PHASES OF RA

Mideo M. Cruz’
Phases of Ra

Galleria Duemila
8 October 2011 - 29 October 2011
Opening Party: 8 October 2011 (Saturday) at 4:00 PM
210 Loring Street, Pasay City, Philippines
Tel. No. (+632) 831-9990 Telefax (+632) 8339815
gduemila@gmail.com www.galleriaduemila.com

Mideo Cruz tackles reverence and power as he returns to Duemila in an all-painting show

Mideo Cruz, the multi-disciplinary artist, art organizer and curator, stages his latest set of paintings at Galleria Duemila, the country's longest-running private gallery.

In this group of oils on canvas, Cruz looks at the representation of power and how the public assigns reverence to those who have it.

To explore this idea, he chooses portraiture painting, a genre closely associated with the privileged as seen in paintings made from Renaissance Europe to newly industrialized America. As such, in all of his paintings we see images indicating status. This is underscored by the carefully staged poise of the individuals, the embellishments and clothes that they carry, and the tidy wallpapered rooms where they would have stood for their portraits.

But in the same way Magritte has done for some of his bowler-hatted men, Cruz erases off evidence of the identities of the portrayed. Heads are replaced by filled-in or imprints of circles, a direct reference to Ra, the Egyptian sun-god.

Faceless or headless, these figures are pushed back into the background. What we are left with are distilled, surreal versions of their selves, bringing to the fore the qualities that makes us adore them.

"I always look at how people attribute to sacredness to a thing," Cruz says. "I try to deconstruct those things and put parallel meanings to them." 'Pandora', a circular painting reminiscent of an Elizabethan portrait, depicts a woman framed with a ruff and adorned with a tiara and a necklace dripping with pearls. With her face rubbed out, deduction of her identity rests on the perceivable evidence of material wealth.

The same goes for the military official whose mirror-image make up the diptych 'Stars'. In the absence of any signals of intimate personal history - age lines, battlescars, eyes showing self-satisfaction or weariness - we settle for what is visible: epaulets, a medal, a cap.

This de-facing treatment is also seen in 'Lion', 'Crown', 'Eclipse' and 'Infinite Density' which feature wealthy gentlemen in three-piece suits.

Cruz has long been interested in dynamics of belief systems. His works pose the questions: why do we sanctify something and how do we arrive at doing so? In this cycle of paintings, he asks us to look at the "neo-deities" and see why we revere them because what we hold in high regards says so much of our selves.

'Phases of Ra' by Mideo Cruz runs from 8 October 2011 - 29 October 2011 at the Galleria Duemila, 210 Loring Street, Pasay City, Philippines.

Opening party is scheduled for 8 October 2011 at 4pm. You are invited! Please come.

For more information, please contact, Mara Herrera of Galleria Duemila through Tel. No. (+632) 831-9990 Telefax (+632) 8339815, e-mail: gduemila@gmail.com or visit our website at www.galleriaduemila.com.

Galleria Duemila marks its 35th anniversary this year.

About the artist
Mideo Cruz (b. 1973, Philippines) is a multidisciplinary artist who has initiated many art initiatives here and overseas. He has participated in numerous group and solo shows, most recently at Galleria Duemila and Now Gallery in the Philippines, Utterly Art Gallery in Singapore and Mondejar Gallery in Zurich. He is also a recipient of several residency grants including in Canada, and in the USA, and numerous travel grants. His awards include the CCP's Thirteen Artists Award and the Ateneo Art Awards.