Pop art takes imagery from popular culture, mass media and advertising, and isolates them within the context of art history to cull new and original meaning. Artist Andy Warhol was a master of this particular take on art—with a practice that famously includes paintings of Campbell soup cans and Brillo boxes.
“Who Framed Andy Warhol” sees Warhol surrounded by the very pop imagery he sought to isolate—and, in essence, become a fixture of the very art movement he initiated.
Contemporary artist Aileen Lanuza has created an oeuvre of works that uses imagery from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and other pop iconography—and juxtaposes them with complexities of the production process, art theory and the ever-present shadow of Warhol.
Moreover, Lanuza successfully pursues to a deeper and personally more meaningful manner her interest in Filipiniana costumery, the celluloid world, literature and art.
Lanuza combines formal technique and a conceptual approach to painting.
A Fine Arts graduate of University of the Philippines, she won the recent Juror’s Choice Award in the Government Service Insurance System Art Competition. Her paintings have been included in the auctions of Larasati and Borobudur.
Works in her new exhibit take up the aesthetic style of an old Hollywood poster, and uses that context to bring out her Pop Art sensibilities.
Thus, we have an old-style poster of “The Invisible Man” that also makes use of images from “The Wizard of Oz,” as well as a reference to Maria Clara, a character from Jose Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere.” We also have Warhol taking Polaroid shots of the Bugle Boys, characters of Disney comics and cartoons.
“Who Framed Andy Warhol” opens on Aug. 14, 6:30 p.m., and will be on view until Aug. 28, in Art Underground at 814 Balagtas St. cor. Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City. For inquiries, call tel. 7210745.