PELIKULAY

UE BUKLOD SINING PAYS TRIBUTE TO PHILIPPINE CINEMA:
PeliKULAY, a 21st Anniversary Painting Exhibition

BUKLOD SINING: a group of artists promoting social consciousness formation through the creative arts and aiming to raise the bar of excellence in the field of arts with the support of the Buklod Alumni Society and the University of the East.

The biggest and oldest art group of University of the East lists among its alumni internationally acclaimed painter and performance artists like Ronaldo Ruiz, Rolando Ventura, and Jonet Carpio, award-winning filmmaker Richard Legaspi, PLDT Directory Painting Competition grand champions Ronnie Tres Reyes and Armando Flaviano, International CG Society gold medalist Reynan Sanchez as well as 2010 Shell National Art Competition awardees Ace Aquino and Rossini Grace Reyes, to name a few. Furthermore, it is the only organization which gave UE the back-to-back grand prize at the Department of Tourism Lantern Competition and the first UE Caloocan student organization which co-organized an International Performance Art Exposition last 2006 with more than 10 performance artists around the world who participated in the project entitled UGNAYAN.

After creating and co-sponsoring outstanding local and international projects for the UEnian Fine Arts students for more than two decades, once again Buklod Sining Organization: The Emblem of UEnian Artistry is organizing its 21st anniversary art show in conjunction with the alumni society this coming February 1-18, 2011, 6:00 PM at Philam Life Center for the Arts, United Nations Avenue, Ermita Manila with the theme PeliKULAY: Buklod Sining Tribute to Philippine Cinema.

The Art Show will give homage to the immense contributions of different Filipino actors from different generations. The art exhibit will showcase the students, alumni and guest artists’ opus in painting, sculpture, digital arts and photography. The tribute to local cinema was spearheaded by Buklod Alumni Society Chairman Ronwell Jason Legaspi Bacani as a number one fan of Philippine Cinema from the golden age to the modern times, from silent movies to talkies, from black and white to color, from mainstream to indie, from Paraluman to Angel Locsin and from silver screen to canvas.

Through this, young Buklod Sining artists will be au fait with the contributions of talented Filipino actors and the value of cinema as art. It is also an avenue in connecting with our parents’ experiences in watching films of Fernando Poe Jr., the comedy King Dolphy, Tito, Vic and Joey, Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos in major cinema houses in Metro Manila like Clover Theatre, Luneta Cinema and Odeon. Some of the student exhibitors were guided by their parents in choosing their subject matter. Meanwhile, Buklod Sining advisers headed by Prof. Edgardo Garcia and Prof. Ellen Villanueva led them in choosing the applicable style, composition and medium according to their talents and abilities.

On the opening day, internationally acclaimed painter and performance artist Ronaldo Ruiz will open our eyes into the unparallel world of performance art. There will also be an open screening of award-winning experimental and narrative short films of Richard Soriano Legaspi. Moreover, Buklod Sining will introduce the first-ever recipients of the BUKLOD Sininglangan Awards and Buklod Sining Lifetime Achievement Awards, respectively. The said recognition will be given to members for the pride and accolade they contribute to the organization both locally and internationally in the field of arts. This would not be an easy task for the alumni committee to choose who will be the 2011 awardees.

Participating artists in the big event are Leonardo Uy, Romano Macaisa, Edgardo Garcia, Angelito De Guzman, Ronwell Bacani, Richard Legaspi, Benay Reyes, Max Balatbat, Ricardo Adeva, Sarah Co, Ace Aquino, Jem Francisco, Russel Llarena, Analyn Acasio, James Belgira, Jose Mariano, Marich Morales, Rommel Quimson, Yanick Dionisio, Jasmine Diaz, Lorrane Molina, Patrick Ellasos, John Rey Aquino, Jose Mari Fadrillan, Mae Velasco, Raymark Añonuevo, Maribelle Sambale, Isabelle Hernandez and many more.

PeliKULAY would not be possible without the help of major sponsors Philam Life Center for the Arts, University of the East, Buklod Alumni Society, Anino.net, Artrix Design and Prints, Agimat: Sining at Kulturang Pinoy, Red Room Productions, ArtePinas Inc. and HYDROconceptualus Design Solution.

Check out the web blog of Buklod Sining Organization is www.buklodsining.wordpress.com for more information and the profile of the participating artists.

THE ATENEO FINE ARTS FESTIVAL 2011 ART MANAGEMENT SPECIAL BOOK COLLECTION INAUGURATION

The Ateneo Fine Arts Festival 2011
Invites you to
The Art Management Special Art Book Collection Inauguration
February 1, 2011
6:00 P.M. Ateneo Art Gallery


On February 1st, the Ateneo Rizal Library is re-opening its special collection of art books. This collection is currently housed in the new quarters of the Ateneo Art Gallery. The book collection began in the 60s. The present collection brings together the Rizal Library collection, the Ateneo Art Gallery collection and a recent donation of Fr. Rene Javellana, SJ, of more than 400 art books. This collection is envisioned to grow with the addition of more books.

We will be greatly honored to have your presence in this event. Should you be interested in attending, you may contact us through this email address or at 09173285198 for the acknowledgment of your presence. Thank you very much!

PHILIPPINE INTERNATIONAL VISUAL ARTS FESTIVAL 2011

Philippine International Arts Festival 2011 This February!
01.28.2011

This February 2011, the Philippines marks 20 years of celebrating National Arts Month through a month-long fete, the Philippine International Arts Festival (PIAF). The festival’s impressive lineup of activities is designed to further Philippine art and the Filipino’s regard for local arts and culture. The celebration is organized by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ (NCCA) Subcommission for the Arts, headed by Commissioner Ricardo de Ungria. The subcommission comprises the seven arts, architecture, cinema, dance, literature, music, theater, and visual arts.

PIAF’s tagline is “Ani ng Sining,” and the celebration will indeed prove to be a harvest for the arts. Thousands of local artists and cultural workers will gather all over the Philippines for the biggest artistic celebration to date. Joining in the festivities are artists from Japan, Lithuania, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates. Celebrations will be all over the archipelago, with four foci, National Capital Region, Mindanao, Visayas, and Luzon.

The celebration per area will comprise workshops, exhibitions, forums, and performances and grand opening programs participated in by representatives of all the seven arts. The Grand Opening Program for the National Capital Region is slated for January 30 at Rizal Park in Manila. For Mindanao it will be at People’s Park in Davao City on February 6. Visayas will have its Grand Opening Program on February 13 at the Bacolod Provincial Capitol. And the Grand Opening Program for Luzon is on February 20 at Burnham Park in Baguio City. All four Grand Opening Programs will feature elaborate performances, exhibitions, and parades.

The Grand Opening Program for the National Capital Region is a day-long affair with workshops conducted by artists belonging to the seven arts kicking off the celebration. The workshops will then be followed by a Grand Parade participated in by various marching bands and dancing contingents from all over Metro Manila, local artists, National Artists, officials, and the NCCA’s two ambassadors, Boy Abunda and Dingdong Dantes.

The seven arts, represented by their respective NCCA National Committees, will be holding special activities in concordance with PIAF. Like in the previous years, these activities are held in various locations and with touring components to further promote the arts in the whole archipelago.

Architecture

The Committee on Architecture and Allied Arts will be holding several exhibitions, conferences, and competitions to mark the celebration of PIAF 2011. The exhibitions revolve around various themes and topics from the morphology of Filipino buildings and colonial urbanism is the American development of Manila to architectural postcards and the relationship between architecture and fashion.

Cinema

The National Committee on Cinema is holding CinemaRehiyon 3. The festival features screenings and forums that focus on the artistic endeavors in cinema from the regions. To add further interest to the festival, films from Taiwan are set to be screened with the movies from the regions.

Dance

The National Committee on Dance will be presenting Sayaw Pinoy as its contribution to PIAF. Sayaw Pinoy, the longest-running Arts Month project and one of the most attended, has been part of the PIAF for the past eight years. This year’s project will be touring 21 key areas nationwide, with featured performances from Cambodia, Thailand, Brunei and Vietnam.

Literature

The National Committee on Literature is participating in PIAF via the literary arts festival, Taboan. Envisioned to gather some 80 national and international writers, Taboan Philippines International Writers Festival 2011 will be held in Davao City. The best writers of the country will compose the national delegation, while award-winning writers from Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore will be joining the international delegation. The Taboan components will include panel discussions, lectures, outreach and school visitation programs, a book fair, literary readings and performances, and the Taboan Awards.

Music

The National Committee on Music, will be staging Organik Muzik 3 in Manila, Davao, Puerto Princesa, and Dumaguete with the special participation of musicians from Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Organik Muzik 3 is aimed at bringing a variety of cultural influences that are not readily accessible through the mass media to a broader and younger society. It will feature concert tours and workshops for local artists, students, and educators.

Theater

The National Committee on Dramatic Arts will be holding the fifth installment of Tanghal: University Theater Festival for PIAF. Tanghal is a gathering of university-based theaters and student artists nationwide. Tanghal 5’s main activities will be held in the Visayas, specifically Bacolod. The University of St. La Salle, Colegio San Agustin, and West Negros University will be the venues in Bacolod.

An added feature of this year’s Tanghal celebration is the first Manila International Monodrama Festival with delegates from Lithuania, United States of America, Cambodia, and Fujaira of the United Arab Emirates joining in.

Visual Arts

For the Committee on Visual Arts, the hub of celebration is Boracay, where they will hold the Philippine International Visual Arts Festival (PIVAF). This year’s visual arts festival will be focusing on the traditional Philippine tattoo art practices, methods, and designs. Special events, exhibitions, and lectures will explore specialized tattoo topics such as the elaborate Pintados etchings, the delicate patterns of the Bontoc Igorot and the Kalinga and Ifugao people, and the unique designs of the T’bolis in Mindanao. As has been tradition for PIVAF, body painting will be one of the festival highlights. Guest artists from Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, and Thailand will be participating in PIVAF 2011.

Although the core of PIVAF is in Boracay, there will be PIVAF activities in satellite venues all over the country. In Luzon, PIVAF will have events in Angono, Rizal and Isabela. In the Visayas, it will be in Cebu City. And in Mindanao, it will be in Davao City.

The annual celebration of National Arts Month came into being with Presidential Proclamation 683, in 1991, declaring February as National Arts Month. Since then the celebration has grown into the international artistic event that it is. The Philippine International Arts Festival is a grand celebration of the myriad wonders of Philippine arts and culture and is a testament to the synergistic nature of the arts as it blurs form, genre, and national boundaries to create new ways of expression.

The public is invited to participate in PIAF 2011. Given the large number of activities and locations, there is bound to be a PIAF event happening nearby.

For more details on the activities and schedules, contact PIAF Media Director and NCCA-Public Affairs and Information Office (PAIO) Head, Rene Sanchez Napenas at (632)527-2192 or 0928-508-1057, or PIAF Deputy Festival Manager, Vanessa Nicolas at 0918-6380412. Email us at ncca.paio@gmail.com.

KALINANGAN: ANG SINING NG PAGYABONG

Greetings!

The Fine Arts Program annually holds the Fine Arts Festival which showcases the multiple talents of its graduating batch of students. Through a variety of events such as artist talks, exhibits, book launches, and plays, the festival embodies aesthetic appreciation, values integration and cultural enlightenment. It will be held from January 31 to February 5, 2011. This year’s title and theme, KALINANGAN: ANG SINING NG PAGYABONG, encapsulates the program’s proactive cultivation of national awareness and Filipino pride.

We would like to invite your highly esteemed company to take part in our festival by attending the events.

We hope that you can take part in this event as this will showcase fresh new talents that may spark your interest. Should you be interested in attending our events please contact us at 09173285198 or email at ateneofineartsfestival2011@yahoo.com, and we will send you an invite and a brochure.

If you have any concerns regarding our Fine Arts Festival, you may contact us through the same contact information.

We at the Ateneo Fine Arts Program are looking forward to meeting you and sharing our featured works with you.

ART TO HEART EXHIBITION PHOTOGRAPHS

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THE THIRD PERSON’S THIRD EYE

THEM



A man halts himself to ask two artists on the street. To the sketch artist he asks, “Why is your world Black, White and Gray?” The sketch artist answered, “Because this is how I see the world.” The man turned to the oil painter beside the sketch artist. He asks, “Why is your world Black, Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, White and Violet?” The oil painter replied, “Because this is how I see the world.” The man looked at the two artists and tried to decide which artist to buy from. Thereby he chose the oil painter. The oil painter asks the man why he chose his work over the sketch artist, the man answered back. “Because this is how I see the world, or rather, this is how I want to see the world, colorful, beautiful and happy.” The oil painter retorted, “Then you need not buy my oil painting. You only need to open your eyes and see the world.”


A third-person’s standpoint becomes the foundation of THEM, a four-man exhibition mounted by Artepinas featuring emerging visual artists Marius Balck, Kris Jan Gavino, Tad Pagaduan and Averil Paras with Inna Cadlum as guest artist. “Them” is a third-person pronoun in the plural form. It is a personal reflexive pronoun. Utilizing this concept, these emerging artists were challenged to create artworks that present a single central character. The prerequisite here is to vividly execute on canvas the thoughts and actions of this single character where the viewer can be drawn to emotionally connect to that character. Other characters may be in the scene but it is only the thoughts of the main character that we learn about.

A graduate of Fine Arts from the University of Santo Tomas, visual artist Marius Black confronts the canvas with human bodies having elephant’s heads back-dropped by revered masterpieces. His central figure is reminiscent of Ganesh, one of the most beloved characters in Indian lore.

In Black’s current figuration, the elephant head itself is figurative. His women figures are reflective of the elephants’ highly matriarchal behavior, thus reflecting a commentary in the current status Filipino society. Black’s largest artwork in his series, The Last Suffer, back-dropped by Da Vinci’s Last Supper, is a multi-breasted Inang Bayan (Motherland), the matriarch ready to make ultimate sacrifices for the sake of brood and kin.

Kris Jan Gavino, about to graduate from the Fine Arts program of FEATI University, delved into the notion of “self.” His gray-scaled paintings are all mono-toned products of existential introspection. In Gavino’s paintings, the characters through their consciousness create their own values and determine a meaning in their lives as prompted in his piece “The Difference Between Purpose And Intention.” Very much evident in the artwork “Another Path,” Gavino contrasts his character to the moralist. When one looks into his relation with other people and into the relationship of man with himself, there is that realization that everywhere is controlled by “Shoulds.” That good intentions are mere words of “you should” in a world where everyone is always trying to change the world.

Tad Pagaduan, currently enrolled at the Fine Arts Program of the College of the Holy Spirit spits out fire and hailstorm in a parade of somber colored characters. From the artist’s lingo itself, Pagaduan’s works are, in general, troops of various violators; sinners, not by religious fingers but by judgments of modern society. This assumption may be an absurd one, but in some sense, Pagaduan sounded the trumpet for them--a hero's parade for anti-heroes--a rather pointless attempt to justify the unjustifiable just for the sheer fun of it. So we encounter the central characters- the common murderer in “Homicide Sweet Homicide,” the sex violator in “Muthafucka,” or perhaps an environment saboteur in “Seek and Destroy.” Maybe this is also the attempt to capture a fraction of the delight maniacs get whilst he/she strikes hysteria.

In a sense Pagaduan suspects this to be somewhat uneasy or even murder to the witnesses of such indecency. Sorry, it's just that some people fancy the hype of killing with a knife-and some with a palette knife.

Emotions are the very means of our ability to make contact. That has always been a staple fixture in an Averil Paras painting. Paras, on his last year on the Fine Arts program of FEATI University, also presented the concept of order, disorder and reordering as central to his works. He employed an opulent use of repetitive symbols. The Filipino’s avaricious craving for anything Western is emblematic in the mouth-watering hotdog-burger combo in “WOW! YEAHHBAAHH!” What appears to be a citrus plunge provides the rhetorical questioning in “Why Not Oranges?” Paras provides the viewer pensive insights to reality by expressing his calculated observations of his surrounding environment as his paintings are permeated with life and realism.

THEM, an exhibition curated by JCrisanto Martinez, takes its cue from a third-person’s perspective. It is a truthful presentation of truth. Fritz Perls, the German-born psychiatrist and psychotherapist noted, "...nobody can stand truth if it is told to him. Truth can be tolerated only if you discover it yourself because then, the pride of discovery makes the truth palatable.

THEM, a group exhibition mounted by Artepinas, Inc. for the ArtistSpace of the Ayala Museum shall be on view until February 6, 2011. Inquiries may be channeled through the Ayala Museum or at (+63) 922.331.41.08 or via electronic mail at info@artepinas.tk.

Texts: JCrisanto Martinez
Images: Marius Black, Kris Jan Gavino, Tad Pagaduan, Averil Paras

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MANAGEMENT FINDS DICK OFFENSIVE!

MANAGEMENT FINDS DICK OFFENSIVE!
A commentary on the absurdity of censorship

Written by Enrico J. L. Manlapaz, in relation to current censorship in Recycling Bubbles on exhibition at the Main Gallery of Sining Kamalig, Gateway Mall, 17 January to 5 February 2011

If I were to choose the best source of quotations for my dissertations, it would not be the Bible. It would be Webster and his masterpiece, the Dictionary of the American Language, or for that matter, dictionaries of other languages. It had always been quite revealing to me that a lot of conflicts had been waged due to misunderstanding caused primarily by the reinterpretation and misinterpretation of words invented at the start to mean something else before, now differently. Contextual meanings are bullshit. If we stick by the original intention of a word, based on how it was invented and defined at the very start, then such confusion would be minimized.

From Webster’s New World Dictionary (William Collins Publishers, Inc., 1980), please allow me to lift: sacrum noun, plural sacra or sacrums [from the Late Latin sacrum, … literally, sacred (bone) from the former use in sacrifices] a thick, triangular bone situated at the lower end of the spinal column, where it joins both hipbones to form the dorsal part of the pelvis: it is formed in man [politically correct: humans] of five fused sacral vertebrae.

From John C. Traupman’s Latin and English Dictionary (New York: Random House, Inc., 2007), please let me quote: sacrum sacri neuter noun holy object, sacred vessel; holy place, temple, sanctuary; religious rite, act of worship, religious service; festival; sacrifice; victim II neuter plural noun worship, religion; secret, mystery; inviolability; sacra facere to sacrifice; sine sacris hereditatis (fig) godsend, windfall.

What is Webster’s definition of “sacred”? sacred adjective 1. consecrated to or belonging to a god or deity; holy 2. of or connected with religion or religious rites [a sacred song] 3. regarded with the same respect and reverence accorded holy things; venerated; hallowed 4. set apart for, and dedicated to, some person, place, purpose, sentiment, etc. [sacred to his memory] 5. secured as by a religious feeling or sense of justice against any defamation, violation, or intrusion; inviolate – synonym see HOLY – sacredly adverb – sacredness noun.

And what is “sacred” in Latin? From Traupman, sacred adjective sacer sacra sacrum.

The dictionaries alone provide the foundation of my thesis.

The sacrum is at the dorsal (back) part of the body. On its front are the human genitals. In males, this is would be called properly the penis and its attachments. In females, this would be properly referred to as the vagina and its related accessories.

The area where all these are found is normally referred to as the sacral area. For obvious reasons, it would now be very clear that the most sacred of all human activities is coitus, or the intentional union of male and female genitalia (otherwise known colloquially as “fucking”, or for the prudish, “love making”) designed primarily to assist in the act of procreating other human beings on this planet. For this reason alone, I wonder what happened to its sacredness when some organized primitive religion took hold of the concept and completely reversed its original definition.

The Indians (specifically the Hindus), the Greeks, and the Romans, as well as other cultures, had a clearer understanding of the nature of procreation, deifying the penis in some instances and devoting temples for various positions of the sexual activity in celebration of the Kama Sutra. In Tibetan Buddhism alone, yab yum, or the union of wisdom and compassion, is presented in painting and sculpture featuring a holy man and his Shakti in complete embrace with their genitals unified.

What happened in Christianity and its art patrons, both secular and religious? Censorship was the name of the game. As early as the dark ages till now, cocks and cunts, now called dicks and pussies, have been artistically hidden via contorted poses and magical appearances of wind furled cloths trying very hard to conceal the genitalia.

I prepared the above dissertation for an anthology of paintings which I have titled Sacred Liberation. But with the exposition of one painting included in the exhibition Recycling Bubbles, which management chose to censor, I find this piece of literature applicable. Now, I have to hide the genitalium because management would not allow such exposure in their family friendly mall, nor would the gallery director allow such blatant male (or female) nudity in his territory.

The dark ages have extended their stay. I just wonder what kids do now while googling their assignments. I am sure they encounter much more than just small dicks.



Antipolo. Written originally 17 September 2010. Edited 19 January 2011.

THEM EXHIBITION OPENING PHOTOGRAPHS

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RECYCLING BUBBLES

Last Monday 17 January 2011, I mounted a show entitled RECYCLING BUBBLES at the Main Gallery of Sining Kamalig located on Level 4 of the Gateway Mall, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City.

The show features paintings which I conceived and composed, later on painted by two highly talented emerging artists AVERIL PARAS and ZALDY GARRA. It is my homage to Pardo De Leon.

The show runs till 05 February 2011. You may view it during gallery hours: 12:00 noon till 9:00 pm everyday.

You may also be interested in acquiring these works. Please feel free to contact me:

ENRICO J. L. MANLAPAZ
enricojlmanlapaz@yahoo.com.ph (this address)
0920-9537426 (my mobile)

I will personally attend to you. Thank you very much!

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THEM EXHIBITION SET-UP PHOTOGRAPHS

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ART MARKETING: BUSINESS CARDS AREN'T ENOUGH!

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THE ART OF STYRO

THEM

LEGENDARY

WE ARE AIMLESS

In We Are Not Aimless, a group of illustrators challenge the traditional roles of illustration, and attempt to dissect preconceived notions of illustration as an ancillary, and occasionally derivative art form – a slave to text and creative supervision. The artists argue that as a craft and as a practice, illustration is evolving. Now, there is the notion of the illustrator as author, an originator of ideas as intellectually valid as any written text. In this evolving role, illustrations need not slavishly follow the written text but rather complement it. Illustrations become visual distillations of an idea and at its best can now stand alone as complete works of art, making it work as both an image for a commercial space or an artefact for the gallery wall.

The artists in this exhibit are examples of the Philippine’s rising crop of illustrators as authors. They are progenitors of their own ideas and they push the role of illustration within the Philippine context by creating works that are driven by distinct personal visions. Artists include Abi Goy, A.J. Omandac, Aldy Aguirre, Allan Balisi, Apol Sta. Maria, Brian Vallesteros, Bru Sim, Dan Matutina, Dex.Fernandez, Dina Gadia, Epjey Pacheco, Froilan Calayag, Ivan Despi, Jason Moss, Kat Medina, Katwo Purtollano, Lala Gallardo, Manix Abrera, Marcushiro Nada, Mariano Ching, Mica Cabildo, Pepper Roxas, Pergyline Acuna, Rommel Joson, Tof Zapanta, WeWillDoodle, Zeus Bascon. Also in the crop are Eeshaun, a Singaporean visual artist, and Mel Stringer, an Australian illustrator.

Many of these illustrators have worn different hats. Some are designers and gallery exhibitors, while others have made comics and children’s books or even their own merchandise. Time and again, their works have spilled over to a variety of media and objects, some commissioned and others intensely personal.

This exhibition opens on January 22, 2011 at the 2nd floor gallery of Manila Contemporary, and will close on February 6. Manila Contemporary is located at Whitespace, 2314 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City, Philippines. For inquiries about the exhibition, please contact David Loughran at 844-7328 / d.loughran@manilacontempoary.com

ARTNEWS NAMES TOP TEN INTERNATIONAL ART COLLECTORS, MOST FORBES-NAMED BILLIONAIRES

Artnews names top ten international art collectors, most Forbes-named billionaires
Posted on October 27, 2010


INTERNATIONAL ART COLLECTORS FORBES BILLIONAIRES LIST

Artnews, in consultation with numerous industry professionals from 22 countries, has released a list of the top ten most active international art collectors. Nine out of the ten collectors are also featured in the Forbes billionaires list and span a range of countries.

Topping the list is Moscow based Tycoon and Chelsea Football club owner Roman Abramovich who in 2008 is said to have bought Lucian Freud’s Supervisor Sleeping for US$33.6 million and Francis Bacon’s Triptych for US$86.3 million.

Confidence is being expressed towards the global art market with Artnews quoted as saying that the “global art market in general is recovering from the global financial recession.”

Christie’s CEO Edward Dolman is also quoted as saying that they are “genuinely surprised at how robust the market appears to be” and that “it’s not just the top end of the market that is strong. It has much more depth than we’ve seen in recent times.”

However, in 2009, Sotheby’s sold $2.3 billion of fine and decorative art, down 53% from 2008 figures. Christie’s sales of $2.5 billion of art were down 45.6% on those of 2008 according to The Wall Street Journal.

According to Sotheby’s CEO William Ruprecht, “China continues to be unbelievably important.” China, unlike the rest of the world where art sales were below peak levels, experienced a rise, increasing its market share in the world to 14% according to Art Knowledge News.

We list the top ten Artnews collectors in the publication’s order:

Roman Abramovich (Moscow)
Business interests: Steel mining, investments and professional soccer (Chelsea Football Club)
Collects: Modern and contemporary art

Hélène and Bernard Arnault (Paris)
Business interests: Luxury goods (LVMH)
Collects: Contemporary art

Debra and Leon Black (New York)
Business interests: Investment banking
Collects: Old Masters; Impressionism; Modern painting; Chinese sculpture; contemporary art

Edythe L. and Eli Broad (Los Angeles)
Business interests: Financial services and housing development (retired)
Collects: Contemporary art

Alexandra and Steven A. Cohen (Greenwich, Connecticut)
Business interests: Hedge fund
Collects: Impressionism; Modern and contemporary art

Joseph Lau (Hong Kong)
Business interests: Real estate
Collects: Modern and contemporary art (especially Warhol)

Philip S. Niarchos (Paris; London; Saint Moritz, Switzerland)
Business interests: Shipping and finance
Collects: Old Masters; Impressionism; Modern and contemporary art

François Pinault (Paris)
Business interests: Luxury goods (PPR) and auctions (Christie’s)
Collects: Contemporary art

Emily and Mitchell Rales (Potomac, Maryland; New York)
Business interests: Tool industry
Collects: Modern and contemporary art

Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani (Doha, Qatar; London)
Business interests: Real estate and investments
Collects: Antiquities; Old Masters; Islamic art; contemporary art; natural history; minerals; architecture

http://artradarjournal.com/2010/10/27/artnews-names-top-ten-international-art-collectors-most-forbes-named-billionaires/

ANATOMY ALIENATED

OUT OF ORDINARY SPECTACLES│FLUX│CUT FELT

JANUARY OPENINGS: ERIC ZAMUCO at SILVERLENS GALLERY, JON PETTYJOHN at SLAB, RYAN VILLAMAEL at 20SQUARE. JANUARY 19, 2011, WEDNESDAY, 6-9 PM

In Silverlens, Eric Zamuco debuts Out of Ordinary Spectacles. His first solo show in the Philippines since 2007 features a series of photographs and video installations, which reflect a man who straddles between cultural geographies and new identities. As part of the Filipino Diaspora in the United States, Zamuco makes a social commentary on the experiences of a community that is both here and there; and yet neither here nor there. This he expresses with subjects and backgrounds that don't fit (together), as if to echo a community's displacement and detachment --from feeling out-of-place in winter to feeling perplexed on how to raise a Filipino-American child.

SLab is proud to present Flux by well-known potter, Jon Pettyjohn. This year, Pettyjohn moves beyond the traditional "functional" pottery he is known for, and into contemporary art. The flux or change is a move into a new direction that includes "experimental" works, which he “would have never done in the past”. Seemingly form over function, and contemporary over traditional, Flux however does not disregard the roots of an ancient medium. Pettyjohn highlights a process defined by change. It is in every spin of the wheel,and touch of the hand. In the "transformation of rock and clay into something beautiful", change is constant.

In 20SQUARE is the first solo show of Ryan Villamael. A recent graduate of the Fine Arts Program at the University of the Philippines, Villamael presents Cut Felt, an exhibit of drawings on paper that have more to do with what was cut out. Similar to the process of making a paper snowflake-- cutting one side of the paper, “leaving the components of the whole to chance”-- Villamael nips away to unravel the full picture.
Out of Ordinary Spectacles by Eric Zamuco, Flux by Jon Pettyjohn, and Cut Felt by Ryan Villamael open on January 19, Wednesday,6-9pm. The three shows run simultaneously until February 12, 2011.

Words: Bea Davila Image: Eric Zamuco, Grain detail, 2008; Jon Pettyjohn, Anagama Jar, detail, 2010 ; Ryan Villamael, Untitled, detail, 2010

IN HIS TIME

IMPRESSIONIST JOE PICORNELL HOLDS RETROSPECTIVE SHOW AT SACRED HEART PARISH

Alternative Contemporary Art Studio pays tribute to Josie Maria Picornell, Cebu’s leading impressionist painter. Curated by JV Castro, In His Time: JM Picornell Retrospective will run from January 15, 2011 to February 5, 2011 at the Alternative Contemporary Art Studio, Sacred Heart, Parish, Cebu City.

The exhibition showcases pieces that capture the fleeting moments of time from his early works in the seventies to his recent masterpieces in the twenty-first century. His recognizable subjects—dilapidated buildings, rickety boats, messy street scenes, rusty houses, and old men—come alive in bright colors and deep intense strokes, reminiscent of Van Gogh’s masterpieces. Forty years JM Picornell is condensed in his first retrospective show.

For more information, please contact Fr. Jason K. Dy, S. J. at +63 915 591 4217. E-mail inquiries can be sent to dyjask@yahoo.com.

PRESENCE

There is that constant channel of communication connecting the internal and the external, a correlation that links what is perceive and what is experienced, and the manner by which this discourse become apparent in paint. Such transpires in and with Presence. It is for an artist to explore varied ways to draw a parallel to the macrocosm in which he locates himself. Whatever conflict that arise in the midst of diverse facets of a circumstance, the artist delves into what lies amid the image and the imaginary, of body and space, relating to appearance and radiance, to animosity or luminosity, in motion and motionlessness, and to sum up these strains to achieve completeness.

The present survives in a niche that is opulent in information however regrettably a time-indigent culture. It is a society advancing disconnected from nature and natural cadence, sequence, and terms. The manifestation is apparent by man’s disconnectedness from himself, where avariciousness has become the dialectic, where what is material is revered, and where faith lies only in what is tangible (or to seek tangibility to in the name of faith.)

Fascinated by this concept and while toiling from scrutiny interrogating the objective world, visual artist JCrisanto Martinez created paintings, all on acrylic on burlap/canvas, to mount PRESENCE, his sixth one-person exhibition. The paintings are done in suites, ranging from three to six paintings in each suite. Each set of works focuses on a particular situation and a particular set of colors and tonal relationships specific to that circumstance. Aside from some works being larger and some smaller, the approach may also vary from suite to painting.

The paintings occur in relation to presence. Rhetorically the artist inquires “What is the nature of presence? Of absence? What is this unforeseen presence found in the ostensible absence? How does one intensify the sense of presence in a perceived suspected absence or the sense of absence in a perceived suspected presence? And what binds these seemingly contradictions together?”

The resultant images of the paintings all impastoed acrylic paint on burlap/canvas may be viewed as a postmodern exploration of the concurrence of divergent painting styles, the primary concern of the artist is directed to the examination to and trepidation of the conceptual essence of presence, more on its phenomenon rather that structure. Man puts out images to confirm, substantiate/corroborate, and express belief. In the case of this exhibition, the images in Martinez’s paintings - outlandish, absurd, fantasy/fantastic and petrifying - may be beautiful and baffling, striking and mystifying, obscene or crude, however in totality generate a definite discrepancy that reflects the anxiety of our collective selves. That in us lie the heart that clings to the spirit of the cynical, where belief in essence and faith in particular can only be justified by a tangible presence.

Thus the artist challenges for contemplation to man’s susceptibilities to not trust and frailties to clasp for such tangible manifestations to anchor his belief in a presence. In “The Journey Within,” such existence is interpreted as purposelessness or emptiness. It is a superficial reality that blinds man in what we call the meaning of our lives that obviously has no affirmation of self in that we need affirmation of a tactile evidence to anchor our existence.

In “Visions Of Amen,” a suite of six paintings, the images rely on an emotional response to be appreciated and understood, like an answered prayer. It is man’s automatic response to what feel right. It is that presence of being bestowed with a confirmation when one experience the moment and re-connect with being. Such involves the non-judicious process of presence.

But how does one endeavor at the depiction of presence notwithstanding the circumstances that the associated form transforms as our uneasiness to presence changes. In a suite of five small works titled “Sacred Drops From Venus,” the artist surmises that man’s experiences adjusts as this sense of presence modifies in a moment to moment day to day manner; that we accommodate such appreciation of a presence parallel to our changing subjectivity.

PRESENCE, the JCrisanto Martinez sixth one-man exhibition opens at The Manor on January 15, 2011 and shall be on view until March 14, 2011. The Manor is located at Camp John Hay, Loakan Drive, Baguio City, Philippines. For inquiries about the JCrisanto Martinez paintings and the exhibition, please contact Ms. Cherrylyn Tamiao at (632) 7435873, sms at (+63) 9178075659, or thru email at cherrylyntamiao@cjhhotels.com. Further inquiries about the artist and his artworks can be coursed thru sms at (+63) 922.331.41.08, via email at info@jcrisanto.tk or visit the artist’s website www.jcrisanto.tk.

Texts by JCrisanto Martinez
Images by JCrisanto Martinez

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