com. Or you cal log on to www.vivaexcon.tk.

TUTOKKK: KRISIS, KALUNASAN...ANONG K MO?

TutoK Exhibits at Blanc, November to December 2008:
“TutoKKK: Krisis, Kalunasan... Anong K Mo?”

TutoK is about visual artists collaborating for advocacy. In celebration of its third year this 2008, it is holding its annual exhibit at Blanc’s spaces in Mandaluyong and Makati with almost 200 artists contributing new works on the theme of crisis: probing into its metaphors and transmutations as it collectively forms an active stance beyond resistance.

Primarily conceived as a recount of a crisis-laden period, “TutoKKK” is also an invitation towards a more in-depth scrutiny of pressing issues. Crisis marks a point of instability in the same way that it highlights a turning point: we are in a crucial moment where decisions will and have to be made.

Paintings, sculptures, installations and residual performance comprise the initial salvo to be held at the Blanc Compound in Mandaluyong from November 25 to December 10. A flow of wall-bound works in uniform format will dominate the space, interspersed with sculptures and assemblages of objects that overall, will interact with the action and residue of live art performances. The high point will be an Artists’ Reception on Sunday, November 30 with performances and other events starting at 4:00pm. The party will go on till evening with music provided by various bands.

Coming next is an installation of works on paper by the same artists at Blanc Art Space Makati from December 6 to 31. Using various media, but also following a uniform format, these vignettes on crises will also be the basis of an installation/ performance that will echo the outcry and ephemera of paper. The exhibit will open on Saturday, December 6 with performance starting at 7:00pm.

“TutoKKK” is presented in partnership with Blanc, and is jointly curated by Noel Soler Cuizon, Buen Calubayan, Jef Carnay, Mark Salvatus and Wesley Valenzuela. TutoK is grateful to PAG-IBiG, Utterly Art, and Mr. Julius Babao for their support.

BLANC COMPOUND Mandaluyong
359 Shaw Boulevard, Mandaluyong City

BLANC ART SPACE Makati
107 H.V. Dela Costa Street, Salcedo Village, Makati City

+63.2.7520032 +63.920.9276436
Email info@blanc.ph Log on to www.blanc.ph

WORK LIKE NOBODY IS WATCHING

Lindslee: Work you should be watching

November 27 at the Hiraya Gallery sees the opening of abstractionist Lindslee's new exhibitIon, "Work Like Nobody Is Watching.”

With works that straddle between completely non-representational abstraction and the 'pure painting' of Orphism, the artist interrogates the romanticized notion of art-making as a solitary, almost auto-erotic process with the employment of thick strokes on large-scale canvasses that tackle themes of focus and distraction, destruction and wholeness, solitude and company.

If the self as psychological subject splinters into the phantasmatic mirror-image of the Symbolic order, is the lonesome artist truly without audience in the private performance of his painting, or is he the secret exhibitionist whose watchers are his own multiple selves?

Culture as the psychic police that structures by way of implicit laws gestures for painting and rebellion: watch Lindslee engage and revel in it using colors that clash and collide, then ultimately captivate. Hopefully, the audience will be greater than just the artist's innumerable selves.

‘Work Like No One is Watching’ runs till December 15. Hiraya Gallery is located at 530 U.N. Avenue, Ermita, Manila. For more information, please call 523-3331 or email hiraya@info.com.ph or visit www.hiraya.com

KEOMBAE

Sam Penaso- a visual & performance artist from Bohol, will present his recent abstract paintings in his 10th solo exhibition opens on November 21 (6pm) to December 4 at the Galerie Astra, 2nd level, LRI Design Plaza, Nicanor Garcia St. (Reposo) Bel Air ll, Makati City, Tel. 8903988.

Penaso recently has been invited to do his Performance Art at “Asia Performance Art Festival” in Seoul & Gwangju Biennale, Korea and also a Group exhibition at Gallery Nuri, Korea Foundation Cultural Center.
His exhibition entitled “Keombae” is taken from the Korean term for “cheers” inspired by his short trip around Seoul & Gwangju Biennale,

A Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from the Technological University of the Philippines, Penaso also took units in sculpture at Philippine Women’s University Institute of Fine Arts, He is one of the core members of the Tupada Action and Media Art (TAMA) group of Performance Artist.

SILENT WITNESS

"Silent Witness"
recent works by Keiye Miranda-Tuazon
opens on November 19, 2008, 6 pm
runs until December 9, 2008
at Finale Art File, Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound,
2241 Chino Roces Ave., Gate I, Makati City.

KAMUSMUSAN

KAMUSMUSAN
Norlie Meimban



Kamusmusan, Norlie Meimban’s sixth solo exhibition, opens at the WhiteBox Studio on November 21, 2008, Friday, at 6 PM.

Reminiscent of childhood games and reverie-misted adult remembrances, Meimban’s figurative paintings showcase children at vigorous play and in unguarded moments, gazing pensively with hopeful eyes or mischievously imagining cartoon characters. Drawing on his extensive experience in animation, the artist combines his impressionistic style with brisk brushstrokes of anatomy in action, most likely inspired by the early motion studies of Edveard Muybridge and Marcel Duchamp.

In Luksong Baka and Pitik Bulag, children painted in grayscale are combined with dynamic depictions of their playmates reduced to lines of continuous movement like those rendered in animation’s cel drawings. With one participant to the game fleshed out in black and white seemingly from fading memories, and the other rendered in bare lines that suggest action yet also imply invisibility, the viewer will pause to think—are there two individuals playing in each framed scenario, or is one a manufactured fantasy of the other?

It is also this predilection to flights of fancy and imagination that reverberate in Meimban’s other works, as in Happy Thought where a boy thinks up his own playmates in the image of cartoon characters familiar to any child who has ever set his eyes on early morning TV or mass merchandised kiddie products, or the hopeful look in the eyes of a little girl in Musmus whom we might surmise to be waiting for the arrival of someone special, like her father, with pasalubong or any treat from the store, no less.

As Meimban combines a sense of playful abandon with the timeless appeal of nostalgia, he brings forth a selection of images from our own Kamusmusan, our own childhood, when life was simpler, imaginations were untamed, colors were brighter, friends were closer, open spaces were wider and dreams were more likely to come true. The artist integrates concepts from his intensive understanding of animation into current art practice, merging movement, transformation and the combination of figures with surrounding space bounded by the canvas’ edges.

A graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, Norlie Meimban has participated in numerous local and international exhibitions, mounting collaborative efforts with FourArtGroup and Kulay Art Group which he leads as president. Kamusmusan is on exhibit until December 4, 2008. WhiteBox Studio is located at the Cubao Expo, Quezon City . For inquiries and other details of the exhibition, please contact the gallery at Mobile : 09279119528 and tel : (632) 4373839.

Kaye O’Yek

5TH NEO-ANGONO PUBLIC ART FESTIVAL

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Japan Foundation-Manila, Metrobank Foundation, Shoe Mart (SM)-Taytay, Museum of Three Cultures ( Capitol University , Cagayan de Oro), Office of the Mayor, Municipality of Angono and Municipal Tourism, Culture and the Arts Office present the 5th Neo-Angono Public Art Festival on November 20-22, 2008 at Angono, Rizal.

Around 250 artists and performers of Angono and from Manila and Mindanao will participate in the 3-day-art event featuring street art, site-specific works, action art, art installations, in-transit poetry project, art and photo exhibit, film and video showing, projections, music and poetry fusion, dance and theater, artist talk and symposium, and band performances.

This year’s public art festival also presents Japanese contemporary dance-artist Jun Nishio, recipient of Neo-Angono’s residency program. Mr. Nishio will give workshop on dance, interact with local artists and art students, and immerse in the community of Angono until November 25 or after the town fiesta and “Higantes Festival” of Angono.

The first night of the festival features poetry and acoustic performance; film showing, stage play and dance performance of Jun Nishio on the second; and closing party/artists night featuring various ska and alternative bands caps the festival night and eve of the town fiesta.

For festival schedules, please log on to htttp://www.neo-angono.com.

100 OBLATIONS

Artist’s Statement

I use my art to express my views and emotions. It is through my paintings, sculptures and songs that people get a glimpse of my soul.

Inspired by Gary Granada’s version of UP Naming Mahal, I wanted to pay tribute to the 100 years of existence of an institution that has been a major instrument in the making of the history of our country. 100 years of offering naked ideas, naked freedom.

I like to believe that UP is still a combination of the University of the Streets, University of the Markets, University of the Slums, University of the Farms, …, University of the Heart. I hope that academic freedom, service to the country and the people, and nationalism are still in the bloodline of the university. May the eskolar ng bayan be true when he/she sings

“ Malayong lupain, aming mang marating,
Di rin magbabago ang damdamin.”

However, in truth, what I think the eskolar needs to sing today should be

“ Malayong lupain, di kailangang marating,
Dito maglilingkod sa bayan natin.”


100 Oblations is my way of saying “mabuhay ang nagbibigay pag-asa sa ating bayan !! “

- PG Zoluaga -

KILATIS

November 15, 2008 VIVA’08 Countdown Concert. Kukuk’s Nest Restaurant, Gorordo Avenue, Lahug, Cebu City

A pre-conference concert before the VIVA-10 kicks off. KILATIS” featuring “Junior Kilat” and the “Leon- Kilat Band” for the VIVA Exhibit-Conference 10 Kukuk’s Nest, Lahug, Cebu City, 7PM-Onwards Portraits for a cause by local artists and an AVP on the pre-VIVA activities will be presented. Announcements and updates on the VIVA conference proper will highlight the event.

THE VISAYAN ISLANDS VISUAL ARTISTS EXHIBIT-CONFERENCE 2008

THE VIVA EX-CON BACKGROUND

For the last twenty years and now the longest running visual arts exhibit-conference in the country, the Visayan Islands Visual Artists (VIVA) bi-annual meet brings together professional and non-professional visual artists from all over the Visayas as a showcase of Visayan visual art conducted in the capacity of a formal continuing education program. The conference also addresses the strengthening of linkages within the islands, discuss directions and strategies for the whole Visayas arts scene, tackle issues confronting visual artists in the region and discuss trends on going global and venturing to broader realms in art. VIVA Conferences also features artistic workshops on various art-making techniques in relation to various materials and processes as a means of expanding individual artist’s skills and technical know-how.

VIVA Exhibit-Conference (Ex-Con) is held every two years at a venue which rotates among all the regional Visayan centers which have reached or have been reached by the VIVA Executive Committee. The leadership of the VIVAA (the association) also rotates among its members. The first VIVA Ex-Con was held in Mambucal, Bacolod City in 1990 and has since been held in Bacolod City (1992), Dumaguete City (1994), Iloilo City (1996), Cebu City (1998), Tacloban City, Leyte (2000), Tagbilaran City, Bohol (2002), Bacolod City (2004), and Calbayog City, Samar (2006).




THE VIVA SIGNIFICANCE

The spirit of the VIVA Ex-Con has always been the individual expressions and visions of Visual artists from all over the Visayas. This unique bi-annual gathering promotes Visayan art and aesthetics to the rest of the country and to the world.

The VIVA Conference benefits professional and non-professional artists as a continuing education program through the various forums, lectures and creative workshops. It is likewise advantageous to community cultural workers, the academe, and the participating students of art and design. The VIVA makes aware to its delegates realistic issues concerning art and culture in the different islands of the Visayas region.

The VIVA Ex-Con 10 shall in a whole provide a venue for the discussion, production, and reflection of alternative art praxis striving to compete in a globally competitive market informed by the daily struggles of the artist and the community in the 21st century. VIVA is truly a unique activity that addresses the needs of the artists and their important role in the community.

This year’s VIVA EX-CON-X is made possible by the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA), Pusod, Inc. and in partnerships with SM City Cebu, Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort, the University of the Philippines Cebu College, the University of San Carlos – College of Architecture and Fine Arts, Pow! Designs, and the City Government of Cebu.




THE PROPONENT ORGANIZATION

PUSOD, Inc. was formally launched in December 1997 with just then 27members signing on as founding members. The members initially came from the school-based UP Cebu Fine Arts Program. It was named “pusod”, a Visayan word for navel, to symbolize the geographical location of the group. With Cebu being located at the center of the country’s geography, the name was nothing more but fitting.

From the onset of the first VIVA in 1990, a sizeable delegation of students and alumni of UP Cebu Fine Arts has provided the bulk from Central Visayas in the succeeding biennials. This long experience with VIVA Ex-Cons, the realization that a single local organization hosting the VIVA Ex-Con-5 in 1998 in Cebu City was the more workable arrangement, coupled with the realization of the need for an organization promoting alternative/indigenous yet technologically sophisticated art making in the Central Visayas, were compelling factors that informed the organization of PUSOD.

The organization is open to all practicing and student artists, as well as artists in allied fields who are willing to contribute to the formation of an artistic praxis that will deal with cultural or artistic production in depth and in the face of techno-cultural flux. We believe that in this new century the artistic challenges facing artists in their communities call for a response that is democratically collective as well as intensely personal finding full and mature expression in free and voluntary organizations such as PUSOD.

The coming into being of PUSOD is itself an achievement. It has successfully organized and liquidated the assets of VIVA Ex-Con 5 in 1998, organized Central Visayas Exhibits of the NCCA-CVA like “MILINYUM” in 1999, partnered with PHILAJAMES-Cebu (Association of Former Mombusho Scholars to Japan) for a group exhibition at the Waterfront Hotel in 2001 are among the activities the organization has accomplished. PUSOD continues to come up with activities that will lead to providing artists who are inclined to non-traditional art making with a forum and venue for the introduction, popularization and celebration of their expression and ultimately their vision.

DESIDERATA

Marika B. Constantino unveils her first solo exhibition, Desiderata, at the Boston Gallery on November 15, 2008. Referencing poetry and prose in her artworks, the artist seeks to express what is real and heartfelt, creating visual imagery that combines seamlessly with her affinity for words and lyricism. She interprets these verses in relation to her own journey through life.

Constantino’s paintings dissect and shape elements that make up the inner-realm of her contemplations. The artist’s ‘biomorphic mosaic,’ a distinct technique of building-up paint, creates organic three-dimensional forms that represent particular memories. These highly textured and interlocking free-forms resembling birds in flight, stylized ancient writing or bodies in motion are the tesserae of the artist’s mosaic-like images. Each piece embodies an experience; collectively, it sums up one’s being at a particular instance. Akin to a puzzle, in the absence of a singular unique component, nothing is the same, and no one for that matter.

Her intimate compositions result in figurations, whose genders or roles remain ambiguous. In the artist’s perception, the need to attain a certain level of equality, equanimity and equilibrium in relations and relationships is universal and wholly transferable. One can easily connect with Constantino’s rendered figures because they are spirited reflections of a constantly evolving self; us, in our most basic guise.

Constantino portrays these unguarded moments steep with sensuality and meaning. It captures a vivid and vibrant flash from one’s existence. The piece, Desiderata, for example, expounds on a section of the female form that connotes a candid vulnerability laid bare, while providing a vision of longing for contentment, enrichment and self-affirmation. Kismet, is one work from the series of kisses where colors gradually transform from one end of the spectrum to the other, reiterating glimpses of reality depicted in different moods, coaxing varying degrees of reaction from the viewer.

The works in this exhibition are imbued with imaginings and aspirations. Constantino gives us a peek into the desires within her soul.

Marika B. Constantino is a full time visual artist who has participated in several local and international exhibitions. As a freelance writer, she has contributed to a number of globally distributed publications. Her early exposure to art and boundless fascination for the creative process resulted with a degree from the UP College of Architecture to further studies at the UP College of Fine Arts, with Art History as her major. Her broad background ranges from design, corporate management and organizational administration. She is also a part-time instructor, a core committee member of TutoK Artist Collective and is represented by Britania Art Projects. Constantino is continually striving to strike the balance between the cerebral, conceptual and experiential aspects of art with life in general, thus, fueling her fervent passion for artistic endeavors.

DESIDERATA
Kaye O’Yek

Desiderata opens at 6 o’clock in the evening on November 15, 2008, Saturday, at the upper level of the Boston Gallery, 72 Boston St. corner Lantana St., Cubao, Quezon City. This exhibition is co-presented by Britania Art Projects. For inquiries please call 387-6373 / mobile 09178070327 or email britania.artprojects@gmail.com. The exhibition runs until December 9, 2008.

KEEPING THE FAITH

Keeping the Faith: Acts of Mediation explores the notion of access across the registers of time and place. We find in this exhibition pieces from the Lopez Museum collection indicative of junctures of tumult, transition, and stress. Benedicto Cabrera’s Soldiers, Juan Luna’s España y Filipinas, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo’s La Derrota de Limahong, El Asesinato del Gobernardor Bustamante y Su Hijo, La Barca de Aqueronte, Per Pacem et Libertatem, Ante La Tumba del Jefe, among others, hint at the tenacity and aptitude required to proceed from these volatile planes. Referencing this instability persuades us to look at the negotiations which occur and become manifest in gestures of propitiation, defiance, inveigling, carousing, and so on. The exhibition also allows us to peer into seminal documents conscripted in the long-term project of enabling Filipinos to emerge from the black hole of colonial mis-representation, thus making that which was invisible ultimately present and concrete.

Keeping the Faith further occasions the juxtaposing of its trove alongside the work of the two contemporary sculptors Agnes Arellano and Kiri Dalena, and the documentary filmmakers Egay Navarro and Rica Concepcion. Taken together, the assembly of objects and time-based works attempt to evoke both memory and aspiration for a kinder and possibly more humane existence.

(ELR, Curator’s Note)

PRESS RELEASE
Keeping the Faith: Acts of Mediation
November 14, 2008 – April 4, 2009
Lopez Memorial Museum
Contact Person: Ms Fanny San Pedro/Ms Jane Pagkalinawan
Contact Details: 6312417/admin@lopez-museum.org

Artmaking is a form of mediation if one defines mediation as “an act of crossing the borders of sacrum and profanum,” as Wikipedia does. Apart from possible representations of transcendent spirituality and claims to truth, art may become involved in rituals that allow for such movements from sacred to profane. Artmaking may also strengthen or break taboos, and blur distinctions. The exhibition Keeping the Faith: Acts of Mediation will explore these and other related notions. The exhibition will feature works of 19th century masters Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, National Artists Vicente Manansala, J Elizalde Navarro, Benedicto Cabrera, and artists such as Jose Tence Ruiz, Romeo Tabuena, Danilo Dalena, and Juvenal Sanso. Works by contemporary artists Agnes Arellano and Kiri Dalena, and the video-documentary on the late Roberto Villanueva done by Edgardo Navarro and Rica Concepcion are also featured in the exhibition.

The said exhibition is part of Zero In 7: Bridges. Zero In is a consortium of private museums composed of Ateneo Art Gallery, Ayala Museum, Bahay Tsinoy, Lopez Memorial Museum and Museo Pambata.

The Lopez Memorial Museum is at the ground floor, Benpres Building, Exchange Road corner Meralco Avenue, Pasig City. Museum days and hours are Mondays to Saturdays, 8am-5pm, except Sundays and holidays. For more information, call 6312417 or email admin@lopez-museum.org.

PUTAJE

Fresh from their successful group exhibitions in Singapore and Malaysia , the six young visual artists from Antipolo, collectively known as Sangviaje – Jaypee Samson, Guerrero Habulan, Joven Mansit, John Paul Antido, Edric Daniel and Dennis Fortozo – presents "Putahe", their 4th group exhibition which will open on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at Art Informal.

Sangviaje explores the intertwining relevance of food with culture and society. For the artist group, the subjective premise is: "You are what you eat." They take this a step further in considering food as determinants of history's pedagogical system, religious perspectives, social structures, economics and globalization, politics and instinctive communal survival as part of the big picture. From the first stage of food preparation down to its consumption, food distinctively distresses positions of individual persona as much as cultural identity. It has its effects on ethnic affiliation, gender constructs, notions of hierarchy, regional, micro-regional, caste systems and class based affiliations, national identity and so on. Food then can be used variously as a signifier of cosmopolitanism, globalism, localism, traditionalism or even nationalism.

Sangviaje analytically and satirically traverses the notion of food as culture and culture as food and what distinguishes it from other phenomena.


Putaje opens on the 11th of November at Art Informal, 277 Connecticut St., Greenhills East, Mandaluyong City. For inquiries, sms 0918 899 2698 or visit www.artinformal.com.

SANDIWA

Jun & Elrine Vicaldo’s Sculptures Opens ArtisCorpus Gallery


For its opening exhibition, Artis Corpus Gallery in cooperation with Metrobank Foundation will feature SANDIWA: TAO’T KALIKASAN literally translated ONE SPIRIT: HUMANKIND AND NATURE by the father-daughter team, Jun and Elrine Vicaldo. Both are grand prize winners of art competitions, in the sculpture category, of the 2005 Art Association of the Philippines (AAP) and the 2008 Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE), respectively. A native of Sipocot, Camarines sur, Jun finished Fine Arts at UP Diliman and was a first prize winner of the Heritage Park Design Competition at Fort Bonifacio while daughter, Elrine, an architecture student, won the recent Metrobank competition at the age of 18.

The theme of the exhibition revolves around the central idea that all things are both physical and spiritual. People are body and spirit. So is Nature. The unifying factor which makes the whole of Creation one is indeed the term “Universe” itself. There is but one and only one essence that underlies everything that exists in the entire Universe. That essence is the Spirit. In Filipino, spirit is diwa. The artists Jun and Elrine Vicaldo stand by the principle that the Spirit of Man, the Spirit of Woman, the Spirit of Humankind, and the Spirit of Nature are all one and the same. The essence of everything that exists is the same Spirit. This exhibition celebrates that idea. It celebrates Man and Woman communing with Nature. It features Man and Woman in their lightest, as though floating in their own self-realized ethers. Man and Woman dance to celebrate abundance and bountiful harvests, gifts of the ever-providing Mother Nature.

The works in this exhibition are classical in basic thinking, as the personal orientation of the sculptor-father Jun Vicaldo demonstrates. Yet, the works carry a surprise twist, possibly owing to the youth and exposure of sculptor-daughter Elrine. The artists purposely infused influences of pop art, the manga, the cartoon, the graphic novel into their works. The seemingly ethnic and tribal human forms carry with them bought and found objects, transmuting them into contemporary pieces, with a touch of humor and lightheartedness.

Jun Vicaldo’s quasi-idealism shows in his treatment of the idea of “perfect” proportion, distorted in a manneristic fashion. His figures are lithe, rising above the mundane, many of which are in flight. Movement has always been the character of his human forms, whether in dance, as gymnasts, or simply as characters in endless motion. To the artist, movement is reflective of the freedom of the human spirit. Elrine’s fascination for superheroes transforms Jun’s basic forms into fleeting images of fantasy, of whimsicality, of sheer imagination beyond the mundane and the banal.

Both Jun and Elrine Vicaldo show us a different way of looking at life, again; this time, with a firm forward thrust into the twenty-first century, yet with a strong grasp of the past on which is anchored our cultural and personal foundations.

ArtisCorpus Gallery is a newly established art gallery which envisions Art being lived as part of everyone’s daily life. It is committed to promote works of art made by starting and established artists by way of exhibition and education. Its mission is to foster appreciation of the arts within the context of life itself.

PERIGORD STILL LIFE

Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi, painter and printmaker, comes once again on her annual pilgrimage to her homeland with an offering of some twenty or so still life paintings on exhibit at the Alliance Française de Manille starting November 6.

This new body of works reveals an evolution of Gelvezon-Tequi’s colours from the bright tropical hues of her past paintings to more subtle chromaticisms of grey, green and yellow. The subject matter, late summer gourds and old provincial pottery, suggests a glimpse of the world where Gelvezon-Tequi now lives.

Having always inhabited big cities, it was an apprehension for her to move - upon her husband Marc’s early retirement - to live in Limeuil, a small village of 350 souls in the heart of the Perigord region. The Perigord, in the Southwest part of France, is known for its “foei gras” and truffles, its thousand chateaux, its decorated prehistoric caves. But with her strong spirit and usual vivacity Gelvezon-Tequi tackled with enthusiasm this different lifestyle and learned to love country living. The artist drew inspiration from the old objects around her - a kitchen table that had seen generations of use, chipped ceramic pots and pitchers that contained long gone walnut oil and duck confit, colourful gourds harvested at the start of autumn. She composed numerous variations of her subject matter that gently ask us to reflect on memory and time.

The exhibit is until November 28 at the Alliance Française Total Gallery, 209 Nicanor Garcia Street (formerly Reposo), Bel Air 2, Makati. The artist’s reception shall be on Thursday, November 6, 2008 at Alliance Francaise de Manille’s Total Gallery. Cocktails will be served at 6:30 pm.

Gelvezon-Tequi has accepted the invitation of the Museum Foundation of the Philippines (MFP) to give an Artist’s Talk on her life and art in the Perigord at its Fellowship gathering for members and other interested guests, at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at the same venue.

Admission Fees
Members: P100.00
Non-members: P150.00
Students: P50.00


For more details about the artist’s talk and for confirmation of attendance, kindly contact Elvie Magpayo of the Museum Foundation of the Philippines at Telefax no.: 404-2685, mobile no.: 0928-503-9392 or email add: elvie.magpayo@gmail.com or call 810-6912 and look for Ms. Tonie Bautista, or call at 722-9073 and look for Flor Cortez.

FUTURAMANILA

KULAY BAHAGHARI

Inspired by her recent residency in Colarado, USA which brought her into contact with several Western painters, sculptors and ceramists, Filipino potter Winnie Go has opted for a dazzling blaze of colour for the ceramics in her next solo exhibition. Using glaze and underglaze as her paints upon clay, Winnie has created a brilliant series derived from modernist and geometric abstraction, with retro angular shapes and patterns, and also drips and splashes decorating the surface of her hand-built slabs, wheel-turned vessels and a small number of singular sculptural pieces. Breaking out from a rather zen and conservative Eastern tradition with regards to colour on ceramics, Winnie’s latest rainbow collection of works assails the senses with vivid primary colours and festive joie de vivre.

Winnie Go trained at the Jon Pettyjohn Pottery Workshop in Laguna, Philippines from 1995-2000, and has attended the Paul Davis Workshop in Australia (2002) and Anderson Ranch, Colorado, USA (2008) for further ceramic training. She has participated in several group shows in Singapore and the Philippines, and is a member of the Nanyang Clay Group. Kulay Bahaghari is her third solo show, and first in Singapore.



KULAY BAHAGHARI
COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW
Adventures in colour by
Filipino ceramist WINNIE GO

Thursday 6th November 2008 7 pm
Mon-Sat 12 noon - 8 pm Sun 12 noon - 5.30 pm
The exhibition runs to Sunday 16th November 2008.

A CELEBRATION OF LIFE

A CELEBRATION OF LIFE

Ernie Gomez
Bumbo Villanueva

Le Souffle, Rockwell Powerplant, Makati City

Opening Reception
Saturday, November 8, 2008, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Exhibit Extends
November 9 – 30, 2001

RECLAMATION PROJECT

ALFREDO ESQUILLO JR. 'RECLAMATION PROJECT'

Alfredo Esquillo Jr.’s 12th solo show, Reclamation Project, opens at Tin-aw Art Gallery in Makati at 6pm on Friday, November 7, 2008. The multi-awarded artist will exhibit new works in oil on canvas, pelon fabric, and rubber. With Reclamation Project, Esquillo revisits the various artistic directions he has taken in his 15-year career – from his autotheater, archival works, and folk-religious themes.

For inquiries about Reclamation Project please contact Tin-aw Art Gallery at the Upper Ground Floor, Somerset Olympia Building, Makati Avenue, Makati City. Contact 8927522 or email info@tin-aw.com. Website www.tin-aw.com. Admission is free.

INVASION

ronaldo ruiz

INVASION

17th one-man show

NOVEMBER 4 - 15 '08

@ renaissance gallery 4th level bldg. a, sm megamall, mandaluyong city

tel. no. ( 632) 6373101

LIKE

Pamela Yan Santos' Like

In her upcoming solo exhibition entitled LIKE, Pamela Yan Santos explores personal history as known and remembered through various indices such as photographs, written and scribbled language and other signifiers that many of us consider as mundane.

Working in mixed media and in layers, she uses the processes of serigraphy, painting and collage as components to a kind of visual syntax intended to essay personal episodes and remembrances of emotional significance. The approaches through which she interrelates the various processes make the works resonate as wish, as a point of comparison, as a mnemonic or as a conjunction, which are among the permutations of the word LIKE.

From a personal perspective, the works bridge the artist's past and present by transforming events through time into a synchronous testament, expressing how agreeably or uncannily the two echo and mirror each other.

Pam Yan -Santos graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts Major in Painting from the University of the Philippines. A prize winner in the print category of the 1993 AAP Annual Art Competition, she has joined significant number of group exhibitions both here and abroad, the latest of which is ArtBeijing in China.

LIKE is Pam's 5th solo exhibition and will be curated by Leo Abaya.

LIKE opens on Monday, November 3, 2008 6PM at the blanc compound 359 Shaw Blvd, Mandaluyong City. For More information please call/sms 752-0032/0920- 9276436, email info@blanc.ph or visit www.blanc.ph.