NEWS

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

SILVERLENS GALLERY, SLAB AND 20SQUARE SEPTEMBER 1 SHOWS




Silverlens Gallery, SLab and 20SQUARE Septemeber 1 Shows
September 1, 2010, Wednesday

This September, Silverlens/Slab/20SQUARE present shows by a fashion designer, a painter marking her return to the Philippine art scene, and a young artist known her pop art and rock-roll inspired collages.

Celebrating his 20th year in fashion, Rhett Eala wanted to explore another medium of his creative expression. In his show entitled Divides, he explores his fascination with the Philippine map through painting. On black and white paintings, Eala reveals the iconic Philippine map like never seen before, at the same time, showcasing the many facets of his artistry.

In SLab, we have another painting show, this time by Chati Coronel who returns to the Philippine art scene after many years living in the States. Her show, entitled An Hour in a Glass Balloon reveals a whimsical and magical world, which she explains as a world that "usually doesn’t get celebrated in art." Coronel uses the woman as her focal point, revealing the duality of their strength and softness with bulbous, organic shapes - as a parachute, a cape, a headdress - and vibrant colors. Allowing life to explode on the canvas, Coronel paints these images to activate the sense that "infinite possibilities exist inside all of us".

Dina Gadia rounds up the September series with her first solo show in 20SQUARE called Contra-Affair. Known for her collages, Gadia enjoys mixing pop art rock and roll inspired images, and puts them together to create an entirely new context. In Contra-Affair, Gadia uses three mediums: painting, collage and sculpture to explore "affairs of ideas/images that go against each other" - from a muscle man in a graveyard to a children’s textbook illustration with punk graphics. Indeed Gadia makes art fun as she "cracks the images to open the possibilities of new meaning".

All three shows open on September 1,2010 Wednesday 6-9pm, and run until September 25,2010.

For inquiries, contact Silverlens Gallery at 2/F YMC Bldg. II, 2320 Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati, 816-0044, 0917-5874011, or manage@silverlensphoto.com. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday 10am–7pm and Saturdays 1–6pm. www.silverlensphoto.com / slab.silverlensphoto.com.

Words: Bea Davila; Image: Rhett Eala, Oblation (left), 2010; Chati Coronel, A New Buddha Head (middle), 2010; Dina Gadia, Mamaw (right), 2010

DIVIDES




Divides by Rhett Eala
September 01, 2010, Wednesday
6-9pm

Renowned fashion designer Rhett Eala celebrates his 20th year in fashion with a different kind of show at Silverlens. Entitled Divides, Eala's show explores another medium of his creative expression, painting - something he has done on and off all his life.

Just like how he did it with the successful Collezione clothing brand, Eala explores his fascination with the iconic Philippine map, albeit this time through monochromatic paintings. Drawn to the unique shape of the Philippine archipelago, Eala reinvents how the map is viewed and displayed. He made the Filipino theme fashionable, and now with Divides, he makes it art.

Divides is a series of white maps painted on a white background; their black versions; and their red versions. "When you have images painted in the same hue you tend to look closer at the images", Eala explains. He invites his audience to take a close look at the cracks in the paint that hold the image together and the texture of the many layers.

The imagery is recognizable and resonant. With the Philippine map is the University of the Philippines Oblation, which he aptly describes as "one the few iconic sculptures in the country". Eala delves into the symbolism of the images, and their power to invoke pride and nationalism. And because the images are in various orientations and repeating throughout the canvas, it is seeing the icons like never before. From fashion to art, Eala showcases his many facets as an artist, at the same time, he forges new ways of looking at things so familiar.

Divides opens simultaneously with An Hour in a Glass Balloon by Chati Coronel at SLab; and Contra-Affair by Dina Gadia in 20SQUARE.

An Artist Talk and Slideshow by Rhett Eala will be on September 15, Wed, 6-8pm at Silverlens Gallery.

For inquiries, contact Silverlens Gallery at 2/F YMC Bldg. II, 2320 Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati, 816-0044, 0917-5874011, or manage@silverlensphoto.com. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday 10am–7pm and Saturdays 1–6pm. www.silverlensphoto.com / slab.silverlensphoto.com.

Words: Bea Davila; Image: Rhett Eala, Eldest Son, 2010

PRESCRIBED VIEWS




Marc San Valentin diverts from the mainstream forms of photography in his coming show “Prescribed Views”. San Valentin, known for playing around photographic methods, introduces images that do not necessarily exemplify beauty, but demonstrate the importance of the photographic process, its history and methods. The artist, through his negative images, commences a new approach in looking and even reading photographs with regards and reference to the development of photographic practices.

The exhibit runs from 3 September to 24 September 2010 at NOVA Gallery, Warehouse 12A, La Fuerza Compound, 2241 Don Chino Roces Ave., Makati City.

For more information call 392-7797 or send an electronic mail to gallerynova@gmail.com or visit www.novagallerymanila.com

Monday, August 30, 2010

FILIPINO ARTIST WINS SECOND PLACE IN THE 2010 ART KUDOS INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION




We are pleased to present the 2010 Art Kudos international exhibition, our 6th annual online juried competition. The award selections were made by Mitchell Albala, instructor at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle and author of Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice. This year 146 artists representing 23 countries were accepted into the show. View the exhibition >>

Second Place Award
Enrique Cachero
"My Bike"
Acrylic
24 x 32 inches
USD $1200

Kudos from Mitchell Albala: "My Bike" is a highly rendered work, yet it exceeds its "realistic" exterior by the way it handles its component parts. It's as much a joyous celebration of line, color, pattern and design as it is the story of a "bike." Its detail never overrides the overall composition; rather, it enhances it.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

SALPUKAN




An inevitable and lurking idea that situations are contributed in this enormous expansion society has undergone. There will be interpretations and timeless validation that promotes us to make sense of reality in rupture. A sobering notion plays out in this unprecedented momentum calling out attention.

The exhibition SALPUKAN hopes to contribute to this interest indirectly offering visual prospects in modality entangled with the vivid ideas of idioms and metamorphic synthesis of our society. We do not question but rather stating jaded and easy moral judgments on these exchange of thoughts which gives us a fervent horizon neither inflict nor intimately passing through.

This attempts the elements accumulated to display textural gestures and perhaps entirely correlates us together with the sense of weight plus the freshness and at ease of the compositions, thus disrupts the cues being infuse in deliberately operative as to shape with it or just waiting to be disperse.

The compositions states junctions of society as to where we might be headed and are we tough enough to answer the consequences being hurled to us, These are storyboards of what we seem happening but nonetheless as Averil Paras work titled EVERYBODY DOES IT BUT NOT EVERYONE SEES IT lays prospect norms we try to settle everyday and as far as mingle love over relationship Bernard Del Mundo TEASERS keeps an enticing view for CHRISTIAN REGIS elevates the stature being caught and lock from the memories entangled with the perception of marriage. Baru tackled the dilemma of human existence on GENOCIDE OF EQUALITY as KRIS JAN GAVINO gives notion on mistakes of reality in his work titled TRAPPED IN A DREAM CALLED REALITY as well conjured to FRANK EPIL'S SOLTERA leaving the viewer in constant motion of what is there after penetrating observation of reality.

SALPUKAN is on view until September 6, 2010 at Sigwada Art Gallery 1921 Ororquieta St. cor. Tayuman St., Sta. Cruz, Manila. For inquiries please call 743-5873.

PROTECTING FINE ART AGAINST HIGH TEMPERATURES



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Saturday, August 28, 2010

UNRAVEL




About the show:

Filipino contemporary artists Malyn Bonayog and Josue Mangrobang Jr. present un•rav•el, a presentation of new works that will challenge the viewer’s perception of aesthetics and the integrity of imagery, supplanting first impressions with more detailed study.

Malyn Bonayog will arouse your curiosity in her complex multi-layering of apparently simple lines on her canvases, which amazingly form several dissimulated images of urban landscapes and personalities that could only be seen separately from different angles. In viewing Bonayog’s work standing dead center, the viewer may find her images baffling at first, but proceeding to view it from different angles, he would then see how she gently reminds us of our sometimes-complacent perception of ordinary things which have significant value to all of us. Within Bonayogs’s work is a classic illusion that will trick your eyes and challenge your mind to understand her tapestry.

Josue Mangrobang Jr. poses a riddle on the meaning of the images he depicts on his canvases. The prominent subject is wrapped in heavy layers of exercise book paper painted realistically and overlain with another image made of small detailed dots as a counter-image. Mangrobang’s meticulous treatment of his artworks is as impressive as the message he imparts to the viewer : the invaluable contribution of education and the sacredness of personal space.
This collection might first mislead at first glace – a mystery that grows on us as we begin to stare. The viewer has to look beyond to the linear lines, background patterns, covered images, meticulous dots and dissimulated images to discover the core of the works. We simply have to unravel it for ourselves.

Friday, August 27, 2010

VELVET LANDING




Velvet Landing
Lena Cobangbang
August 28 – September 26, 2010

Velvet Landing is an offshoot of Lena Cobangbang’s previous series Crater Valley Plateau where she has taken pictures of maquettes of mountains, volcanoes and plains carpeted in synthetic polyester. This time she rolls out bales of carpet plains in recreating her very own idiosyncratic comedic garden of errors, where midget clowns are struck by lightning and panthers hide in the artifice of plushy softness. Not so much as a commentary on the failings of urban planning in simulating plains of terrain vagues that are the wanton byproducts of abandoned construction projects, but rather a re-enchantment of such wanton spots as being these wonderland of dark comedies rife of smirking metaphors.

The exhibition will on view until September 26, 2010.

THE KEY TO DRAWING IS SEEING THE OBVIOUS



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Thursday, August 26, 2010

PRECIPICE




Sculptor Daniel dela Cruz exhibits his new body of works at the ArtistSpace beginning August 27, 2010. The exhibit—the artist’s 7th solo show—is entitled “Precipice” and includes some 25 new works.

Crafted by hand and made from mixed metals, dela Cruz’s sculptures will offer a glimpse into the artist’s deeper musings on life. “Precipice” gives shape and form to dela Cruz’s thoughts on man’s struggles as he reaches a point in life when he faced by a wide chasm. In “Precipice” De la Cruz takes a positive stance in the face of utter despair.

“The exhibit”, says dela Cruz, “takes a careful glimpse at that precarious point—that singular moment in time in our individual lives when we come face-to-face with our own weaknesses and limitations—indeed, our own mortality. We may choose to back away from where we are or go forth and make a leap of faith into the unknown.”

He adds, “We may totter and stumble, and indeed, fall, as we face imminent danger. But like metal—the most malleable of all primal materials—we can roll with the punches, take the blows, and emerge from the fall transformed, renewed and rendered more beautifully.”

Once again, dela Cruz is set to excite audiences as he deftly combines different metals and manipulates the mix by hand to create sculptures that have been hailed for their surprising grace and fluidity. He defies metal’s strength balancing them precariously on top of each other, or positioning them to challenge the artwork’s center of gravity.

“Precipice” runs from August 27 to September 7 at the ArtistSpace of the Ayala Museum, Ayala Center, Makati City. ArtistSpace is located on the 2nd floor, Glass wing of the Ayala Museum, Makati Avenue corner De la Rosa Street, Greenbelt Park, Makati City. Gallery hours are from 9 am to 6 pm on weekdays, and 10 am to 7 pm on weekends.

DR. LAYA, 2 OTHERS NAMED TRUSTEES OF THE CULTURAL CENTER OF THE PHILIPPINES




President Aquino has named a banker, a pianist, and an architect to the board of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Malacañang announced Friday.

The President returned Jaime C. Laya, former Central Bank Governor and former Chairman of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), as member of the CPP board of trustees.

The two other new CCP board members are celebrated pianist Raul M. Sunico and architect Maria Cristina V. Turalba.
Laya graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of the Philippines and later earned his PhD from Stanford University.

Prior to his appointment, Sunico served as artistic director of the CCP. The world-class performing artist graduated at the University of the Philippines with the degrees of Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Master of Statistics.

He also earned a Master of Music degree at the Julliard School in New York City and later got his Doctor of Philosophy degree, major in Piano Performance, at the New York University.

Turalba, former professor of the UP College of Architecture, is the vice chairman of Active Realty and Development Corporation.

Dr. Laya, 2 others named Trustees of Cultural Center of the Philippines
By GENALYN KABILING
August 13, 2010, 9:30pm
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/272244/dr-laya-2-others-named-trustees-cultural-center-philippines

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

HERETICAL SCIENCE




IAN CARLO JAUCIAN
Heretical Science
CCP Bulwagang Fernando Amorsolo (Small Gallery)
August 26 – October 02, 2010

With his eyes cast on the question of hidden dimensions, or else the dimensions that lie beyond the 3 dimensions perceivable or measurable by the human mind, Ian Carlo Jaucian embarks on his first solo exhibition Heretical Science at the Small Gallery of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and attempts to find, not just ways to ‘see’ these dimensions but also what these could mean for us.

To be heretical implies dissension or differentiation from established doctrine, granting that the existence of hidden dimensions can neither be proven nor disproven and therefore there is no scientific law or principle for it. Jaucian’s work may very well echo scientific methods as he employs art to experiment on, explore and investigate what is for now impossible to know. Yet this is just the tip of his transgressions even as he acknowledges this contradiction: that the mind cannot accurately perceive the actual nature of things and yet it is capable of understanding spatial concepts beyond the perception of the senses.

Heresies run against absolutes as the mind is undeterred at forming its own possibilities. In Heretical Science, the unknown is reflected through installations of 2D and 3D works; what is abstract is rendered into the representational. Art counters the veneration of expression and instead we find a confluence of both system and play. These are works that recall the science of illustrated textbooks, of museum field trips, of those educational programs that inspired us as children to dream of being physicists and geologists. That we are brought into this discourse on perception through the aesthetics of our primary encounters with science are part of this exhibit’s heretical operation. Imagination, to paraphrase Einstein, is more important than knowledge. Indeed, art and science form rich playgrounds for such creative and constructive imaginings.

Ian Carlo Jaucian is a graduate of the UP College of Fine Arts, and was one of its Outstanding Thesis grantees in 2008. He currently works as Exhibition Coordinator for the Ateneo Art Gallery.

Heretical Science opens on August 26, 2010 at 6:00pm. The exhibit is open to the public and will run until October 02, 2010. Viewing hours are from 10:00am-6:00pm daily except Mondays and Holidays.

Ref: CCP Visual Arts
Tel. 8323702
Email: visualarts.ccp@gmail.com

Monday, August 23, 2010

AT THE HELM: UP CLOSE WITH NCCA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MALOU JACOB




At the Helm: Up Close with NCCA Executive Director Malou Jacob
By Sherma E. Benosa
Photo by Mervin Concepcion Vergara

For several months now, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) has been under new leadership. Taking over the helm from former NCCA Executive Director, now Unesco Commissioner Cecile Guidote Alvarez, is multi-awarded playwright and TV director Malou Jacob.

A resident playwright for the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) for many years, Jacob is known for her plays that were rife with social commentaries and advocacy for empowerment, change, and action. Her earlier works staged by PETA Kalinangan Ensemble include “Ang Timbangan ay Tagilid” (The Scales are Tipped; 1970), Aidao (1972, coauthored with Franklin Osorio), Raha Sulayman at Megat Salamat (Raha Sulayman and Megat Salamat; 1978) and Ang Mahabang Pagdadalawang Isip sa Maikling Buhay ng Isang Peti-Burgis (Endless Vacillation in the Very Short Life of a Petibourgeois; 1982). She wrote for the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Pilipino the plays Pepe (1990) Teresa (1993) and Anatomiya ng Korupsion (The Anatomy of Corruption; 1992).

Her critically acclaimed play, Juan Tamban, staged in 1978, has been called “a landmark in Philippine modern theatre, because of its well-researched and realistic portrayal of contemporary social problems and its combination of both realism and non-realistic styles” by critic Doreen Fernandez. It placed 2nd in the three-act play category (Filipino Division) of the 1979 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards and won the National Book Award for Drama in 1984, the Manila Critics Circle Award in 1985, and an international award for Third World countries by the International Theater Institute conducted by Venezuela in 1987.

In 2005, Jacob was given the Southeast Asian Writers Award (SEA Write Award). In 2008, she was named deputy executive director of NCCA. That same year, she was given the Gawad CCP for literature. As deputy executive director, Jacob has introduced programs that focus on empowering the marginalized and making the commission more proactive in its external linkages. Among these programs are the translation program, focus on intellectual property rights of indigenous people, and the Artists for Crisis.

The Artists for Crisis aims to bring together “emerging Muslim, Lumad and Christian artists during times of manmade and natural catastrophes to give creative workshops in poetry, music, dance, visual arts, and theater for the victims—children, the youth and the women.”

Last year, the first trainors training involving 40 Christian artists followed by workshops in Zamboanga, Bicol, Cotabato and Ilo-ilo was conducted. Another training was conducted in June with Moro artists. This will be followed by four workshops to be facilitated by the trainees. The same will be done with the Lumad artists next year so that by the middle of 2011, NCCA will have 120 artist facilitators under the program. “This is NCCA’s contribution towards better understanding among the Lumads, Muslims, and Christians,” Jacob shared. A translation program for the novel has also been started through Jacob’s initiative. Through this program, selected novels by National Artist nominees will be translated into English for the judges to enable them to better understand and appreciate works by regional writers. Under the program, winning works in the NCCA Literary Prize will likewise be translated to English for submission to the Man Asian Prize.

Jacob likewise turned the NCCA International Affairs Office (IAO) which she headed while she was deputy executive director “into a proactive office by going beyond answering the needs of Philippine posts and foreign embassies through classification of exchanges.” These exchanges will have three stages. First, exchange of books, DVDs and other materials. Second, exchange of seasoned artists and critics. And third, exchange of groups of artists and writers. Jacob also shared that the IAO now has a Critics Circle which will tap critics to give lectures to foreign cultural/ art groups and universities under the cultural agreements with the ASEAN and its dialogue partners China, Korea, Japan & India; the Middle East; and Latin America.

“We aim to promote our seasoned artists and to influence the curricula of foreign universities to include studies on Philippine Cinema, Philippine Literature, and Philippine Visual Arts,” she said, adding that Penguin’s translations of great works by Filipinos, such as Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, Jose Garcia Villa’s Doveglion, and Miguel Syjuco’s Ilustrado published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux; as well as DVDs of Brillante Mendoza’s Lola (Grandmother), Mike De Leon’s Kisapmata (In a Blink of an Eye), Marilou Abaya’s Jose Rizal, and Mario O Hara’s Bakit Bughaw ang Langit (Why the Sky is Blue) will be distributed to selected foreign embassies in 2010-2011.

Jacob is also promoting the Monodrama Festival “because it brings out the best from the actor at the least production cost. Through the Fujairah Monodrama Festival, our Muslim artists will also have the opportunity to interact with their Middle East counterpart and, hopefully, realize that there is no conflict between religion and art. Sharja of UAE, the cultural capital of the Middle East should be a destination for our Muslim artists.”

In an interagency meeting with the Department of Foreign Affairs in connection with the Philippines being the Asean Culture Capital for 2010-2011, Jacob has proposed for Butuan to be among the focal cities. Butuan, she said, is the site of the Balanghai and the Golden Tara (now in the Chicago Museum) which dates back thousands of years before the coming of Spain. “Butuan, together with the Philippine Ramayana version, Marahadia Lawana of the Maranaos, links us strongly with the ASEAN towards unity and solidarity by 2015,” she added. All these things which she initiated as deputy executive director, Jacob plans to continue during her term as executive director while also continuing the Commission’s long-standing programs. Primary of these are the Schools of Living Traditions (SLTs), Arts Festivals, and the Philippine Cultural Education Plan (PCEP).

The SLT is a program where a culture master imparts to a group of interested youth traditional skills and knowledge such as weaving, chants, songs and dances, in an informal setting. “I love the concept of the SLTs — a master craftsman with 10 to 20 young village practitioners/students. But we have to set the stage for our battle cry: Cultural Industry for the Filipino Artist! Why develop a cultural industry if not for the economic benefit of the artist? The GAMABA [Gawad Manlilikha ng Bayan] and the master artists should benefit the most from their art and not the usual marketing people or the money lenders. The NCCA has the responsibility to protect the Filipino Artist. We have links now with a Grameen-like bank organization that lends to the poorest of the poor at lowest interest, without collateral. We are going to eliminate the practice of five-six. We are setting up a marketing model which arts councils could follow. We are setting up an Intellectual Communal/Property Rights Office (IPR/Task Force on Legal Assistance Services) that will function as a clearing house for all of the complaints of the artists all over the country,” Jacob shared.

She added that the NCCA will continue to give support to art festivals. “The Arts Festivals have been supported by NCCA for over 10 years. It is time to put together a list of the most gifted artists from the periphery whose talent should be honed. Master classes for them. This is preparatory to the setting up of community or university based Arts Institutes in Mindanao, Visayas, and Luzon to be managed by seasoned artists and former members of the NCCA committees,” she said, adding that the regional arts festivals should be “propelled by the socio-economic conditions of the region so that the power of arts in the molding of a people is demonstrated especially to the powers that be to help them realize the role of the arts beyond entertainment.” Jacob added that the PCEP must continue to “culminate towards the training of teachers to assure the place of Philippine Arts and Culture in the school curriculum, saying that “mistakes have been made but these are being corrected. The important thing is we are aiming to greatly influence the educational system. And we shall.”

Jacob also said that her administration will prioritize setting up a ThinkTank for NCCA. “We have tested the NCCA Debates on cultural and artistic issues during our planning session 2010- 2013 and the response was tremendous. The rank-and-file staff of NCCA is young, motivated, bright and hard working. I plan to continue the debates within and outside NCCA,” she emphasized, adding that a Debate Series on “burning issues like the National Artist Awards, role of NCCA in value formation especially since what brings the country to the pits are corruption, kamag-anak Inc. and the
culture of violence” among others may be taken up and may even be covered by radio and television.

“NCCA has to take up its role in the development of the Filipino people. Culture should not be perceived as second or third priority. It has to be recognized as the umbrella that defines the socio-economic and political direction of the country,” she stressed. Asked what she thinks will be the greatest challenge she will have to face, she answered, “the greatest is the unconscionable situation of the majority of the employees of NCCA. I understand that this has been taken up by previous executive directors but without much success. I want to try again, using a different strategy. The NCCA cannot continue to be the umbrella organization for culture and the arts serving the entire country thru its policy making, grant giving, and coordinating functions with 80 percent of its employees in temporary positions for 5, 10, 15 years; and artists all over the country as volunteers, just because DBM has a RAT plan. The RAT plan is for the bloated government agencies. The NCCA is a lean and mean agency serving the entire country with a miniscule staff. I will bring this issue to the highest office of the land.”


From AGUNG May-June 2010 ISSN 0119-5948
Page 12 - 13

Sunday, August 22, 2010

GETTY PURCHASE SETS NEW RECORD




Getty Purchase Sets New Record
United Press International
July 08, 2010

A painting by the artist J.M.W. Turner, which has been owned by the same Scottish family for more than a century, is heading to a California museum.

The J. Paul Getty Museum bought “Modern Rome — Campo Vaccino” for nearly 30 million pounds ($45 million) at auction Wednesday night at Sotheby’s in London, The Scotsman reported. The price was the highest ever paid for a work by the English artist and nearly 10 million pounds ($15 million) above the previous record.

The painting, created in 1839, was bought in 1878 by the Fifth Earl of Rosebery and was owned by his descendants. It had been on loan to the National Gallery of Scotland for 30 years.

The family, which owns another Turner also on loan to the museum, decided to sell “Modern Rome” to provide funds for the upkeep of Dalmeny Estate, the Rosebery seat near Edinburgh.

The museum, involved in raising funds to keep two major Titians in the country, made no effort to buy the Turner.

George Gordon, an art expert at Sotheby’s, said Turner was a prolific artist and many of his works remain in Britain, especially a large collection in the Tate in London.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

STATIC CASUALTIES

ALLIANCE FRANCAISE ANNOUNCES GRANTS PROGRAM




To commemorate the 90th anniversary of its founding, Alliance Française de Manille (AFM), the French language school and cultural center, is pleased to announce the establishment of the Alliance Française de Manille-Philippine Artist Residency Program (AFM-PARP). AFM is launching the grants program as its latest initiative in the pursuit of its mission to promote cultural exchange between the Philippines and France through language training and art-related programs.

The AFM-PARP offers Filipino visual artists the possibility of a structured visit to France for a period of two to three months. The residency will be hosted by a French non-profit cultural organization, artist residence, or artist-run initiative. It is conceived as a professional opportunity rather than a project-based grant. Its aim is to enrich the experience of local artists by affording them the opportunity for contact with the contemporary art scene in France. The objective of the program is to broaden professional networks between contemporary art communities in the Philippines and France.

The AFM-PARP is open to Filipino visual artists: painters, sculptors, multimedia artists, photographers. One residency will be offered annually, to take place in the spring months of April to June or the autumn months of September to November. The AFM-PARP will provide a financial grant to cover costs of travel and living expenses. The grantee may also avail of a free one-month French language course at AFM. These resources are expected to afford the recipient the opportunity for stimulating cultural exchanges and collaboration with other artists, and uninterrupted creative time. During the residency period, the grantee is encouraged to give talks and workshops to the public, depending on the needs of the host organization.

Qualifications and Procedure
-Qualifications for Applicants:
-Must be a bona fide Filipino citizen
-Must be 45 years or younger as of the month of July of application year
-Must have at least two (2) years of formal art schooling
-Must have held at least one (1) solo exhibition in a reputable art space

Application Procedure
-Applicants must submit the following:
-Accomplished Application Form (available at AFM or can be downloaded from its website (www.alliance.ph)
-Proposed host – may be a school, university, artist residence or artist-run initiative (AFM may assist applicant in identifying appropriate host)
-Program of residency – A brief statement (500 words) on why you think the residency would be valuable and how you hope to achieve the rationale and objectives of the residency
-Curriculum Vitae (A4 paper size)

Documentation of sample works (A4 paper size)
-If the work is static, six (6) images – digital (JPG or TIFF format) and 5R prints
-If the work is time-based or animated: up to five (5) minutes of footage on a CD or DVD (.MOV or .WMV)
-Image list and description of no more than one (1) page (Arial, 11 point size, 550 words) which includes a short description to accompany images; correct dimensions and medium of work corresponding to the order of images presented

Applications and support material should be addressed to:
AFM-PARP
Alliance Française de Manille
209 Nicanor Garcia Street
Bel-Air II, Makati City 1209

N.B. All applicants must comply with the above requirements in order to be considered eligible. Support material submitted will not be returned to applicant.

AFM-PARP schedule
Application period: August to October
Deadline for application: October 31
Evaluation period: November to January
Announcement of selected grantee: February

Post-Residency
The grantee is required to hold an exhibition at the AFM Total Gallery within one (1) year following the end of residency. One work from the exhibition to be chosen by the AFM Board of Directors will be donated to the AFM-PARP.

For more details, you may visit the AFM website at www.alliance.ph.
Alliance Française de Manille is located at 209 Nicanor Garcia St. formerly Reposo St.) Bel-Air 2, Makati City.
Office days and hours:
Monday to Thursday, 9am to 6pm; Friday and Saturday, 9am to 5pm; and closed on Sundays and Holidays.

Friday, August 20, 2010

RESTORED DA VINCI PAINTING REVEALS HIDDEN DETAILS




Restored Da Vinci Painting Reveals Hidden Details
Associated Press
July 15, 2010

LONDON — A restoration project for Leonardo da Vinci’s “Virgin of the Rocks” has revealed new details and suggest the Renaissance artist may have painted all the picture himself, instead of with his assistants as previously thought, a British gallery said Wednesday.

The 18-month conservation project involved removing much of some badly degraded varnish that was applied to the painting in the late 1940s, enabling experts to take a much closer look at the picture’s brush strokes and styles, the National Gallery said.

The cleaning revealed the painting’s full tonal range, especially in the darker areas, and resulted in a clearer sense of how the artist intended for space to recede through the rocky landscape, the gallery said.

It also affirmed that Leonardo likely painted the entire picture himself and intended for it to be unfinished.

The restored painting showed a range of completion from the barely sketched hand of the angel to the fully realized heads of the main figures — consistent with many of Leonardo’s works. The Italian artist, said to be the “eternal perfectionist,” is thought to have left his pictures unfinished because he wished to return to them later, gallery spokesman Thomas Almeroth-Williams said.

In the past, scholars believed the different levels of finish in “Virgin of the Rocks” showed that Leonardo was helped by assistants.

The painting dates from about 1491 to 1508 and is a later version of one on display in the Louvre in Paris.

The latest cleaning project followed years of scrutiny of the masterpiece.

In 2005, experts using infrared technology found two drawings hidden beneath the surface of the picture — one design was never painted, and the second one revealed Leonardo changed his mind about the subject several times.

The painting goes back on display in the National Gallery on Wednesday.

© 2010 YellowBrix, Inc.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

R MUCK




Manila Contemporary is proud to present the gallery's first ever solo exhibition by a local artist.

Reg Yuson has consistently held group and solo exhibitions since 1991, moving on to creating functional art and commissioned public art projects and built environments here and abroad. His new works for Manila Contemporary carries on his roots on defining spaces and, in turn, disorienting pre-conditions of our experiences of familiar places.

For this exhibition titled R Muck, Yuson takes on the challenge of taking on Manila Contemporary's cavernous space - the very characteristic which he observed has continued to daunt many artists and guests alike through the two years the gallery has been in operation along the Pasong Tamo showroom strip. Instead of pursuing the obvious direction towards filling up the empty gallery space, he chooses to work around magnifying the intimidation towards experiencing the immensity of the hall by emptying the gallery of its wall partitions then containing the entire open space onto the reflections you'll see of the entire surroundings on the high polished surface of his new sculptures which he refers to as formless muck or blobs.

R Muck plays with the experience of our relation to the space of Manila Contemporary by adding vague softscape forms to it. The form of his muck-like sculptures contains an element of illusive protrusion that can look as if they're dropping into the ground or coming out from it. They're like inverted black holes... Whereas the black hole absorbs, the blobs seems to throw everything back out... They are highly reflective encouraging a self-conscious engagement towards the space in relation to the sculptures installed on the floor. Like the R Mutt signature on Marcel Duchamp's “Fountain,” R Muck is Reg Yuson's sort of Dadaist take on contemporary imagery and iconography that we commonly see today.

Manila Contemporary is located in 2314 Whitespace Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City. For inquiries email info@manilacontemporary.com, call +63 2 8447328 or visit www.manilacontemporary.com.

MOMA USES X-RAY VISION IN LATEST EXHIBITION




MoMA Uses X-Ray Vision in Latest Exhibition
By Barbara Hoffman The New York Post
July 19, 2010

HOW do you like your art – as a cerebral challenge, or something simply to see and savor? You can have it both ways at MoMA’s new show of Henri Matisse, the culmination of years of research inspired by X-rays. And if that sounds dull, well, you haven’t seen this show.

Opening tomorrow, “Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-17” offers more than 100 works – paintings, sculpture and sketches. Most are from a pivotal period in the artist’s career, when he became infatuated with what he called “the methods of modern construction.” The world was sliding into war, and Picasso and others were caught up with the angry geometry of Cubism. Matisse, freshly back home in Paris and rethinking his colorful, decorative style of painting, began to make a kinder, gentler form of Cubism,and embarked on a frenzy of revision.

That artists tweak their work is nothing new. (J.M.W. Turner even pasted a dog onto a landscape already on display.) Matisse reworked the same sculpture, “Back,” on and off for 21 years – a process you can actually see via the digital presentation at the end of the show, in which newfangled technology lays bare the underlying layers of this and his “Bathers by a River.” (What’s next – MRI’s for Michelangelo?)

The show is organized chronologically, beginning with the years leading up to this transformative time. In the first gallery, you’ll see the small Cezanne painting “Three Bathers,” which inspired Matisse’s version years later, along with the small sculpture he used to work out a painting of a big, voluptuous nude.

Elsewhere, his concentration on line and form become clear in side-by-side canvases, “Interior With Goldfish” and “Goldfish and Palette.” Painted just eight months apart in 1914, the first is a more conventional scene, with a pretty view across the way; the second, an abstraction bounded by strong black lines.

“Still Life After Jan Davidsz de Heem’s ‘La Desserte’ " is as big as its title. It’s based on a 1640 still life Matisse’s teacher had him study at the Louvre, which by 1914 was closed by the war. Matisse painted it from memory, abstracting as he did so – true to his methods of modern construction.

That painting is from MoMA’s collection, as are a quarter of the 40 or so in the show. It’s only fitting, said Claude Duthuit, the artist’s grandson, because Matisse “had a particular love of New York . . . that inspired him everywhere he went.”

The feeling’s mutual.

“Matisse: Radical Invention” runs through Oct. 11 at MoMA, 11 W. 53rd St.; 212-708-9431.

Originally published by Barbara Hoffman.
© 2010 The New York Post. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
A service of YellowBrix, Inc.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

EXECUSION




PRESENT (A)MUSINGS: ExecuSIOn 2010
by Reuben Ramas Cañete

The great thing about Philippine Contemporary Abstraction is that, unlike Western Abstraction, it never aspires for asociality and atemporality. On the contrary, it has always thrived on the present, its impact upon the artist, and how the world flows, convulses, and flexes through the maelstrom of emotion, social standing, and a definable time/space singularity. Asian in its sensitivity to nature and the aspiration for peace and tranquillity, Pinoy Abstractionists also revel in the founding emotion of social contact and eventful reckonings within the definable location of Here. It is in this context that Dennis Montera’s new ExecuSIOn series re-enacts our own national misadventures, our zigzagging mindsets and behaviours, and our ability to ride on other winds of change in order to stay alive, and together, as a definable mass sitting at the edge.

Sio Montera holds an MFA degree from UP Diliman and is a tenured faculty of the Fine Arts Department in U.P.Cebu. He is also a EXECON member of the Committee on Visual Arts of the NCCA. He has been awarded the grand prize in the non-figurative category of the 2010 GSIS Painting Competition and is a recipient of the 2008 and 2010 Chancellor's Award in U.P. Visayas for his outstanding achievements in research and creative work. The exhibit is the artist's twelfth solo show on abstract art. EXECUSION will run from August 19-29 at the Renaissance Gallery, 4th Level SM Megamall Bldg.A, Mandaluyong City. For inquiries call 02-6373101.

MOMA TAKES A LOOK AT MATISSE’S DARKER TURN




MoMA Takes a Look at Matisse's Darker Turn
By JOHN ZEAMAN Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.
July 23, 2010

MATISSE: RADICAL INVENTION, 1913-1917

Which Matisse do you like? The one of the vibrant fauve landscapes? The one of the exotic seminude odalisques? The one of the Nice interiors with the sun pouring in through a window? Or maybe the one of the playful blue cutouts from the end of his life?

For an artist who had a late start (he studied and practiced law before turning to art), Henri Matisse (1869-1954) managed to go through more periods and phases than any five other artists combined – not counting the protean Picasso, his rival and alter ego.

This has made him popular with museum curators, who keep coming up with new angles for Matisse shows. The latest offering, from the Museum of Modern Art, is a bit on the scholarly side. It covers five years in the artist’s career, from 1913 to 1917. They coincide roughly with the World War I period, which may account for the muted, gray palette Matisse used at that time. Or, maybe it was the influence of cubism.

Whatever the reason, Matisse’s work took a turn from joyful simplicity to something rather severe and diagrammatic. If this sounds like less fun than other Matisse shows you may have seen, well, it probably is. Art can’t always be the comfortable armchair that Matisse once said it should be. This is a show about modernism’s greatest colorist struggling with form – the frame and springs of the armchair rather than its patterned upholstery.

Its centerpiece is “Bathers by a River,” which Matisse worked on from 1909 to 1916, a highly abstracted painting of four faceless figures — three standing and one sitting. Each is more or less isolated in its own rectangular compartment, reduced to the barest geometries. With the exception of some spiky green foliage on the left side, the painting is composed in black, white and gray – and touches of pink flesh tones.

The curatorial fascination with this painting stems from recent high-tech analysis, which has given scholars a peek into the evolution of the work.

A video presentation in the last gallery shows the picture’s passage through no fewer than six states, from simply drawn, naturalistic figures identifiable as bathers to figures that have more in common with stone pillars.

Nods to Cezanne

Paul Cezanne’s “Three Bathers,” which Matisse owned and is on view here, provided the inspiration for this and other works. The sculpted look of Cezanne’s figures was his way of making everything in a picture – bodies, trees, foliage, water – seem to be made out of the same stuff. The result was a new kind of pictorial unity in which everything meshed together.

Matisse took a lot out of this painting. He borrowed one of the bathers’ bulky backs and turned it into what looks like an African sculpture hacked from wood. Over 21 years, he produced a series — “Back (I)” through “Back (IV)” – that grows progressively less representational until it looks more geological — or botanical — than anatomical.

What’s puzzling about this show is precisely that which the exhibit seems to think is most revelatory: Matisse’s working methods. In a painting like “The Italian Woman,” which is clearly indebted to Cezanne’s portraits, the high-tech analysis shows that he first painted a much more conventional portrait, then Cezanne- ified it, reducing naturalistic arms to tubular ones, and so on.

But in doing so, he ignored the background that Cezanne so painstakingly wove together. Compared to this organic process, Matisse’s methods seem mannered, with Cezanne’s great discovery turned into mere style.

Here and there in the show are signs of Matisse’s graceful, fluid line and his lyrical color compositions. That’s why a luminous composition like “Interior with a Goldfish Bowl” is such a relief for the eyes. It’s no accident that paintings like this one have been reproduced on countless posters, because here Matisse was being Matisse, and that’s always a joy.

Museum of Modern Art, 11 W. 53rd St., Manhattan; 212-708-9400 or moma.org. Through Oct. 11. Wednesday through Monday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday: 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Admission: $20 adults, $16 seniors and $12 students. Free Fridays from 4 to 8 p.m. Timed tickets are required at no additional cost and can be purchased online at moma.org.

© 2010 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
A service of YellowBrix, Inc.


Tuesday, August 17, 2010

KALEIDOSCOPE WORLD II




A Master of Marbles
Caña’s Kaleidoscope World 2
August 17, 2010 at Artes Orientes, Serendra

A lot of Caña’s boyhood was spent staring into marbles. Fascinated by the perfect roundness of the tiny glass spheres, he would take a peek at the world around him with a marble serving as lens for seeing reflections of distinct shapes, objects and vistas. To him, the simple toy becomes a viewfinder, serving slices of reality in arcs and half-moons to his curious sight.

It is this juvenile fascination that developed into Caña’s distinct painting style, with the flat ground of his canvas peppered with minimal textural effects broken by the half-spheres and crescents that touch and overlap, giving varying gradations of transparency to the rendering of his subjects. A still life of fruits on a table becomes a salad of lights and shadows, with slices of lusciousness seemingly melding into each other while laid on white fabric.

“You may say that the marble is the springboard to my art. I like breaking the canvas into fragments; curves resembling Cs and Ds give me an exhilarating experience of breaking the norm. This is of course, inspired by the shape of the marble, and I like sharing that view—a lot of smooth arcs, no sharp edges that jar the perspective.”

Caña, also known as Franklin Valencia, an advertising hotshot for more than two decades in a past life, is closing his first decade as a full-time painter. Since participating in Saturday Group exhibitions and setting his marbled sights on taking his art more seriously, he has counted plenty of successful shows as feathers on his cap, even emerging as Artist of the Year as lauded by Art Manila magazine in 2002 for his first solo salvo. Now in Kaleidoscope World 2, his fifth one-man exhibition, he offers viewers a fresh glimpse into his vibrant, hue-imbued playground.

Bright colors, familiar sights, and positive energy make up Caña’s latest offering, staying true to the definition of a kaleidoscope as a tool used to observe beautiful forms. There is no effort to limit the works into a single theme. Caña shows an array of beloved subjects mixed together, presenting various shades and arbitrary patterns. The viewer can almost imagine these visions as seen from a looking glass of sliced light, presenting saturations and dilutions where the arcs intersect.

Has he lost his marbles? Apparently not. He is very much grounded in reality. His pieces serve as a prism of varying themes, from a happy sampaguita vendor in Last Piece with a quiet sense of accomplishment, to the sensual curves of a blue vase holding a generous profusion of flowers in Gentle Charm. His Fence not only serves as a visual barrier to a garden beyond the viewer’s perception, it also presents the variegated character of textured wooden slats, much like a set of musical keys striking different chords. A Bamboo Forest of eight auspicious stalks reach up to the sky, models of resilience and flexibility, blessed by hope in the form of glowing flares.

Notable in the exhibition are Caña’s Barung-Barong and Grace, testaments to the artist’s past, growing up in the congested Kamuning community after relocating from his native coastal town of Calauag, Quezon. He interprets makeshift shanties with dignity, beauty and a multicolored chaos of patterns and paint strokes, looked upon by the radiance of a crescent moon. God appears in a stance of blessing and sacrifice, a luminous figure in open arms of love, comfort and nurturing. “I believe that He is always with us, watching over us. God is always closest to his poorest and most helpless creatures. Faith is not a monopoly of the rich, because the impoverished need Him more,” the artist discloses.

The boy who used to look into marbles seeing play and reverie has grown up into a man who realizes in them stylized reflections of inspired devotion and illumination. Within the squared-off borders of Caña’s canvas in Kaleidoscope World 2, there is no space for gloom, only brightness and light distinguished by an artist’s sight.

Kaleidoscope World 2 opens August 17, 2010 at six thirty in the evening in Artes Orientes, 2nd level, the Retail Shops at Serendra, Bonifacio Global City. The exhibit runs until August 27. For more details, please contact the gallery at 8569047 or 09175230877 and visit artesorientes.multiply.com.

Monday, August 16, 2010

UPSTREAM PEOPLE GALLERY ANNUAL ABSTRACTION JURIED ONLINE INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBTION




Exhibition Schedule
October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011
Download Prospectus PDF

Event Eligibility
Open to all artists worldwide with two- and three-dimensional semi-abstract, non-objective to pure abstract works in all media

Artists Promotions
Cash Awards of Excellence; Special Recognitions will be given at the juror's discretion; the amounts and number of which is determined by the entries and their quality. Specially recognized artists will be reviewed in the juror's statement published worldwide and sent in a press release to the artist's local newspaper(s).

Entry Fee
A fee of $25 must accompany up to five slides or jpegs/tiffs; $5 for each additional. No maximum. Checks or POSTAL Money Orders or for artists outside the U.S. send an International POSTAL Money Order or a Cashier’s Check in U.S. dollars drawn on a U.S. Bank, payable to: Upstream People Gallery. Western Union via www.westernunion.com or cash (where possible) may also be used. PayPal may be used with payments made to: shows@upstreampeoplegallery.com, with $2.00 added to cover PayPal's fee or $27 entry fee. Later entries after postmark deadline is $30; Later entries with PayPal is $32.

Accepted Work
After work has been accepted, a substitution cannot be made nor a change in the sales prices or titles as stated on the application. Artwork must remain in the gallery for the entire exhibit. No early withdrawals. Works that are sold either by the gallery or the artist will be marked so online. Artists may exhibit their work in other venues at the same time as well as sell their work via the website.

UPSTREAM PEOPLE GALLERY

‘CONAN’ PAINTING BY LATE PA ARTIST GOES FOR $1.5M




Associated Press
July 26, 2010

PHILADELPHIA — A 1971 painting by fantasy artist Frank Frazetta has sold for $1.5 million, two months after the Pennsylvania artist’s death.

Frazetta’s managers said this week that a private collector bought “Conan the Destroyer” from a family trust. Managers Robert Pistella and Stephen Ferzoco call it the price the highest ever for a work by Frazetta.

The illustrator died in Florida in May at age 82. His iconic illustrations of Conan the Barbarian, Tarzan and other characters often graced comic books, album covers and movie posters.
In recent years, his children have fought over an estate estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars.

The feud boiled over in December when Frank Frazetta Jr. used a backhoe to try to break into the artist’s museum in the Pocono Mountains.

© 2010 YellowBrix, Inc.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

2011 NCCA COMPETITIVE GRANTS PROGRAM




Dear ALL:

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts is now accepting Call for project proposals for 2011 NCCA Competitive Grants!

For details, go to this link: http://www.ncca. gov.ph/about- ncca/programs/ about-ncca- grants-programs. php

Grants Program
Approved grants Projects for Implementation Competitive Grants 2010

The major cultural agencies of government are the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), the National Historical Institute (NHI), the National Museum (NM), the National Library (TNL), the National Archives of the Philippines(NAP), and the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) [Commission on the Filipino Language], all under the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) by virtue of E.O. No. 80 and R.A. No. 9155. The Chairs and/or the Directors of these cultural agencies are all ex-officio members of the NCCA Board.

The NCCA was created by R.A. No. 7356 in 1992 and assigned the following functions:
1. to formulate policies for the development of culture and the arts;
2. to implement these policies in coordination with affiliated cultural agencies;
3. to coordinate the implementation of programs of these affiliated agencies;
4. to administer the national Endowment Fund for Culture and the Arts (NEFCA);
5. to encourage artistic creation within a climate of artistic freedom;
6. to develop and promote the Filipino national culture and arts; and
7. to preserve Filipino cultural heritage

NCCA COMPETITIVE GRANTS PROGRAM 2011
Deadline of submission: September 15, 2010

Download 2011 NCCA COMPETITIVE GRANTS PROGRAM
Project Proposal Form
Post-Implementation Forms (for Individual Proponents)

Saturday, August 14, 2010

CRUSADER-ERA FRESCO UNVEILED AT ISRAEL MUSEUM



Crusader-Era Fresco Unveiled at Israel Museum
Associated Press
July 27, 2010

JERUSALEM — A rare Crusader-era fresco from Jerusalem’s Garden of Gethsemane has been unveiled to the public for the first time.

The fresco depicts the Deisis, a famous Biblical scene featuring Jesus, Mary and John the Baptist praying. It was discovered by chance in 1999 as officials worked to preserve sites affected by winter flooding.

Curators at the Israel Museum believe the full 12th-century fresco was about 30 feet tall. Only the bottom section, showing feet, now remains.

The fresco went on display Monday when the museum reopened after a renovation.

Only two similar frescoes have been found near Jerusalem. Archaeologists say all others were destroyed by Saladin when his troops captured Jerusalem in the name of Islam in 1187.

© 2010 YellowBrix, Inc.



http://artbistro.monster.com/news/articles/11266-rare-crusader-era-fresco-unveiled-at-israel-museum

Friday, August 13, 2010

ASCALON

VATICAN MISTAKEN, PAINTING NOT A CARAVAGGIO




By NICOLE WINFIELD (AP)
July 27, 2010

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican’s top art historian on Monday shot down a report in its own newspaper that suggested a recently discovered painting was a Caravaggio.

The head of the Vatican Museums, Antonio Paolucci, wrote in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano that the work was most likely a copy of an original by a Caravaggio-influence artist.

It was L’Osservatore itself that set the art world aflutter last week with a front-page article headlined “A New Caravaggio,” detailing the artistry behind the “Martyrdom of St. Lawrence,” which had been discovered in the sacristy of a Jesuit church in Rome.

The author of the article, art historian Lydia Salviucci Insolera, had made clear that she was not making any conclusions about the authenticity of the work and that more diagnostic tests were required.

But the impression given by the newspaper was that the painting was indeed a never-before-seen Caravaggio: The definitive-sounding headline appeared above the fold alongside a color photograph of the dramatic painting — on the 400th anniversary to the day of the master’s death.

The Vatican has in the past announced such art-world news in L’Osservatore, such as when it revealed last year that the earliest known icon of St. Paul had been discovered in a Roman catacomb just in time for the saint’s feast day.

The original Caravaggio article published June 18 pointed out that the “The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence” presented features typical of the artist’s style, such as the use of chiaroscuro for dramatic effect and the unique perspective from which the subject is seen. The report also highlighted similarities with other Caravaggio’s paintings, for example in the saint’s hand and body movement.

But on Monday, after a week of “Caravaggiomania” that ensued amid the already frenzied Caravaggio anniversary celebrations in Italy, Vatican Museum chief Paolucci, a former Italian Culture Minister, issued the equivalent of a Holy See mea culpa and reversal.

In a front-page article entitled “A New Caravaggio? Not really” Paolucci wrote that the work was not of Caravaggio’s quality and termed it “modest” at best, pointing out in particular that the hands were completely out of perspective.

The painting depicts a semi-naked young man, his mouth open in desperation, one arm stretched out as he leans over amid flames. St. Lawrence was burned to death in 258.

Paolucci said that while the idea of putting St. Lawrence on the grill where he became a martyr was dramatically beautiful, and the thugs perpetrating his martyrdom are suggestive of Caravaggio’s themes, a closer look reveals stylistic shortcomings.

He said that the hands are “wrong in their perspective,” that the subjects’ anatomies were “awkward” and that — in the case of nudes in the background — "disjointedPaolucci also noted that the painting technique was “inadequate.”

“The quality isn’t there, whereas in a Caravaggio it always is, and it’s high even when … he uses maximum carelessness and a minimum of his expressive resources,” Paolucci wrote.

He stressed that he wasn’t criticizing Insolera and noted that she had correctly made clear that further analysis and documentation would be required to provide definitive answers as to whether the work was a Caravaggio.

The painting is to be unveiled to the public on Tuesday by Italy’s Culture Ministry.

At the time of the discovery, Maurizio Marini, a leading Caravaggio scholar, expressed doubts about the authenticity of the work in an interview with The Associated Press. He concurred with Insonlera who noted that St. Lawrence was not a known Caravaggio subject. And he said the stylistic similarities were inconclusive and that claims of new Caravaggios often surface but seldom hold up.

Caravaggio died in the Tuscan coast town of Porto Ercole in 1610 at age 39 under mysterious circumstances. He had been hugely influential and famous, but had also led a dissolute life of street brawls and alcohol.

Recently, a team of Italian researchers said they had identified Caravaggio’s remains after a year of digging up bones in Porto Ercole and conducting carbon dating, DNA testing and other analyses.

Italy has been marking the anniversary with a variety of events, and an exhibit in Rome earlier this year drew over half a million visitors.

Associated Press reporter Alessandra Rizzo contributed to this report.
© 2010 YellowBrix, Inc.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

PASALAMAT

2010 ATENEO ART AWARDS WINNERS


The winners of the 2010 Ateneo Art Awards: Shattering States, were announced in a well-attended awards ceremony at the Grand Atrium of the Shangri-La Plaza last Thursday, 12 August. Leslie de Chavez was awarded for his solo exhibition, Buntong Hininga, shown at Silverlens Gallery; Pow Martinez for his solo exhibition 1 Billion Years in West Gallery; and Mark Salvatus for his work Secret Garden, which was part of the group show Sungduan 5: Daloy ng Dunong held at the National Museum.

Salvatus is also the recipient of two artist residency grants: the Ateneo-Art Gallery-Common Room Networks Foundation Residency Grant, and the Ateneo Art Gallery-La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre Residency Grant. The residencies will allow him to spend two weeks to one month in Bandung, Indonesia, and Bendigo, Australia, respectively.

The recipients of the Ateneo Art Gallery-Artesan Gallery Residency Grant (Singapore) and the New York Art Project (Art Omi, New York) will be announced later in the year after the deliberations of the respective institutions. The New York Art Project is made possible through a grant by art patron Marcel Crespo.

The Ateneo Art Awards 2010 was presented by the Ateneo Art Gallery (now celebrating its 50th year), Shangri-La Plaza, Unionbank, Metro Society and Y-Style of the Philippine Star and sponsored by the Lifestyle Network and The Picasso Boutique Serviced Residences. Institutional partners of the awards were Art Omi, Common Room Networks Foundation, Artesan, and La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre. The Ateneo Art Awards 2010: Shattering States exhibition will run until 16 August at the Grand Atrium of Shangri-La Plaza, and will continue at the Ateneo Art Gallery from 25 August to 2 October.


FIGURING THE LANDSCAPE

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

HOW VOLUNTEERING CAN BOOST YOUR CREATIVE CAREER

SINING PASIG : BAGONG PANANAW




“Sining Pasig:Bagong Pananaw”
Pasig Art Club
NCCA Gallery
633 Gen Luna St.Intramuros, Manila
August 5-28 2010

On August 5-28, the NCCA Gallery in Intramuros will exhibit “Sining Pasig: Bagong Pananaw.” By the Pasig Art Club.
Having the city of old glory, the setting for this club’s latest collection is fitting as the art club that is behind the exhibit is indeed an institution in itself.

The Pasig Art club is one of the oldest and most respected collectives in our country. Established a little over 50 years ago, it has carved a name for itself as being a society of artists dedicated to the excellence of art in tandem with enriching their community and promoting the local treasures which many of them find as being the root of their inspiration. Pasig Art Club had its humble beginnings as informal sketching trips with the fathers of modern Philippine art such as Fernando Amorsolo, Botong Francisco, Guillermo Tolentino, and others all convening at Ambrosio Morales’, who was a professor of sculpture at UP at the time. Eventually, it ended up turning into more regulated meetings. Thus, on July 28, 1957, at the famous Bahay na Tisa, the Pasig Art Club was born.

The Pasig Art Club has been the home of many respected and celebrated artists. However, more than that it brings artists together. The regular drawing and sketching sessions are instrumental as they continuously hone their craft whilst exploring new frontiers of their creative reservoirs. The healthy creative atmosphere that it creates among the members makes an even more prolific group. The Pasig Art Club ever since its creation has always been innovative and pioneering in their own right. In fact, it has been said that they were the first ones to hold a public art exhibit among South East Asian countries. Since then it has continuously produced art exhibits that have delighted the followers of its many exceptional members.

The members of the Pasig Art Club are artists that are diverse and varied in their disciplines of the visual arts. Despite the differences they have managed to be successful in their collective vision of excellence in continuously promoting the legacy and standard that the Pasig Art Club has been recognized for.

Although experiencing a lull during the 80s and 90s due to the retirement and change of profession of the older members, it has managed to be reborn to get back to its former active state. During that time those that were taking hold of the club were artists that grew up seeing the beauty and nostalgia of the fellowship which the earlier generations were part of. With the new generation and fresh crop of artists, the annual art exhibits were reinstated and the advocacy of the conservation of cultural heritage along with drawing and sketching sessions were aggressively pursued. Having been established for many years, the Pasig art club has nonetheless remained relevant to the issues and social concerns of its time. Along with the changing faces of our country, it has evolved into becoming a society of artists that welcomes the new while respecting the tradition of the old.

The upcoming exhibit at the gallery of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts is an opportunity for the people to revel in the works of the talented and distinguished members. “Bagong Pananaw” contains the works of four generations of members. The differences given of their respective eras, their particular subjects and mediums bring about a very unique collection that is colorful and filled with the texture and depth of diversity.

Sining Pasig :Bagong Pananaw

“Sining Pasig: Bagong Pananaw” is set to offer a collection of art works that are varied and diverse in their subjects and mediums yet all aesthetically astounding.

Backed by the time honored institution, Pasig Art Club’s exhibit will be a showcase of the talent and craftsmanship that the collective has been known to have continuously cultivated over the past years.

The artists who will be exhibiting include the members of the club. One such member is, Teresita Dimanlig-Torda. With a foundation in art deeply rooted in Pasig, she was heavily influenced by her uncle, Nemesio Dimanlig Jr, who has the distinction of being the lone philatelic designer during his time and co-founder of PAC. She was influenced as well by her brother Ace who is a landscape architect and former club president. The Pasig River in the exhibit reveals her inspired thinking and observations and creative renditions in watercolor.

Another artist that will be included is Alex Gonzales. A well-traveled seaman in the mid 80’s and 90’s Alex Gonzales’ experience formed a unique personal repertoire that also has an effect on his art. With his distinctive subject and style of brushwork and color on canvas, he is inclined towards making a connection between other art forms as well such as poetry, music and other such forms of literature.

Julius Dimanlig will also be exhibiting. A spokesperson for our current social weather through his artwork, Julius Dimanlig is the grandson of philatelic designer Nemesio Dimanlig. Favoring installations using photographs, pigments and other such materials his work with mixed media doubles as an invitation to rediscover our surrounding complex environment through his eyes by seeing the issue pertaining to our social landscapes in a new light.

Elwin De Jesus’ works will be included as well. Utilizing oil, she is particularly drawn to figures and portraits, but also with those of a deeper, meaningful quality. An example is “The White Cat,” which is her take on issues of gender and feminism.

Also part of the show is Lhen Perez-Cruzat’s works. A skillful observer of our very own humanity, she is moved to the canvas by the beauty of facial expression, body movements, shapes and curves. It is this celebration of life that moves her to create with her favored medium of pastel.

Among others, Lionel De Jesus will be featuring pieces. Favoring oils, he has a wide range of subject matters. In using monochromatic colors however, he is able to effectively convey a sense of calmness and security.

Angelo Domingo will be paying a tribute to the “trance of unwanted experiences,” with oil and charcoal. His work is a very personal experience. More than an art piece, his work “Pendulums of Unwanted Memories,” is a cathartic piece of letting go of the traumas of the past and looking to new horizons of freedom.

Mary Jane de Jesus’ work will be present too. Finding a deep connection with nature, most of her art works are inspired by the very beauty of her surroundings. It is this deep appreciation for the environmental matters that end up becoming her subject that she believes takes the observer to a “freedom of serenity.”

In addition is Tupe Peralta’s piece. Brimming with refreshing optimism, this passionate advocate for the environment and freelance artist finds most of his inspiration from the charming innocence of children’s books illustrations and nature. With his unique medium of colored paper cut-outs, the playful quality of his style also helps give the audiences a more positive upbeat feeling after seeing his artwork.

Horace “Ace” Dimanlig will also be exhibiting. As an artist and architect he is dedicated to quality of every design which he makes. Working mostly with pen and ink, he also explores other techniques as well as mixed media. Through his artwork, he is able to bring to new light the breathtaking beauty that is our culture and nature, as well as those he has observed from his travels.

Jun Montifar works will be part of the show. Currently the club’s president, he has worked as a graphic artist, art director and advertising photographer before becoming a full time painter. Though normally using oil in his works, he is also dabbling into wood carving. In a very organic creative process, he decided not to make the wood into whatever shape he wanted it to be, but to make it into the best shape that it already is by letting it take on its natural form.

Pyt Santos is also involved. Having been an artist that explored the many mediums and subjects over the long and respectable career in advertising that he has forged for himself, a trademark of his brilliance can be found specifically in the element of form in his artwork. With subjects varying from those with an environmental quality to human figures and then to still life as well, collectively his artwork is so heartfelt and sincere that they are all the pulsating representations of existence.

Manolo Lozada will be featured as well. A man of many talents and varied interests, he is into painting, drawing, print making, sculpture and music; being one of the voice talents in the CCP group of artists. His charcoal and pencil rendition echo his training in the New York School of Visual Arts and the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Finally, included also is Alfred Morales. His oil paintings are recognized with several awards in the local art competitions. Featuring sculptures in adobe stones, he is able to manipulate the delicacy of the material. Without doubt his adobe stone sculptures reflect the talent and genius he got from his late grandfather Professor Ambrosio Morales of the University of the Philippines School of Fine Arts and founder of the Pasig Art Club.

The exhibit is curated by Jonathan Olazo.

“Sining Pasig: Bagong Pananaw,” opens at the NCCA Gallery on August 5 at the NCCA Gallery, 633 Gen Luna St. Intramuros Manila. For inquiries please contact Ethel Buluran or Mimi Santos at (632) 527-2192 or email us at ncca_gallery@yahoo.com or visit our website at www.ncca.gov.ph

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