The art practice of Migs Villanueva encompasses the intersections of nostalgia and memory. Through the development of a career based on the celebration childhood innocence, the Palanca Award-winning writer and acclaimed visual artist has built a distinguished oeuvre that captures the naiveté of youth. But Villanueva’s recent art seems eager to push the boundaries of whimsy.
The result is the exhibition, “Paraphrasing Memory,” which runs in Galerie Francesca in SM Megamall until July 20.
The exhibition also serves as the launch of the new monograph, “Waif,” with foreword by Cid Reyes.
For this show, Villanueva sets forth on a new direction, using tones that are subtler, with fore- and backgrounds of fully realized figurations, such as trees, branches, leaves and flowers. This is a change from her previous works, which featured abstracted backgrounds. Details, such as the frills of the dresses, the subject’s hair, and ribbons, are all rendered with a greater attention to nuance.
The compositional alignment shows an adherence to a more classically academic training, as opposed the Japanese sensibilities of her past exhibition.
Particularly noticeable is the dilution of her color palette to something earthier, bringing her oeuvre closer to a realized aspect of memory and nostalgia.
Noted for her poetry and fiction, having won three Palanca Awards and an NVM Gonzales Award, Villanueva has consistently brought the narrative nature of her literary works to her visual art practice. Mentored by Mauro “Malang” Santos as a member of the Saturday Group, she eschews strict formalism for the expressionist qualities of colors, compositions and stories.
The exhibition will run at Galerie Francesca in SM Megamall until July 20 (tel. 5709495; e-mail galeriefrancesca.mega@gmail.com). It will then move to Galerie Francesca in Festival Supermall in Alabang (Unit 2B & 3B, Treasure Trove, 3/L, Festival Supermall, Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang, Muntinlupa City; tel. 6592667; e-mail galeriefrancesca001@yahoo.com.ph) on July 21-30, with a book signing on July 27 at 3 p.m.