Saturday Group is holding “Dimensions,” an art exhibit celebrating its 48th anniversary, at the Edsa Shangri-La Plaza.
Today, the Saturday Group still holds regular sessions at Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong under the auspices of their current president, artist Migs Villanueva. The venue is also a fitting space for their annual anniversary exhibitions, and will be the site of their 48th anniversary exhibition.
Leading the exhibit is Villanueva, who also conceptualized the show.
Villanueva divided members into four groups, each led by past Saturday Group presidents: Lydia Velasco, Buds Convocar, Anna de Leon, and herself. Each group was challenged to curate its exhibition.
There are few institutions as important in Philippine art history as the Saturday Group. Founded in 1968, the Saturday Group is comparable with other prolific artist groups such as Eduouard Manet’s “bohemes” that met at Café Guerboi in 19th-century Paris, and the Cedar Bar Group of New York in the ’50s that had the likes of Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko.
The Saturday Group attracted an entire generation of artists to Ermita’s Tazo de Oro Restaurant—artists such as National Artists H.R. Ocampo, Cesar Legaspi, BenCab and Ang Kiukok.
Other Saturday Group artists: Onib Olmedo, Justin Nuyda, Agustin Goy, and Juvenal Sanso (whenever he was in town from Paris), and even Lorna Montilla, Lily Amansec, Rod. Paras-Perez and Leo Baesa.
“Dimensions: 48 Years of the Saturday Group” will run until July 23.