Paulino Que is one of the foremost art collectors in the Philippines, with a good eye for up-and-coming art?he had been collecting Ang Kiukok back in the days when Ang?s images were an acquired taste. So his collection of emergent artists should signal who would be the wave of the future. Finale provided that glimpse in this show of big works by artists who-would-be-big, as far as Que?s visionary eye is concerned: Elmer Borlongan, Charlie Co, Louie Cordero, Marina Cruz, Kiko Escora, Alfredo Esquillo Jr., Nona Garcia, Emmanuel Garibay, Kawayan de Guia, Geraldine Javier, Mark Justiniani, Annie Kabigting, Robert Langenegger, Maya Muñoz, Manuel Ocampo, José Santos III, Yasmin Sison, Rodel Tapaya, Wire Tuazon and Ronald Ventura. Critics and art-lovers may be divided over the worth of the individual artists?some of them are very established names but maybe for the wrong reasons?but the collection as a whole is, at the least, very interesting.
Ramon Orlina at Alliance Française and Art Verite (June and November)
Ramon Orlina goes from strength to strength, and these shows were notable for the variety of mediums and colors in which the sculptor has recently explored in his quest for trapping light in his art. The same glass sculptures are there to depict intimate forms, but the colors have expanded to include azure blue and earthy brown. Slowly but surely, he is also moving to other mediums, such as cast bronze in various patinas. Of course, these are all preludes to his monumental sculpture, ?Tetraglobal,? a glass-and-brass structure, set to be unveiled in time for the 400th anniversary in 2011 of his alma mater, the University of Santo Tomas.
José Tence Ruiz at Art Informal and Kaida (July and November)
Ruiz?s two shows this year??Kotillon? at Art Informal and ?WAG Ma-Inlab sa Tao sa TV? at Kaida?explore in powerfully satiric graphics (his strongest suit) the complexities of representation and image-making in a new century that seems to have believed all of the fictions it has created. In the first show, he depicted women in outrageous cotillion gowns that are a bricolage of images and fabrics and textures, including slabs of raw meat and inane product advertisements. It?s more of the same in the latter show, and the palimpsest of images seems a loud echoing of the artist?s distrust of capitalist image-manufacturing and contradictions. One may not share Ruiz?s social realism, but again and again, his art strikes at the core.
Philippine art in Singapore (October-January 2010)
To mark the 40th anniversary of its diplomatic relations with the Philippines, Singapore is holding a series of shows in its museums and galleries on Philippine art. The exhibits feature key pieces from government, private and university collections from the Philippines. For example, ?Land of the Morning: The Philippines and Its People? at the Asian Civilisations Museum features important pieces from the collection of Eleuterio ?Teyet? Pascual, perhaps the most important single-individual collector in the country. The importance of these series of shows is that it exhibits for the first time nearly all of the significant art holdings of important individuals and institutions in the Philippines: It?s inconceivable for one if the public would ever get to see Hidalgo?s ?La Banca? (displayed at the Singapore Art Museum) since Teyet, who owns the work, shows it only in private and when he?s in the mood. At the Asian Civilizations show, Filipino works, in contrast with works by other Asian nations, distinguish themselves by their passion and fervor. They show why the Philippines is set apart from Asia?a continent unto itself.
Slims? high fashion as high art at the National Museum (November)
Salvacion Lim Higgins (Slims) is, it is now safe to say, the greatest Filipino fashion designer. This show, and the world-class coffee-table book that has been published along with it, provides a breathtaking survey of her achievements?innovating Filipino fashion leitmotifs, endowing fabrics with wit and gravity, defying constructions (ahead of the Japanese), and experimenting with layers and textures. Her designs are works of art.
Pacena?s ?Static Reverb? at Blanc
Jay Pacena II?s multimedia talents find realization in this show that combines the graphic and the organic, the digital with the real. On display is his strong graphic skills as well as his uncanny ability to clash contrasts and meld opposites. A prolific artist equally at home in video and sound mix, Pacena is best when mining his strong background at pictorial and graphic rendition and employing it to check the chaos of the multimedia.
New José Mendoza sculptures at Crucible (December-January 2010)
José Mendoza, creator of the monumental bronze structures of Gabriela Silang and Pio del Pilar in Makati?s business district, turns to steel-metal abstraction in this show that depicts in various stages of beauty and grace the female form. Rather mindlessly yet unassumingly titled ?Modern Sculptures,? this show displays Mendoza?s strong suit as an artist of evocative forms and of concealed artistry. So concealed that people tend to forget that Mendoza had been doing ?modern sculptures? back when it was not trendy to be modern: Just take a look again at his oft-ignored but very striking work near the Agrificna Circle in Luneta?that powerful big sculpture that looks like a vulva. Sadly, the clitoris-like structure hanging in the middle of the sculpture has long been gone and no attempt has been made by the National Park to repair or restore it, and Mendoza, who?s a very humble artist, has never complained about the desecration made on his work.
