The Philippines’ year is bookended by two seasons: the brilliant colors of summer and the lushness of the monsoons. Abstract expressionist Karina Baluyut juxtaposes these two seasons in “Two Seasons,” which will open Nov. 27 at Galleria Nicolas.
An expressionist, Baluyut’s technique emphasizes emotion over mimesis. She is an Architecture graduate of the University of the Philippines who topped the board exams in 2004.
This background in nonlinear abstraction that architecture represents enabled her to examine emotion and merge colors, shapes and forms freely. With the eye of a skilled draftswoman and the sensitivity of a poet, Baluyut constructs new visual realities and creates works that carry the weight of dissonance, memory and the awareness of the passage of time.
“April Love” is a painting of red flowers that only bloom during the summer. Baluyut not only sets about to aesthetically recreate the flora, but also attempts to link it to an emotion—in this case, love.
Monsoon is represented by the tide, which Baluyut uses to represent the smoothening of the old. She emphasizes water’s primary characteristic of flexibility. Water surrounds and penetrates, and the calming consistency of the tide belies the fact that the coast, in time, bends to its will.
Galleria Nicolas is at 3/F, Art Space of Glorietta 4, Ayala Center, Makati City; tel. 6250273; or e-mail info@gallerianicolas. com; visit www.gallerianicolas.com.
