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.