New Joya Gallery holds inaugural exhibit
JULIAN Ongpin Young Artists (Joya) Gallery presents “At The Heart of It,” a three-man exhibition of Arnel Agawin, Michael Rahman Declarin and Brisa Amir.
Works are a meditation on the themes of violence, the cycles of nature, and the inevitable acceptance of man’s mortality.
Show runs until April 12.
Joya is at 2/F, Alphaland, Makati Place, Makati City. Call 0915-1296901. E-mail galleryjoya@ gmail.com. Visit www. facebook.com/JOYA MNL.
Cu-unjieng at Makati Shang
Sequi Cu-Unjieng’s solo exhibition “One Fine Day,” opens today at the Lobby Lounge of Makati Shangri-La, Manila.
Her collection of acrylic-on-canvas landscapes features geometric shapes, suspended squares, rectangles, triangles in space, circles as moons and suns. Hers is a vision of trees and houses, clouds and skies, on the verge of abstraction. Exhibit runs until April 30.
Call 5233331; e-mail dididee@hiraya.com; visit www.hiraya.com
Kragelund, Kondo, Coson at Finale
At Finale Art File are solo shows featuring new works by Nicole Coson, Kristian Kragelund and Taichi Kondo.
“Process of Elimination,” Coson’s sixth solo exhibition and her second show at Finale Art File, will be on view at the Tall Gallery. Coson combines printmaking and painting to create fleeting impressions of stone on sand, reminiscent of rock arrangements and dry landscape gardens.
At the Upstairs Gallery, Danish Kragelund mounts “Reactive Painting,” an exhibit of works from a larger ongoing research project on process-based painting and sculpture.
Japanese-Filipino artist Kondo unveils his first one-man exhibition in the Philippines, “What’s My Name?” at the Video Room. The show features paintings, rendered in a primitive style, exploring the idea of dualities as perceived by the senses and as part of imagining a new, “provisional world”.
Exhibitions run until April 30.
Finale Art File is at Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound, 2241 Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City. Call 8132310; e-mail finaleartfileinc@gmail.com; visit www.finaleartfile.com.
Alcaide at Artinformal
Lace-and-wire and other mixed-media works by Eugenia Alcaide are on view in “Insidious,” until April 16 at Artinformal.
From the simple idea of visible expressions to abstractions, and from abstractions to concrete lines, the connections are fluid, sinuous, in the work of Alcaide. With each stroke, finesse and subliminal transition merge into new dimensions, with paradoxes of vistas in every frame presented.
Art Informal is at 277 Connecticut St., Greenhills East, Mandaluyong City. Call tel. 7258518, 0918-8992698.
UP class under J Olazo
THE THIRD year fine arts class of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts under artist Jonathan Olazo presents “Platform,” an exhibit of mini-theses on view at the Erehwon Center until April 12.
Participating artists are Dave Cielo, Bea Fajardo, Virginia Garcia, Salvador Luis Varron, JP de Vera, Shawn Dalida, Jomari Arinas, Erris Gonzales, Kean Barrameda, Bryan Pollero, Kathleen Dagum, Natt Juliano, Pat Tañedo, Iona Plaza, Julieanne Ng, Joaquin Buenaobra, Nicole Ayson, Philip Aldefolio, Abie Soroño, Della de Leos, Tiffany Lafuente, Nadine Javier, Brenner Almirol, Kulay Ferraris, Gab Ferrer, Julio San José, Gabby Nazareno, Eugine Gamas, Jinsol Lee, Anton Carreon and Keigh Keigh.
Exhibition is curated by Olazo.
Martin at Silverlens
“What’s So Wrong If You’re Wrong,” a solo exhibition by Gene Paul Martin runs until April 23 at Silverlens Gallery.
His paintings portray a dark narrative of a world filled with the uncanny exchange between the inanimate and the imaginary that goes about the technique of everyday life in search for its own meaning. A touch of whimsical irony follows this fantastic set-up of simulacra, stirring with it a haunting parody of ecstatic absurdity—an unsettling joy that claims authenticity within a body without organs.
Silverlens is at 2/F, YMC Bldg. 2, 2320 Chino Roces Ave. Ext., Makati City. Call 8160044; e-mail info@silverlensgalleries.com.
Zobel and Sansó at Ateneo
“Other: Zobel and Sansó” features over 80 prints and travel sketches by Fernando Zobel and Juvenal Sansó, including never before exhibited pieces. It is on view until until May 28 at Ateneo Art Gallery and is copresented by Fundacion Sansó.
There are lots of similarities between Zobel and Sansó. Aside from being both Spanish nationals who in part lived and practiced their art in the Philippines and internationally from the early 1950s onward, they have both donated their personal collections which later ended up as the core collections of two private museums. Because they exhibit in many countries and draw inspiration locally and from abroad, their works exemplify the borderlessness of art and put to question nationality and nationalism in Philippine art. Both painters are also adept printmakers.
Ateneo Art Gallery is at Katipunan Ave., Quezon City. Call 4266488; e-mail aag@ateneo.edu
Vallombreuse at Alliance Total
“La Vallée (The Valley),” a photography exhibition by French photographer Pierre de Vallombreuse runs until April 29 at Alliance Total Gallery.
De Vallombreuse documented the life of a Palawan tribe called Tau’t Batu or People of the Rock in the Signapan Valley for 28 years primarily for their use of caves during the rainy season. He lived with them for nearly three years.
He followed the life in the valley, nestled in the mountains, which is a five-hour walk from the coast. No road existed in the late 1980s and the valley lived on its own, isolated. In the 1990s, a road penetrated along the coast, causing a strong influx of migrants from the rest of the Philippine archipelago. With it, several connections developed. Today the community, which was once very isolated, lives in accelerated change. It still does so with gentleness while preserving its identity and culture, and maintaining to a large extent the choice of external additions in its evolution. But how much longer?
Exhibit is copresented by Alliance Française de Manille, Embassy of France and National Museum.
Alliance Française de Manille is at 209 Nicanor Garcia St. Bel-Air II, Makati City; tel. 0998-9946535; Visit www.alliance.ph.