ARE CREATIVE PEOPLE MORE APT TO BE ADDICTS?

Read full article here.

CONFIGURATION

July 8-24
Galerie Anna
Artwalk SM Megamall

10 Participating Artists:
Benjie Cabangis
Noell EL Farol
Fitz Herrera
Rico Lascano
Poch Naval
Jonathan Olazo
Resty Tica
Yasmin Almonte
Mervy Pueblo
Jemina Reyes

Approximating components of equivalence and decidability form a central role in the language of abstraction, ‘Configurations’ operates in mapping fixpoints attributes that exploit the ideas of composed, refined, compressed and decomposed. Led by stalwart in Philippine abstractions, Benjie Cabangis and other contemporary artists like Jonathan Olazo, a consistent award winning painter-printmaker, their works gives new hints and leads to different notions of domains that abstractions does, strongly normalizing parametric relationship in search for corresponding notions of equivalence as part of their definitions and reasoning.

Joining are works by noted and respected young contemporary artists, the bold abstractions by Fitz Herrera and Resty Tica. Herrera's works play on rigidity as well as fluidity - rebellious lines that contain, and solid colors that rub off into nebulous wholes while Tica merges the veritable signifier of abstraction and graphic starkness of design. While Rico Lascano and Poch Naval’s minimalist's works operate in configured components of abstractions complements the equivalence of the concept of the show. Sculptor Noell EL Farol works in slab form features the act of making as a process of decay eliciting a 'contemporary' archaeology.

Complementing the show are works by female contemporary abstract painters, Yasmin Almonte, Mervy Pueblo and Jemina Reyes.

Yasmin Almonte continue to employ wide range of painterly techniques to create a field of suction, complements her manipulation of visual cognition within her paintings. Working towards sublime fields of painterly abstraction, rendered with alternate areas of thick impasto while wielding artistic process as a mode of investigation is seen from the works of sculptor-Painter Mervy Pueblo. While Reyes' paintings possess an imposing elegance, densely translucent layers and visceral distance.

EARTH

EARTH
Augusto Albor
Earth
7 - 30 June 2011

Elemental and primordial

For Gus Albor, abstraction can convey the nuanced passage of time and space; movements imprinted on the physical surface of the planet. These qualities of natural forms are compellingly captured in Earth, an exhibit of recent works in acrylic on canvas at Mag:net Katipunan.

The paintings in "Earth", all recent works, are quiet testaments to the elemental and primordial forms in nature: the stillness and flux of tides below the rasing seas; the shadows of the earth's recesses; the movement of masses, unbound. Albor's abstraction intentionally steps back from being deliberately expressionist and gestural, from exposing the hand of humans as creators (and destroyers) of civilizations. Rather, his forms evoke the silent passage of eras beyond human lifetimes, interventions and scales, "standing firm in praise of time and space," as the artist terms it.

In this time when the earth is warming at an unprecedented rate, of terrifying rage spewing from the bowels of the land and seas, Albor's art has the capacity to instill in one a wonder for the world beyond the gallery. It, if only for a few frames, positions our realities within the perspective of the earth we inhabit: the movement of the continents that continues beyond our lifetimes, the infinite sadness of oceans older than memory. As the title of one of his paintings seems to point out, the passage of time and of the elements may signal the end of the word and of civilization as we know it, but not the end of the world which embraces us all.

About the artist. One of the country's esteemed abstractionists, Gus Albor's art practice spans nearly four decades. His formal art studies were pursued at the University of the East and the West Surrey College of Art in England. Albor was cited in Thirteen Artists Awards from the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1976 and the Art Association of the Philippines (First Place) in 1977. His works have since then been shown in exhibitions throughout Manila and in other countries, such as Hong Kong, India, Germany, France, and the United States.

"Earth" by Gus Albor runs from June 7 to 30, 2011 at Mag:net Gallery, located at 335 Katipunan Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City 1105. For inquiries, contact the gallery at 929.3191 or magnetgalleries@gmail.com.

Image:
Augusto Albor
Below sea level,, 2011
Acrylic on Canvas
36x36 Inches

ARTISTS2ARTISTS: A FUNDRAISING SOCIAL NETWORK FOR CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS

Read full article here.

SIETE DE AGOSTO: ALLEGORY OF A FARCE

Siete de Agosto: Allegory of a Farce
by Romulo Galicano
June 7 - 25, 2011

Tall Gallery
Finale Art File
Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound
2241 Chino Roces Avenue (Pasong Tamo)
Makati City 1231

Romulo Galicano's latest Gesamkunstwerk tackles a timely event in Philippine cultural and social life. Siete de Agosto: Allegory of a Farce is an elegant critique of the death of integrity in the process of determining the National Artist Awards (NAA) due to executive interference, and symbolized by the demonstration of the art community in front of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) on August 7, 2009. It is this event that Galicano has magisterially captured in allegorical form that captures both the pathos and farcical vanity in search for artistic nobility that haunts the system and its players today.

NATION’S FIRST GAY MUSEUM OPENS DOORS IN SAN FRANCISCO

Read full article here.

BAG-ONG HINAN-AW

Bag-Ong Hinan-Aw
Viewing Tradition in a New Way
June 7 to 25, 2011

Group Exhibition
PUBLIO BRIONES JR.
CARLOS FLORIDO
JONATHAN GALICANO
LUTHER GALICANO II
FLORENTINO IMPAS JR.
FACUNDO TALLO JR.
JOSE VILLADOLID

Finale Art File
Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound
2241 Chino Roces Avenue (Pasong Tamo)
Makati City 1231

Unique to Cebuano contemporary figurative artists is a sense of disciplined craftsmanship imbibed from an academic tradition: tonal value, composition, and naturalistic rendering retain the key standards that they once occupied a century ago, and passed down from one maestro to the next. In this case, it was Carcar-based Martino Abellana (1914-1988), who was taught by Fernando Amorsolo at UP Manila in the 1930s; and who in turn taught Sofronio Y. Mendoza, a.k.a. Sym, and Romulo “Molong” Galicano in Carcar in the 1950s and Sixties. Since the Eighties, a group of emerging and senior Cebuano artists have gravitated around Galicano’s leadership, which emphasized both traditional standards of representational painting, and its fusion with modern conceptual even abstract approaches, asserting a middle path through which contemporary art can retain its contextual vibrancy, social effect, and aesthetic intellect.

ARTISTS AND GALLERIES AROUND THE WORLD BAND TOGETHER TO SEND JAPAN EARTHQUAKE RELIEF

Read full article here.

REPETITION

REPETITION
Mixed Media Paintings
BRENDALE ASINAS TADEO

Alliance Française de Manille (AFM), and in cooperation with Art Cabinet Philippine is pleased to present REPETITION, a solo exhibit of mixed media paintings by contemporary visual artist Brendale Asinas Tadeo.

Repetition is the act of repeating actions, performances, productions or presentations. In this new body of works the artist investigates the sample parallelisms of customs between generations of families through family portraits. Traditions, whether good or bad, are repeated in minute detail from one generation to the next. Tadeo’s paintings attempt to capture the act of handing down family values from one generation to the other, and relates this repetition to the bigger picture of Philippine society.

The artist believes that the home or the family, which is the smallest but also the most influential unit of society practices and preserves its values and customs. He considers the family as the root of the entire Filipino social phenomenon, and the key to how Philippine society works. The paintings attempt to portray the role of each member of the family, and the customs and traditions that influence the manner of decision making.

Brendale Asinas Tadeo was born in 1987 in Zambales, Philippines. His work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions: Machinas (2010, NOVA Gallery), Petit Format (2011, CCP), Tutuk Anobayani (2010, CCP), Penumbra (2010, Blanc Gallery), Yari (2010, UP Vargas Museum), Everyday Filipino Heroes (2010, UP Vargas Museum), Tutok SOeNA (2009, Manila Contemporary, Artist in Review (2009, CASA San Miguel, Zambales), Tutok KKK (2008, Blanc Gallery), Tutok Kasaysayang (2007, Artspace Glorietta), Tutok Dos por Dos (2007, Boston Gallery), Tagtagepnep (2005, CASA San Miguel, Zambales).

In 2010, Tadeo won the 2nd Prize in the Oil/Acrylic Category of the 43rd Shell National Students Art Competition. He was a finalist in the 1st PNOC Painting Competition and the 25th Visual Art National Competition that same year. He is the resident artist at Casa San Miguel, Zambales where he teaches art and crafts. He is a member of Anino Shadowplay Collective and Anino Zambales.

Repetition is co-presented by Art Cabinet Philippines, which organizes projects and exhibits on Philippine visual arts and culture in partnership with various organizations (www.artcabinetphilippines.com)

Brendale Asinas Tadeo’s exhibition “Repetition” opens on Tuesday, June 7, 2011, at the Total Gallery of the Alliance Française de Manille, with cocktails at 6:30pm to 9pm only. The exhibit runs until June 30, 2011. For high resolution images of the artworks and more details about the exhibit, kindly contact Mr. Earl Parco (AFM Cultural Officer) at 895 7441 / 895 7585 or email cultural@alliance.ph, or visit the AFM website at www.alliance.ph.

ART IS HAVING A SENIOR MOMENT

Read full article here.

EL GUERNICA: DECONSTRUCCION

AYALA MUSEUM AND SPANISH EMBASSY TIE UP FOR REINTERPRETATION OF PICASSO'S GUERNICA

Ayala Museum and the Embassy of Spain in the Philippines will be presenting an exhibition entitled "El Guernica: Deconstrucción" at the Ground Floor Gallery of Ayala Museum. It will be available for public viewing beginning 7 June until 7 August 2011.

The Philippines and Spain are two countries with a long historical relationship, with strong connections still present in our language, customs, traditions, culture, and art.

"El Guernica: Deconstrucción" takes a different angle to that relationship through new works of art by a pool of selected Filipino and Spanish contemporary artists who will hold a "dialogue" with Pablo Picasso's painting, Guernica. Based on a grid image of the Guernica from an edition of the Revista Poesía dedicated to the said work, participating artists will choose portions of the artwork to interpret. All these works will be assembled and installed together.

This exhibition also follows through last year's highly successful "El Prado Project: Dialogue with the Masters," where Filipino and Spanish artists also re-interpreted masterful artworks housed at the Museo Nacional del Prado in Spain.

"El Guernica: Deconstrucción" is sponsored by Mapfre Insular Insurance Corporation, Indra Sistemas, and Instituto de Turismo de España (TURESPAÑA). Additional support was provided by Museo Reina Sofía, Narciso Abril, Carlos Alberdi, Manuel Borja-Villel, Andres Soria, Fernando Muñoz and Javier Menéndez.

Ayala Museum is located at Makati Avenue

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS IN EL GUERNICA: DECONSTRUCCIÓN

Philippines/Philippine-based

Ma. Victoria “Ambie” Abaño Nunelucio Alvarado Virgillio Aviado Pablo Baen Santos Cesar Caballero Charlie Co Igan d’Bayan Reynold de la Cruz Antipas Delotavo Ramon Diaz Ferdinand Doctolero Alfredo Esquillo Roedil Geraldo Dennis Gonzales Noell El Farol Willy Tadeo Layug Manuel Ocampo Mervy Pueblo Roberto M.A. Robles Juvenal Sanso Cesare A.X. Syjuco Toto Tarrosa Benjie Torrado Cabrera Betsy Westendorp Jaime Zobel de Ayala

Spain

Baylón José Manuel Broto Ricardo Cadenas Ceesepe Chema Cobo José Cobo Alberto Corazón Cristián Domecq Cesar Fernández Arias Belén Franco Carlos Franco Alberto García Alix Gloria García-Lorca Jacobo Gavira Luis Gordillo Begoña Goyenechea Menchu Lamas Noni Lazaga Jaime Lorente Eva Lootz Antonio Novillo Montserrat de Pablo Antón Patiño Carlos Pazos Manolo Quejido Gloria Rodríguez Manuel Salinas Juan Ugalde

MALE MODEL BEHIND MONA LISA, EXPERTS CLAIM

Read full article here.

RIZALIZING THE FUTURE

RIZALizing the Future
June 3 – October 29, 2011

Jose Rizal (1861 – 1896) is an integral part of the Filipino psyche, with his iconic image and enduring spirit seen in all aspects of our culture, landscape, and daily life. To mark the 150th anniversary of Rizal’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the Yuchengco Group of Companies, the Yuchengco Museum presents RIZALizing the Future, an exhibit rendering our National Hero in a more popular light. The show surveys the industries, brands, movements, and directions that have pointed to Rizal as their root of inspiration, and challenges visitors to imbibe and carry on Rizal’s spirit.


OPENING PARTY
Friday, June 3,
8:00 p.m.
RCBC Plaza Courtyard

Join us for our opening courtyard party and bazaar for RIZALizing the Future! If you love Rizal, Pinoy pop culture, or just a good party, the RCBC Plaza Courtyard is the place to be on June 3, Friday. Bring your friends, and be one of the first to see the exhibit.

Groove to DJ music, grab a drink from our cash bar, savor our special RIZALizing the Future coffee blend, enjoy Noli Me Tangere-inspired cuisine from select food vendors, and shop for Rizal books and pop merchandise. The event is free and open to everyone. (Our courtyard party is the first of several Nights of Rizal events, so follow us on Facebook and Twitter for updates.)

RIZALizing the Future is on view until October 29. The Yuchengco Museum is located at RCBC Plaza, corner Ayala and Sen. Gil Puyat Avenues, Makati City. Museum hours are Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, call 889-1234 or e-mail info@yuchengcomuseum

ABSENCE

ABOUT FACE

EXPLORING THE idea that the face represents the persona with which one confronts the world and how penetrable these public facades can be, Lopez Memorial Museum features works by contemporary artists xVRx, Renan Ortiz, Louie Talents and Alvin Zafra.

These include works by Juan Luna, Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, Macario Vitalis, Fabian de la Rosa, Vicente Manansala, Juvenal Sanso, Fernando Amorsolo, Benedicto Cabrera, Fernando Zobel and the extensive Rizaliana holdings in light of the 150th birth commemoration of Dr. Jose Rizal.

As the museum has established a reputation for being a repository of Lunas and Hidalgos and rare Filipiniana, museum curatorial consultant Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez said that the artists were asked to “consider images within the museum and library archive collections in taking on the proposed theme.” She added “The intention is to have contemporary artists look upon the practice of pictorially rendering personage as a means of circulating a persona or a public face, as opposed to a repressed alter ego or possibly a totally fictitious avatar.”

The featured artists used and incorporated portraits including the less explored aspects of the collection such as its Rizaliana holdings and its LVN still archives, among others.

Zafra who has exhibited his work in various galleries in the Philippines as well as in Tokyo, Taipei, Singapore and Hong Kong, did a portrait of President Emilio Aguinaldo that he found in the book "I Shot the Presidents” by Honesto Vitug. He said that “I use my fingernails as drawing medium on fine sandpaper. .. It's blank. You only see his upper garment and some elements of the background where the photo was taken. I think of it as a reaction to my own art practice as well.”

Ortiz , who was awarded the Sinugdanan Grant by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2007, takes on Rizal and Indio-Spanish dialectics in three multimedia installations cutting across the museum’s galleries.

Talents who was awarded a scholarship grant from the Ecole Nationale Superieure Des Beaux- Arts and the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts Best Thesis Award, also mounted a multimedia work exploring notions of itinerancy and registration of self in relation to sacred verse and texts by Rizal. He called his installation ‘Playing with Matchsticks’. He said: “The burning as part of my process resonates since my method combines a technical meditative approach and a childhood penchant for burning as a device to decorate the edges of cards.”

xVRx who has participated in arts festivals and residency programs such as Outlooke Pointe Foundation and AX (is) Art Project Baguio City, shows a stenciled portrait of an old man, dually alluding to images of everyday life repurposed and sited surreptitiously in luminal urban space.

About Face opens on June 2 and will run until August 27, 2011. For more info, visit www.lopez-museum.org or call 631-2417.

BUDGET WOES CAUSE UNIVERSITY TO SELL JACKSON POLLOCK?

Read full article here.

WET

WET
June 1 - 25, 2011

Having traveled and lived in the Philippines for years, Neal Oshima focused his lens on familiar subjects and issues that surround the way people live. His photos have motivated many to address the problems that largely affect us. This month, he shines a spotlight on water, beautiful and undeniably essential to everyone.

Wet is a survey of Oshima’s inspired meditations on the movement and textures of water. Black and white photos serve as windows to the photographer’s many longstanding encounters with it. With simplicity and clarity, he showcases distant landscapes embraced by the sea, still waters where mangroves nest, portraits of rivers and the ripples that run through its surface. The shades captured in each photo parallel the numerous forms by which we know water.

A celebration of the waterscapes that surround our islands, Wet allows us to sightsee and reflect on both old and new, traditional and experimental photographs. These pictures, like water are quiet and still, heavy, light, and always brimming with life.

WET by Neal Oshima opens on June 1, 2011 simultaneously with Postlocal 2011 curated by Isa Lorenzo and featuring Gaston Damag, Pow Martinez, and Lynyrd Paras at SLab, and Assemblage: Project 3 by Julius Clar at 20Square.

To RSVP, please call 8160044 or email manage@silverlensphoto.com

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

BOOK FEATURE: THE SATURDAY GROUP ART BOOK

It is hard to believe that more than four decades have passed since what we now know as the Saturday Group of Artists first got together. Of course, membership was vastly different then, and of the Group’s pioneers, quite a few have passed on.

The ones who survived have since been joined and replaced in the Group’s active roster by dozens of new members over the years – many of whom have become artistic luminaries inn their own right, and who have, in turn, mentored and influenced other young Filipino artists. In this way, the Group itself has grown and remained dynamic, open to new ideas and possibilities, even as it has striven to maintain the highest standards of artistic imagination and execution.

Those of us who have been with the Group for quite a while can be proud of this tradition of membership, alongside the openness to innovation that any collective artistic endeavor requires. Art in the Philippines has never been an easy advocacy to promote – although Philippine culture and society would be unimaginable without the contributions of our visual artists – and every artist today still has to fight for his or her own space, literally and figuratively, in the minds and hearts of our people.

It is perhaps a hallmark of this new Saturday Group that we have chosen to meet regularly in malls – rather than in the private studios and small cafes of the old days – to re-establish our connection to the public at large, and the connection to art itself to the public sphere. We believe in the specialness of art, but we also believe in its accessibility. We do not mind it if people watch us as we work, or if people wonder about our paintings; it is that wonderment that we seek to share, whether it is inspired by the steeple of a church or a bouquet of roses or the sinews of workers.

This book celebrates the Saturday Group’s traditions and hallmarks, and showcases the best of our members’ work. Among us, it will evoke many memories of the Saturdays we shared together, both the good and maybe not so good, moments we will cherish to our last canvases. But it is also an offering to the public that we value, a sharing of images that we hope will cause more than a few readers to see beneath the surface of the world we know – which is every artist’s dream. These are the dreams we saw; this is our dream realized, which we hope you will enjoy.

The Saturday Group Art Book
Written and designed by Migs Villanueva
Foreword by Mauro Malang Santos, Cris Crz and Buds Convocar
2007

For sales and other inquiries,
Please contact Buds Convocar
+639209208149

JUNE SHOWS AT SILVERLENS│SLAB│20SQUARE

June Shows at Silverlens • SLab • 20SQUARE
Show Dates: June 01-25, 2011
Opening Reception: June 01, Wednesday, 6-9pm

Fresh from their participation at ArtHK, Silverlens Galleries opens three new shows on June 1st--Wet by Neal Oshima at Silverlens Main; Postlocal 2011 at SLab curated by Isa Lorenzo and featuring Gaston Damag, Pow Martinez and Lynyrd Paras; and in 20Square Assemblage: Project 3 by Julius Clar.

Wet is a survey of Neal Oshima’s water photographs that reveal his involvement in environmental projects, as well as his inspired meditations on the movement and textures of water. The show celebrates the waterscapes that surround our islands, and allows you to glimpse the photographer’s longstanding and many encounters with it.

Isa Lorenzo curates Postlocal 2011 at SLab, with selected works from Gaston Damag, Pow Martinez, and Lynyrd Paras. Conceptualized two years ago, Postlocal allows clashing and melding styles and influences from unexpected trios to play and answer the question, “What does Philippine contemporary art look like?”

At 20SQUARE, Julius Clar explores ideas on the vacancy and occupation of space. Presenting a series of shadow boxes, the artist compels viewers to read and re-interpret his collagic works, “to see what is not there …to look for the vacant parts, put them back into the assemblage piece and then reconsider the new whole.”

All shows will run simultaneously until June 25, 2011.

Image: Neal Oshima (detail) (left), Pow Martinez, Crusader, 2011 (detail) (center), Julius Clar, 7UP, 2011 (detail) (right); Words by Airam Ferrer

GOOGLE LAUNCHES ART PROJECT FOR MUSEUMS WORLDWIDE

Read full article here.