Needing a healing is the wounded world we have now, and Art Wednesday Group responds with a show aptly titled “Art Heals” now on view at Renaissance Art Gallery. Appropriate, too, is the venue of the exhibition, a French word which means rebirth. Art Wednesday—which had its beginnings in August 2007 as “Kulay Marikina”—is a Filipino group of professional visual artists seeking to capture Filipino culture. The group’s artworks are mostly composed of Philippine landscapes, women garbed in Filipiniana attire while engaged in traditional chores, floral still lifes, verdant tropical gardens and portraiture. Art Wednesday, which counts 20 active regular members, is distinguished by the participation of its honorary members, namely Remy Boquiren, Lydia Velasco, Bing Siochi and Fernando Sena. Current officers of Art Wednesday are: Melissa “Lisa” Villaseñor, president; Andy F. Pernia, vice president; Yolanda D. Batara, secretary; Marilyn Villanueva Aquino, treasurer; Esther Garcia, auditor; and Naomi Banal-Huertas, press relations officer.

“Art Heals” runs until Sept. 30. Renaissance Art Gallery is at 4/F, The Artwalk, SM Megamall, Edsa corner Julia Vargas Avenue, Mandaluyong City.

Hablo and Lascano’s ‘Still’ at Galerie Roberto

Galerie Roberto sends out a quiet invitation into the private worlds of two of the country’s impressive minimalists, Allain Hablo and Rico Lascano, in a show titled “Still.” Both artists work with pared-down imagery and restrained emotion in a purposive renunciation of the many excesses associated with the once predominant style of abstract expressionism. In their hands, minimalism has emerged with its own expressive lyrical beauty, Oriental in soul and contemplative spirit. With determined simplicity and understatement, Hablo’s visions of stillness are experienced through the sensitive animation of a heavily distressed surface, while Lascano’s evocations of an infinite universe and celestial spaces are distilled from fluid passages of ethereal and fugitive forms.

“Still” runs until Oct. 4. Galerie Roberto is at Unit 4, Molito Lifestyle Extension Extension Building, Madrigal Avenue corner Commerce Avenue, Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa, 1770, Metro Manila; tel. 0288513065.