For sheer consistency and longevity, Romeo E. Gutierrez, now in his 70s, is unbeatable. His exhibit at Galerie Y, “The Family Circle,” shows his unfaltering technique and attention to detail.
He is one artist whose prodigiousness belies his age but whose solid craftsmanship reaffirms his ageless art.
Part of the second generation of modern Filipino artists, Gutierrez melds abstraction and representation much like what his mentors at University of Santo Tomas did in their works. He calls this “figurative abstraction.”
But Gutierrez, himself an art teacher having retired as a faculty member of the Fine Arts program of La Consolacion College, has since developed his own personal idiom while paying tribute to his teachers.
In “Family Circle,” Gutierrez has stuck to genre themes (Madonna, Holy Family, and their secular equivalents), but transforms them in the process. Somehow approximating stained-glass art and its technique of luminosity and compositional grid, he frames his Cubist figures in undulating lines characterized by graceful densities.
Adding concretion to the works are Gutierrez’s trademark relief technique, which sets off the images from their surface, giving them a grainy texture and a certain dynamism that contribute further to the stained-glass effect, adding luminosity and buoyancy.
His 37th solo, “Family Circle” reaffirms the unwavering artistry of Gutierrez. His is an art that continues to impress; a devotional art characterized by ardor and élan, brilliant and piercing like light.
Romeo E. Gutierrez’s “Family Circle” runs until May 15 at Galerie Y, 4/L, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City. Call 6342704.
