Pamela Celeridad highlights the mundane and the minute, blowing them up to hyperreal proportions in “Closer,” an exhibit of acrylic paintings that will open at the Ishmael Bernal Gallery of the University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, on Nov. 22, 6 p.m. The exhibit, which will run until Dec. 20, is organized and curated by One Manila Gallery.
The subject matters here are miniscule, but the way Celeridad blew them up on huge canvases enabled her to capture a disorienting visual quality.
Celeridad is only 20, having graduated from Ateneo de Manila University recently, but she has already participated in several exhibits. She has never taken any formal training in painting.
Her acrylic works, depicting everyday occurrences, are considered hyperrealism, which stems from her passion for photography.
“Since I take inspiration from photography, I usually paint mundane scenes and turn them into visuals worth giving a second glance,” Celeridad said. “There are even certain principles on composition from photography that I apply directly to painting.”
She said street art inspired her to mount her art pieces on large-scale canvases: “I sought to marry all the qualities that made me fall in love with my favorite forms of art to create my style: the details from a photograph; the magnitude of huge murals and street art; and the timelessness and one-of-a-kind quality of a painting.”
“Cain and Abel,” which has bright and vivid colors, is a diptych painting of two disgruntled boys with characters and images from the video game Pac-Man superimposed on them.
“Window” and “Neringa” have finer details on the countenance: The former shows two fingers propping an eyelid open; while the latter zeroes in on the mouth of a woman taking a bite at her pearls.
One Manila Gallery, created by a group of art critics and scholars, is at 24-C Malingap St., Teacher’s Village, Quezon City; tel. 0917-8684486.