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