In today’s world of Google Maps, Google Earth and satellite images, Aldrino Abes sees his visual art practice as charting out the recesses of his own imagination.
His latest exhibition, “Urban Cartography,” is an exploration of the near-limitless potential and capabilities of the human mind. Works that look like abstracted maps of streets, alleys, and buildings but do not point to any single place form the bulk of his current body of works.
The exhibition is a look at the artist’s role as an urban explorer and the works on display are, in essence, a recording of what is in his mind’s eye.
Noted American geographer Alan MacEachren once said that “a well designed map is convincing because it implies authenticity.” This implication of familiarity also denotes an intimate connection with the area a cartographer attempts to map out.
Herein lies the uniqueness of Abes as an artist as the area in consideration does not exist on any physical plane—but lives within the confines of his highly fertile imagination.
The viewer is drawn into Aldrino’s world and made privy to how he presents his own rules of measurement, depiction and scale. The exhibition becomes a positive vista of Abes’ panoramic view of the world.
Abes came to Manila in 1995 at the young age of 20 andworked as a sign maker and later apprenticed with renowned painter Carlo Magno, who exposed him to realistic interiors and facades of old houses before his mentor went into abstraction.
Abes eventually abandoned this subject and found alternative expression in the simplicity of strokes, lines and forms that abstract art provides. His profile has seen increased prominence in the local and international art scene.
In his latest exhibit, Abes constructs lines and forms that reflect landscapes of urban environments. Using earth palettes of red, black, brown, and gold hues, Abes finds beauty in the urban form, while retaining the aesthetic sensibilities of an abstractionist.
The exhibition will have an Artist’s Reception on May 13, 6:30 p.m. at Galerie Joaquin, The Podium Mall and will run until May 22.
Galerie Joaquin-Podium is at Unit B12-B13, LG/L, Level, The Podium, ADB Avenue Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City. Call 6347954, 0917-833 7191; e-mail podium.galeriejoaquin @gmail. com.