Category: Reviews
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Redd Nacpil: Tolerant Animal
I admire his works. Incidentally he is also a close friend, my ka-batch in high school, and former college fraternity brother. In my opinion, he has included in this exhibit some of his most honest if not the best pieces in his young career. From all the years of knowing him, I’ve always felt that…
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Jerry Araos, sculptor, 68
Artist Jerusalino “Jerry” V. Araos passed away on December 23. He was 68. I learned from my news feed that Jerry Araos passed away today. He is not a friend or a person close to me but I have one vivid memory of him: I was in college and I was organizing a tree planting…
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Rodel Tapaya: Deities
The depictions of these native gods resurface in Rodel Tapaya’s work from oral traditions around ancient beliefs in the Philippine religion, a religion that believes that gods existed in many forms and that there is an invisible realm within our world. Contained in the format of a portrait, they are rendered as abstracted combinations of…
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Four new media artists at Light and Space Contemporary
Four new media artists at Light and Space Contemporary Light and Space Contemporary is pleased to announce the opening of Charles Darwin, Me, and other Irregularities, a group exhibition of four new media artists: Kuro, Ralph Eya, Julius Redillas, and Andrei Venal, which opens on Saturday, July 14, 2012. Throughout their production for the exhibition,…
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Marina Cruz: Inside Out
Marina Cruz, Laced-top, 2012, mixed-media assemblage, 37 in x 55 in Immersed in the various conceptual layers offered by her mother’s collection of dresses, Marina Cruz conveys a series of related pictures as part of her process of representing the narratives weaved upon them, focusing on the discrepancies between visual and verbal references. Through her…
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Rodel Tapaya: Prism and Parallelism at Ben Cab Museum
The ancient and current congregate in Rodel Tapaya’s latest solo exhibition which will open on 25th February 2012 at the Ben Cab Museum in Baguio City. The exhibition pieces together long-treasured folklores that hold unique representations of mythological heroes and indigenous fable characters in beautiful compositions that are as dense and complex as the originating…
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Napoleon Abueva’s long distance race
Napoleon Abueva Photo: Katrina Ventura Napoleon Abueva’s house in Tandang Sora, Quezon City is scattered with busts of important figures, all coated in dust. Parts of the sculptor’s studio have fallen into disuse since he became wheelchair-bound over five years ago. The stroke had effectively ended his major productions. At the time, I was a…
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Introduction to Moment’s Notice
It is my belief that in any profession, especially in the creative line, one never completely moves beyond the pull of the personal in any human encounter. Experience teaches us to not look at the works merely as objects but also the process behind it. My project has in its typical manner sought to deeply…
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College Guys
Press Release “The College Guys” exhibition opens with a party at 371 art space For the College Guys, a loose artistic group composed of Francis Bejar, Francis Commeyne, Geronimo Cristobal, Jr. and Chalk Zaldivar, artworks need not be alienated from their everyday reality. Conceived to present a series of new works forged under a fresh…
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Rodel Tapaya: Visions of Lore
Tapaya’s paintings recurrently depict narratives embedded in Filipino cultural history that offer sharp and often piercing commentary on contemporary life and issues. Through his adept manipulation of folk aesthetic and material, Tapaya provides his mythical characters with allegorical significances that transcend common perception, offering fresh insights about their origins and relevance. The paintings become a…
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Two Rizal exhibitions at UP Diliman
He never claimed to be a god in any of his writings but the photographs of his monuments for a show entitled Over Rizal at the Vargas Museum would make you believe otherwise. Employing the lighter tone and the touristy production, the exhibition retells history from the people who read about it, reflecting how the…
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Rodel Tapaya at Vargas Museum
The Jorge Vargas Museum is a humble and elegant institution, but I have sometimes thought that the artist who is offered a one-man show there might well think twice before accepting. Maybe it’s the air of self-importance that surround those exhibitions they hand an artist there, maybe it’s simply that few men have the actual…
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Renato Orara, Drawer.
I was searching through the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) collection last night, out of curiosity, for a Filipino artist and found only two names. The first one is Lino Brocka. The original film of Bona is currently kept—luckily—in the MoMA Film Archive of the world’s best movies. I think there is no existing copy…
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The sound gestures of Olivier Ochanine
Last night at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, as the torrential weather coated the entire city with an unlikely charm, a warm and wonderful treat took place. The French conductor Olivier Ochanine, who became the musical director of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in March this year, had decided to present a superb selection consisting…
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The Black Bouquets of Juvenal Sanso
Bouquet Elegant by Juvenal Sansó, c. 1960, ink on paper Let me begin by telling you the story of how I crossed paths with Sansó. It happened, quite amusingly, two years ago at a group exhibition I organized in an SM Megamall gallery. Sansó happened to be passing by on his way to a different…
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An Echo from the Fields
An Echo from the Fields Lex Marcos paints a Miguel Hernández tribute Geronimo Cristobal, Jr. April 16, 2010 The Spanish poet Miguel Hernandez’s last verse written on a hospital wall said, “Goodbye, brothers, comrades, friends: let me take my leave of the sun and the fields.” In this gripping final act of poetry, Hernández was…
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A portrait of downhearted objects
Caroline Ongpin at Paseo Gallery September 1-15, 2009 Paintings in oil abound the gallery walls in Caroline Ongpin’s exhibition, ‘Spaces for Contemplation’, at Paseo Gallery, 4th Floor Building A, SM Megamall. The paintings invite us to settle with the gallery, each one a depiction of rooms and several household objects. They are reminiscent of Edward…
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‘Lost Dragonfly’: Tradition and translation
By Oscar Campomanes Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 18:39:00 07/12/2009 Filed Under: Arts and Culture and Entertainment, Poetry MANILA, Philippines – “The process of cultural translation,” says eminent anthropologist Talal Asad, “is inevitably enmeshed in conditions of power.” Cultural critic Rey Chow chimes in that one form of power involved in the translation of anything—from…
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Mike Kelley Educational Complex Onwards, 1995 – 2008
WIELS Contemporary Arts Center, 12.4. – 27.7.2008 The barren title Educational Complex Onwards evokes analysis and an unsettling association with school as both an educational institution and a metaphorical torture chamber. Mike Kelley initiated his critique of the educational system in 1995, prompted by widespread assumptions that his prolific work—especially his stuffed animals—stemmed from a…
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In the mood for love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000)
Hong Kong 1962: Ambitious newspaper editor Chow (Tony Leung Ka Fai) and shy secretary Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) are among the many immigrants who have fled to the British crown colony after the conquest of Shanghai by the Chinese Communists. Although both are married and receive a regular salary, they can afford only a subleased room…
Geronimo Cristobal 