“Balesin on My Mind” is a two-man exhibition featuring the works of noted artist Alfredo Liongoren and ace photographer Erik Liongoren. It will open on May 15 and run until June 13 at The Residences Makati Place Showroom, Alphaland Makati.
The exhibit will showcase a recent series of semi-abstract paintings of Alfredo which were done before he set foot on Balesin, yet carry surprising and uncanny impressions he had of the island upon his first visit.
The acrylic on canvas works continue to convey his fascination with rendering texture through flat media and clean crisp lines, with each piece foregrounding what nature tends to bear upon the artificial, literally magnifying his sensitivity towards everyday, seemingly ordinary occurrences.
In Liongoren’s acrylic works, we see droplets that evoke rain on a window pane, the shadow of a palm frond through a curtain, and feathers that fell to the paved ground. Divided into fragments, these can be read sequentially, as shifting sands; thus making this series particularly apt for Balesin Island Club, a place that reminds its guests that life, with all its pains and pleasures, is lived on borrowed time.
Also included in the show are watercolors entitled “Koronang Tinik ng mga Musmos” (The Innocents Crown of Thorns), painted from his 2010–2011 Lenten reflections. These will be shown back to back with Erik Liongoren’s documentation of Balesin in 2005, before and after its revitalization to the paradiso it is set on becoming.
Alfredo Liongoren is a multi-awarded artist who has exhibited extensively locally and abroad, He was the enfant terrible of Philippine art of his time and labeled the Asian to watch in painting by Asia Magazine in 1966. He was formally educated in Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts and at the Byam School of Drawing and Painting in London under a British Council grant.
Firstborn son Erik Liongoren is a seasoned photographer with several books to his name, including Jaime Zobel’s Journeys with Light (2005), Sylvia Amorsolo Lazo’s Maestro Fernando C. Amorsolo: Recollections of the Amorsolo Family (2009), 100 Years of Lipa Archdiocese (2011) and Habitat for Humanity (2012).
The exhibit is a joint presentation of the Alphaland Corporation and the Liongoren Gallery to help raise additonal funds for the continuing rehab efforts of Operation Blessings Philippines in areas ravaged by Super Typhoon “Yolanda.”
Every purchaser of a Liongoren painting on exhibit is entitled to a complimentary trip to the Balesin Island Club.
The Residences Makati Place Showroom is at Alphaland, 7232 Ayala Avenue, ext. and Malugay St., Makati City. Call 9124319, 4393962, 0917-8874319.
