❀ vina@bmtv ❀

❀ JANUARY-MARCH 2012 ❀

U.P. VARGAS MUSEUM: ALICE & LUCINDA – 29 March 2012, 4PM

Planting Rice proudly presents

A&L: The Parallel (Lives) Museum

Opening Reception: 4pm, Thursday, 29 March 2012

Planting Rice and Finale Art File are proud to present A&L: The Parallel (Lives) Museum featuring Alice & Lucinda at the 3rd Floor South Wing Gallery of the Jorge Vargas Museum in the University of the Philippines. The exhibition will open at 4pm on Thursday, 29 March 2012 and will run until 2 May 2012.

Not so long ago, Alice and Lucinda became conspirators in alternative self-representations via D-I-Y operations whose works take place in the social realm of urban Manila and the lo-fi art community. The spaces they occupied became breeding grounds for artists to experiment and develop work influenced by pop, humor or kitsch.

Peering into the archives and ethnography of the mysterious identity of Alice and Lucinda, A&L: The Parallel (Lives) Museum maps out the traces of their collaboration through artifacts such as salvaged articles, domestic objects, specialized publications (zines), archived text messages, journal entries, 35mm photo slides, annotated conversations, and a scrapbook of parallel identities.

The idea of fact or fiction is put into question, by creating a model for exhibition-making wherein a method in constructing our gaze is questioned. This exhibition presents the tension between the public and the private, between the collective and the individual and between academic languages and new vernaculars in both official spaces and those created by dissident artists. Alice and Lucinda has created a demonstration of our understanding of exhibition-making in relationship to the public sphere in which it is possible to intervene – inside the museum they have created (within a Museum).

How does the exhibition mediate between the spectator and the work? A&L: The Parallel (Lives) Museum explores the function of clippings and compiled objects to a viewer– and how the curious case of public intimacy warrants a unified case of public meaning.

 

ON A&L: The Parallel (Lives) Museum

DATES : 29 March 2012 – 2 May 2012

OPENING RECEPTION : 4.00pm to 6.00pm, Tuesday, 29 March 2012

ARTIST : Alice and Lucinda

VENUE : Jorge B. Vargas Museum
Roxas Avenue, University of the Philippines-Diliman
Quezon City

EXHIBITION COMPONENTS : Objects, photographs, related archives

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

About Yasmin Sision
B. 1972, lives and works in Cavite
Yasmin Sison holds a degree in Humanities as well as a degree in Fine Art from the University of the Philippines. One of the founding members of Surrounded by Water Collective, she has been exhibiting in Manila since the mid-90′s and her works have travelled to a number of exhibitions in the Southeast Asian region and Europe. Sison received the 13 Artists Award in 2006 and was shortlisted in the Ateneo Art Awards in 2007.

About Lena Cobangbang
B. 1976, lives and works in Manila
Cobangbang graduated from the University of the Philippines with a degree in Fine Arts. She has had solo exhibitions in Finale Art File, “Overland” (2008), “Crater Valley Platea” (2009) and “The Care for Dead Horses” (2010) as well as mo_space, “Velvet Landing (2010). Her works have been featured in group shows in Europe, the United States and Southeast Asia. In 2006, she received the CCP Thirteen Artists Awards and she represented the Philippines in the 2008 Singapore Biennale

GALLERY HOURS AND DETAILS

JORGE B. VARGAS MUSEUM
TUES – SAT, 9.00AM – 5.00PM
Roxas Avenue, University of the Philippines-Diliman, Quezon City
Ph# +632 928-19-27, +63 981-85-00 loc. 4024, http://vargasmuseum.upd.edu.ph
FEE : Php 30.00

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❀ JANUARY-MARCH 2010 ❀

UTTERLY ART: Andres BARRIOQUINTO – 2 March 2010, 7PM

In his most recent collection of eerie, patterned portraitures, Andres Barrioquinto suggests the alternate possibilities of things, and the brittle, fragile fulcrum that lies between the extreme polarities of good and evil. His paintings reflect the presence of tendencies, as a clean, white canvas has a natural inclination to turn black with just a few unconscious strokes of an artist’s restless brush. According to the artist, these self-contained imageries depict “dark” people living in a blissful, colorful world, a surreal paradise of falling flower petals and drifting kaleidoscopic butterflies. More like early repentant sinners who try (desperately) to live against the temptations of both flesh and soul. Barrioquinto explains that the figures were intentionally depicted in a crestfallen, monochromatic state, to emphasize the emptiness of the soul, or perhaps their utterly hopeless longing to have one. Around these characters is an explosion of decorative fragments, forcing in a cacophony of screaming colors. Flowers, birds, black trees with golden leaves, cats, butterflies — everything cries in a visual noise of three-dimensional sensory overload, which is impressively contained inside the four, flat closures of the artist’s square canvases. Each painting is coupled with a poem written by Andres’ good friend Dave Lock, who has been doing essays for his recent one-man shows. The words are portraits frozen in a narrative state, hiding in each a story of their own. “It’s the innate order of things. If you’re good, then your tendency is to turn bad, and vice versa.” Barrioquinto says, referring to the simple, yet complex reality of things. Iconographies and subtle representations of evil lie afloat inside his present batch of paintings. Skull-mark repetitions, dead trees, black sheep, and even oversized sumos are found drifting along with his portraitures. These representational designs may refer to a summary of the seven deadly sins or more simply, the things that wickedly turn tendencies into stark realities. “What happens when you mix all the colors in the background?” Barrioquinto asks, as we end the interview.

I thought for a while, and I realized, “Black”.

About the artist:
Andres Barrioquinto (b. 1975, Philippines) graduated in Fine Arts (Painting) from the University of Santo Tomas in 2000. A prestigious recipient of the Thirteen Artists Award (2003) bestowed by the Cultural Centre of the Philippines, Black Tendencies is his 18th solo exhibition and 5th in Singapore. His works reside in the collections of several noted collectors and the Singapore Art Museum. This exhibition introduces a new, deeply layered and patterned style into his genre.

_{Utterly Art Exhibition Space
(diagonally opposite the Sri Mariamman Temple, Pagoda St Exit)
229A South Bridge Road (2nd Level) Singapore 058778
Call Keng Hock for appointments Tel: 6226 2605 or 94872006
E-mail: utterlyart@pacific.net.sg
Mon-Sat 12 noon – 8 pm Sun 12 noon – 5.30 pm
The exhibition runs to SUNDAY 14th Mar 2010.}

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DAHLIA GALLERY: Daniel “Timbul” Cahya KRISNA and Francisco PANCA – 10 March 2010

Through a series of contemporary woodcuts and unique prints, talented Indonesian printmakers Daniel “Timbul” Cahya Krisna and Francisco Panca present the art of printmaking as process. Executed manually in carved wood, the carved images are transferred to canvases, which are then painted over, resulting in unique pieces. Inspired by the wealth of Indonesian art, which has strong roots in craft, both artists dedicate their skills to perfecting the art of woodcut prints. Yet influenced by the times in which they live, Daniel and Francisco combine traditional and modern printmaking techniques with contemporary social issues. In Long Ago and Far Away, the artists incorporate fairy tale and dark comic characters in their works. These elements touch on modern problems relating to racism, poverty, superficial existence and society’s outcasts who fear to climb out of their comfort zones. Together, Daniel’s and Francisco’s works highlight the uncomfortably comfortable state experienced by urban dwellers.

About the artists
Since joining the ISI Yogyakarta’s graphic and printmaking department in 2002, Daniel “Timbul” Cahya Krisna and Francisco have actively participated in numerous contemporary print and drawing exhibitions, both in Indonesia and abroad. Members of the Pisang Seger Printmaking Society, the duo’s works were shown in Jogja Biennale X, Cemeti Art Foundation, Indonesian National Gallery, Museum Bank Indonesia and Kobe University among others. Currently, Daniel is beginning to create 3-D objects. Having won awards in national drawing competitions, Francisco’s illustrations have been published in several children’s books.

_{DAHLIA GALLERY
(above Bee Cheng Hiang on Pagoda St, just outside Chinatown NE Line MRT Station Exit A)
69A Pagoda Street (2nd Level) Singapore 059228
Tel: 6222 7809 Email: debbie@dahliagallerysg.com
Tue-Sat 12noon – 7pm Sun 12noon – 5pm Mon by appointment}

_{Additional sales enquiries may be made through UTTERLY ART
Tel: 6226 2605 HP: 9487 2006 (Keng Hock)
Email: utterlyart@pacific.net.sg
The exhibition runs to SUNDAY 21st Mar 2010 .}

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❀  JANUARY-MARCH 2009 ❀

BLANC MAKATI: Renato BARJA – 2 March 2009

“In this show entitled The Streets are Saying Something, I concentrated on quiet images and sceneries with unspoken elusive meanings. I focused on situations within the complexity of a chaotic and unstable society.

I also focused on my own experiences and observations that can become my social commentary about people’s way of living, whether mentally or physically. These are everyday lives, past and present.

The aim is to lead the audience towards the realization of our social system and surroundings. This is a language that is readable to my viewers, hear my thoughts and my interpretations.”

_{The Streets are Saying Something will open on Monday, 6PM, March 2, 2009 at blanc makati. blanc is located at Crown Tower 107 H.V. dela Costa St. Salcedo Village, Makati City. For more information please call or sms 752-0032/0920-9276436 , email info@blanc.ph or visit www.blanc.ph www.blancartspace.multiply.com}

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20SQUARE Gallery: Conrado VELASCO – 28 February 2009

_{Conrado Velasco
Metallurgy of Desire
20SQUARE
February 10-28
Closing reception on 28 Feb, Sat, 5pm}

Conrado Velasco will have an exhibition at 20Square Gallery from February 10 to 28, 2009. The show, Metallurgy of Desire, will be composed of altered pages from fashion magazines. A former art director/photographer at GAP and Banana Republic, Velasco knows this world well.

An artist talk is scheduled to coincide with the show’s closing reception on February 28, at 5pm. The talk will touch on a myriad of topics that form Velasco’s current interests and influences. Following the artist talk, a new set of visual electronic compositions called Synthetic Haikus will be projected in the gallery.

Conrado Velasco’s work inhabits the spaces where art, design, commerce and technology intersect. His career runs the whole range of disciplines – graphic design, photography, sculpture, industrial design, visual merchandising, illustration, motion graphics and electronic arts. For him the future of art lies in the volatile mix of technology and ideas. Conrado Velasco was born in Manila and is a graduate of the University of the Philippines. He has been an awardee of the Silverlens Foundation Photography Acquisition Grant for two years in a row. He presently divides his time between Ireland and the Philippines.

Metallurgy of Desire will run from February 10 to 28, 2009 at 20Square. Conrado Velasco will have an artist talk on Feb. 28, 5pm, followed by the show’s closing reception. Accompanying the show is Bukod Tanging Pag-ibig / A Don Fernando Register by Jose Tence Ruiz at the SLab Main Gallery and The Passing of Light II: Book of Illumination by Emmanuel Santos at Silverlens Gallery.

Visit 20Square at 2/F YMC Bldg.II, 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City. Gallery hours are from 10am – 7pm Monday to Friday, and 1 – 6pm on Saturday. For more information, call 8160044 / 09052650873, email manage@silverlensphoto.com or visit slab.silverlensphoto.com.

_{Images:
Conrado Velasco
Metallurgy of Desire 13 (left) and 6 (right), 2008}

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Osage Kwun Tong | Osage Shanghai: SOME ROOMS – 27 February 2009

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Artinformal: Renato ONG – 26 February 2009

In his recent body of works entitled “Portraits” opening on February 26th at Art Informal, sculptor and mixed media artist Renato Ong offers a compilation of portraits of urban sensibilities. Intended as a parody of virtues and vices, the narrative is integrated in the play of elements evoking eastern Christian icons wherein the sacred merges with the mundane. Virtues co-exist with vices, a yin and yang, with no clear-cut delineation between good and evil. In the same vein, institutionalized concepts are fused with the fold indigenous.

Surface encrustation typical of ‘Illuminations’, is recreated using fiberglass along with commonplace materials such as nuts and bolts, cables and metal castings.

In direct contrast with a simultaneous exhibition featured at Avellana Gallery entitled “Basilica” wherein relatively plain anthropomorphic posts are assembled to evoke a serene and meditative space, “Portraits” deal with folk urban realities. Heavily textured, fragmented, and vibrant!

Incorporating a lusty mix of traditional and fold indigenous imagery, Renato Ong creates tension both complex and contradictory, stretching the boundaries of conventional art.

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Utterly Art Exhbition Space: Fernando ESCORA – 26 February 2009

Imagine you are still a child, living a life without worry. You are free to explore and discover things without considering bigger responsibilities. Spending the day without serious routine and enjoying it to the fullest. All these things are temporary.

When responsibilities arise, we realize that we are grown up. Slowly we see our world composed of many facets to every movement. Our eyes open to the reality of life… that life is not easy, unlike when we were a child.

Unexpected complications arise, responsibility becomes apparent. We start to be conscious of being alive. Living, and finally involving ourselves in society. We see things around us, sometimes criticize, react and make a decision.

And sometimes we look for a temporary escape.

_{Fernando Escora obtained his Bachelor in Fine Arts degree with a Major in Painting at the University of the Philippines, Diliman in 1999. He has been a fulltime artist for fifteen years, and has taught, illustrated books and magazines, and participated in numerous exhibitions and auctions in Southeast Asia. Temporary Escape will be his fifteenth solo exhibition and third with Utterly Art.}

_{TEMPORARY ESCAPE}

_{THURSDAY 26th FEB 2009 7 pm
Utterly Art Exhibition Space
(diagonally opposite the Sri Mariamman Temple, Pagoda St Exit)
229A South Bridge Road (2nd Level) Singapore 058778
Tel: 6226 2605 E-mail: utterlyart@pacific.net.sg
Mon-Sat 12 noon – 8 pm Sun 12 noon – 5.30 pm
The exhibition runs to SUNDAY 8th MAR 2009.}

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Osage Singapore: Nipan ORANNIWESNA – 20 February 2009

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Harbour City Gallery: Sara TIN – 19 February 2009

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Silverlens Lab: Jose TENCE RUIZ – 18 February 2009

_{Jose Tence Ruiz
Bukod Tanging Pag-Ibig: A Don Fernando Register
February 18 – March 21
Opening reception on February 18, Wednesday, 6pm}

SLab (Silverlens Lab) is proud to announce the opening of Bukod Tanging Pag-Ibig: A Don Fernando Register by Jose Tence “Bogie” Ruiz on February 18, Wednesday at 6pm. A contemporary response to National Artist Fernando Amorsolo, the show is comprised of Ruiz’s paintings and sculpture. Ruiz studied painting in the 1970′s when the Amorsolo method was a template both learned yet resisted, as Ruiz struggled to carve his own idiom in the decades of nascent postmodernism. Ruiz elaborates, “We hold to differing contexts, and my homage/deconstructions of the Master will bear this out. As with the solitary joy of painting. Amorsolo could not have been better named. In poetic Filipino, his name might be recast as ‘Bukod-Tanging Pag-Ibig,’ descriptive of the irreplaceable satisfaction that painting, and now the multi-media facture of visuals, allows its devotees.“

For over 30 years, Jose Tence Ruiz has been involved in multi-media visual activities such as set design, publication design, book illustration, media presentations, teaching, editorial illustration, painting, art for advocacy, sculpture, installation and performance art. He is an ARAW ng Maynila Awardee for New Media (2003), and one of the few Five Time AAP Award Winners (1979–2005). He currently works as a multi- media artist and an independent writer/consultant/curator for such institutions as the Cultural Center of the Philippines, The National Commission for Culture and the Arts, The Pasig City Arts Museum, Neo-Angono Artists Collective and The Ateneo Art Gallery.

Bukod Tanging Pag-ibig: A Don Fernando Register by Jose Tence Ruiz runs from February 18-March 21, 2009 at SLab (Silverlens Lab). There will be two Saturday talks by Ruiz, both from 3-5pm. The talk on March 7 will be “Krokis na Tumatalab (The Efficascent Sketch),” and on March 21 “Mga Talinhagang Misteryoso’t Mababangis (Mysterious and Brutish Tropes). Bukod Tanging Pag-ibig will be shown along with The Passing of Light 2: Book of Illumination by Emmanuel Santos at Silverlens Gallery and Metallurgy of Desire by Conrado Velasco at 20Square.

Visit SLab at 2/F YMC Bldg. II, 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City. For more information, call 8160044/ 09052650873, email manage@silverlensphoto.com or visit slab.silverlensphoto.com.

_{Image:
Jose Tence Ruiz
Mga Dalagang Bukid, 2009}

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Osage Soho: Liu LIYUN | Miao XIAOCHUN – 12 February 2009

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Artinformal: Noell EL FAROL | Mervy PUEBLO – 5 February 2009

Arteries and Excavation
opens on Thursday, February 5 at 6PM, 277 Connecticut St., Greenhills East, Mandaluyong City, Philippines

Artinformal presents ARTERIES AND EXCAVATION: a 2-man exhibition by Noell EL Farol and Mervy Pueblo opening on February 5 at 6pm.

EL Farol exhibits his new cast glass and constructed steel “assemblies” as concurrences of Archaeology and Sculpture. His “Excavation” pieces reconstruct the recovery of diagnostic artefacts as metaphor of Archaeology.

Mervy Pueblo explores the potentials of natural and modified stone in her search for universality and purity in the sculptural form.

Pueblo and El Farol represented the Philippines in the International Sculpture Symposium held in Russia last October 2008. Artinformal is at 277 Connecticut St. Greenhills East, Mandaluyong. Gallery Hours are from 10am to 8pm, Mondays to Saturdays.

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Valentine Willie Fine Art: Gina OSTERLOH | Wawi NAVAROZZA – 4 February 2009

_{CUT09: FIGURE (New Photography from Southeast Asia)
February 4-21, 2009
Opening reception on Wednesday, 4 February, 8pm
Valentine Willie Fine Art
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
refreshments will be served
RSVP Erna, +603 2284 2348 | erna@vwfa.net}

Silverlens artists Gina Osterloh and Wawi Navarroza will be participating in CUT09: FIGURE (New Photography from Southeast Asia). The show will open on February 4, Wednesday at Valentine Willie Fine Art in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Other participating artists include Agan Harahap, Davy Inggar, Genevieve Chua, K.Azril Ismail, Maitree Siriboon, Manit Sriwanichpoom, Melati Suryodarmo, MM Yu, Ohm Phanphiroj, Timur Angin and Yee I-lann. The show runs until February 21. Works can be viewed online at www.vwfa.net/CUT09.

Valentine Willie Fine Art
1st Floor, 17 Jalan Telawi 3
Bangsar Baru
59100 Kuala Lumpur
www.vwfa.net
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri, 12 – 8pm. Sat, 12-6pm
Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays

_{Image:
Gina Osterloh
Blind Rash, 2008}

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BLANC ART SPACE: Jigger CRUZ – 2 February 2009

Stimulated by the idea of repetitive motions, of the rollicking movement of back and forth and back and forth, Swing, Jigger Cruz’s first solo exhibition, revolves around geometric translations of rhythmic swaying gestures. The works, a scuffle of textures and forms that situate well within similar past works of Cruz, are born from his exercises of the composition of cyclical gesticulations.

Cruz paints an assemblage of recognizable objects and obscure shapes which interlace, envelope and unfurl within one another. Simultaneously tempered and fueled by scientific-based inspired titles, elements such as satellite disks, bicycle wheels, coiling striped horns and sprays of particles are within these shuffling vortexes of the nonsensical. The focus, aided by a fairly subdued palette, turns to configuration which leads the lingering visual experience into its stormy yet measured rocking. Yet like the childhood playground favorite the exhibition name alludes to, the paintings are fittingly done in a sport and spirit of frolic by which viewers’ roving eyes can take in coy pleasure.

- Clarissa Chikiamco

Swing will open on Monday, 6PM, February 2, 2009 at blanc makati. blanc is located at Crown Tower 107 H.V. dela Costa St. Salcedo Village, Makati City. For more information please call or sms 752-0032/0920-9276436 , email info@blanc.ph or visit www.blanc.ph and www.blancartspace.multiply.com

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OSAGE Gallery: Yason BANAL – 31 January 2009

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UTTERLY ART: Jim ORENZIO | Joven MANSIT – 29 January 2009

JIM ORENCIO . JOVEN MANSIT
CONFLUENCE

opening:
THURSDAY 29th JAN 2009 7 pm
Utterly Art Exhibition Space (diagonally opposite the Sri Mariamman Temple, Pagoda St Exit)
229A South Bridge Road (2nd Level) Singapore 058778
Tel: 6226 2605 E-mail: utterlyart@pacific.net.sg
Mon-Sat 12 noon – 8 pm Sun 12 noon – 5.30 pm
We are closed 25-27 JAN for Chinese New Year. The exhibition runs to SUNDAY 8th FEB 2009 .

The enduring capacity of art to bridge nations surfaces anew with the exhibition CONFLUENCE. Past meets present in artistic concrescence as Filipino artists Jim Orencio and Joven Mansit use figurative paintings to depict the cultural concourse of Singapore and the Philippines, inspired by venerable chronicles of the nations’ histories.

Referencing notable Singaporean historical figures and using Filipino aesthetics to render his subjects afresh, Jim Orencio creates his layered collages much like the process of nation building that transformed Singapore from a small fishing village into one of the most diverse and successful city states of the world. The artist’s dynamic brushstrokes echo the vitality of a bygone era whose legacy remains tangible to this day. Citing ethnically divergent individuals fundamental to the development of the Lion City with his palette of sepia hues and warm earth tones, Orencio pays homage to the pioneering efforts of those who envisioned Singapore to be the model metropolis that it is today.

Joven Mansit re-presents the images found in old colonial-era photo portraits of elite Filipinos taken inside the elaborate settings of photo studios, altering their compositions by adding, appropriating and substituting the images with others. These are not simply images of nostalgia and romanticized depictions of bygone days but documents reflecting the power relations of the colonial past. Joven’s Wind Vane series about the Galleon Trade depicts sails on the heads of the indios (natives), as if anticipating the western winds to move them. The Galleon Trade has been a symbol of affluence and abundance as it became the medium for rich economic and cultural exchange, but this series depicts it as probably the most oppressive phase of the colonial domination of the Philippines.

About the artists:
A senior member of the important Salingpusa art group, Jim Orencio graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in Diliman with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1990. He was a Finalist in the Metrobank Foundation National Painting Competition in 1990 and 1993, and in the AAP-ECCA Semi-Annual Abstract Competition in 2006. In 2006, he was named Most Outstanding Visual Artist of Aklan, Philippines. Having exhibited in France and Papua New Guinea, as well as on innumerable occasions in the Philippines, Jim has already completed 13 solo exhibitions in his career.

Joven Mansit finished his Certificate of Fine Arts (major in Painting) at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in Diliman, Quezon City in 2004. Mansit has been a consistent finalist in annual national art competitions. He was recognized as a 3rd placer and finalist in the oil and acrylic category of the 37th and 35th Shell National Student Art Competitions respectively. He has also been a finalist in the 17th and 18th PLDT-DPC National Painting Competitions. He recently held his first solo exhibition, Camera Obscura, in the Philippines last year.

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STATE-OF-THE-ARTS Gallery: Margit DENZ – 21 January 2009

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20SQUARE Gallery: Gus ALBOR – 20 January 2009

_{Image:
Gus Albor
Doctrine-7, 2008}

Artist Gus Albor exhibits paintings on paper and aluminum, as well as a surprise piece in Found and Lost Objects at SLab’s 20SQUARE gallery from January 20 to February 7, 2009. Albor is a multi-awarded and multi-published artist who has had solo shows in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Hong Kong, New York, India, and Manila.

Gus Albor’s show at 20Square will run January 20 – February 7, 2009. Accompanying the show is Library Bookworks by Renato Orara at the SLab Main Gallery and Family Spaces by Stella Kalaw at Silverlens.

Visit 20Square at 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City. Gallery hours are 10am-7pm Monday to Friday, and 1-6pm Saturday. For more information, call 8160044/09052650873, email manage@silverlensphoto.com or visit slab.silverlensphoto.com.

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Blanc Space Gallery: LAO Lianben – 18 January 2009

_{Catalogue Essay by Cid Reyes
Photography and Design by Gari Buenavista
Design by Katrina Tan}

Noted abstractionist Lao Lianben will present “Substance”, a solo exhibition of recent works, at the blanc compound.

This time the artist raises the level of his paintings’ emotional pitch, intensifying the rendition of his favored themes such as his Buddhist Television series and his abstract portals of light. Now executed in spectacular large scale, the paintings are more heavily encrusted with dense materials which congeal and coagulate into thick massive clumps projecting from the canvas surface into cracked relief.. The process is visibly labor-intensive as the artist pushes the limits of the materials’ expressive potential.

All the works in the show evince a compelling spirituality, an enshrined quality in the art of Lao Lianben. The artist exercises a magisterial hand in the disciplined orchestration of blacks, whites, and greys. As visual analogues for man’s spiritual search, Lao’s paintings draws out the impressive radiance of space and light. The paradox lies in the contrast between the airiness of feeling and the sheer weight and density of his material. In a landmark work titled “Substance”, the artist liberates the spirit from the terrain of accumulated clumps of pigment.

Also impressive are Lao’s variations on the Buddhist Television theme. Comprised of a fine and filigreed network of thinly flowing paint, the image turns into a cascade of wash, fluidly tearing its way down in a swift descent of many-layered streaks. In other works, Lao releases the potential of the schemarized human figure, emerging from an infinitely expansive field. A tableaux of hands, lifted in a gesture of benediction, have a strangely becalming effect.

Substance will open January 18, 2009 3PM at the blanc compound, 359 Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City. For inquires call/sms 752-0032 0920-9276436, email info@blanc.ph or visit www.blanc.ph

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Galerie Menouar: Ken YANG – 17 January 2009

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Silverlens Gallery: Renato ORARA – 8 January 2009

_{Image:
Renato Orara
B 2778 E5M5 1952, 2008}

Beginning 2009, fifteen Philippine libraries will be participating in a permanent public installation of artworks by New York-based artist Renato Orara. The installation, consisting of drawings hidden in library books, will be heralded by Library Bookworks, his one-month solo show at SLab.

For his first gallery exhibition in the Philippines, Orara renders human ears in library books and produces corresponding photographic prints with the books’ call number labels affixed to them. The library books are shelved in libraries, while the photo prints are displayed in the gallery. These prints also serve as maps that disclose the locations of the drawings. To begin the search for the original artworks, one may come to the gallery to view the photo prints, jot down the works’ call numbers, and obtain a list of participating libraries. Thus the gallery becomes a library while the libraries become the galleries.

For over a decade, Renato Orara’s works have garnered international critical acclaim. His works are simple yet extreme. Orara’s ballpoint ink works on paper, meticulously rendered and densely layered, seem to embody a reality that transcends that of the object that serves as his subject. Viewing reproductions of his work is not enough preparation for the astonishing experience of seeing the original work.

His works have been featured in exhibitions in many cities including New York City, Paris, Brussels, Basel, and Miami, and are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Library Bookworks by Renato Orara runs from January 8 to February 14, 2009 at SLab (Silverlens Lab). There will be an opening reception on January 8, Thursday at 6pm. Renato Orara will have a live online artist talk on January 17, Saturday at 12pm. Library Bookworks will be shown along with Family Spaces by Stella Kalaw at Silverlens Gallery. Visit SLab at 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City. For more information, call 8160044/ 09052650873, email manage@silverlensphoto.com or visit www.silverlensphoto.com / http://slab.silverlensphoto.com.

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❀ JANUARY – DECEMBER 2008 ❀

Utterly Art Exhibition Space: WONG Shih Yaw – 8 January 2009

_{WONG SHIH YAW’s THE STAGE
opening THURSDAY 8th JAN 2009 7 pm
Utterly Art Exhibition Space
(diagonally opposite the Sri Mariamman Temple, Pagoda St Exit)
229A South Bridge Road (2nd Level) Singapore 058778
Tel: 6226 2605 E-mail: utterlyart@pacific.net.sg
Mon-Sat 12 noon – 8 pm Sun 12 noon – 5.30 pm
Closed 25-27 JAN for Chinese New Year.
The exhibition runs to SATURDAY 24th JAN 2009}

To Shakespeare, all the world may have been a stage. In his latest solo exhibition, Singaporean artist Wong Shih Yaw extends this concept into the visual realm, using unique and inventive visual metaphors to narrate miniature dramas concerning his Christian faith. In each painting, a central raised platform stages the central diorama, with scenery, objects and people arranged for illustrative and instructional effect. Visual elements weave a story, told like a biblical parable or a fable of Aesop’s with an end moral. But the intention is less didactic than aphoristic, at least as the artist perceives his beliefs. Our lives may be acted out for all to see, but God is the only audience of consequence. Only He can be fully objective of how we have lived; only He can divine truth from dramatic artifice.

About the artist:
Wong Shih Yaw has swung from emotive expressionism from his days in the Artists Village and his first solo exhibition, Worldly People (1996), to the allegorical Christian realism begun in his second solo, Shalom (1999), and continued in the group show, Feed the Birds (2000), and his third solo, In Thee (2004). Life’s Interpretations (2005) was his fourth solo show, documenting a decade of drawings, but also introducing a series of interesting line drawings on canvas, which influenced the illustrative nature of his acrylic paintings in Out of the Grey (2006), his fifth solo show, and the two-man show A Walk to the Light (2007). Shih Yaw continues in the same illustrative vein in The Stage, his sixth solo exhibition, with imagery begun in Out of the Grey. The artist is heavily collected by the Singapore Art Museum and several prominent collectors.

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ArtInformal: Tatong RECHETA-TORRES – 11 December 2008

Known for pushing himself to the extreme, Tatong Recheta Torres mounts yet another crucial achievement with The Most Genuine Regret. Torres’s third solo exhibition – the second within the year, The Most Genuine Regret consists of his penchant for characters in horrific physiological conditions and staged backdrops. Aside from his canvas-stills of random occurrences, he unifies them in a bizarre spatial experience of blob-sculptures suspended in mid-flight. The relationship between the figures that inhabits Tatong’s paintings and the mysterious three-dimensional forms is that of deep seated conflicts of desire and regret, to satiate and to be forever haunted by it.

The Most Genuine Regret opens at 6pm, 11 December 2008, Thursday at Art Informal. Art Informal is located at 227 Connecticut St., Greenhills East, Mandaluyong, Philippines. For inquiries please call 725 8518, sms +63918 899 2698 or email tgfernandez@gmail.com

www.artinformal.com

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Osage Gallery: MIAO Xiaochun – 28 November 2008

This solo exhibition is a development of Miao Xiaochun’s exploration of Chinese aesthetic tradition through artistic and technological innovation in visually and conceptually engaging ways.

The exhibition is centred around the monumental work, Microcosm, Miao’s ten metre wide by three metre tall interpretation of Hieronymus Bosch’s fifteenth century masterpiece, the Garden of Earthly Delights.

The exhibition also includes works in other media, such as line and ink prints, graphite drawings and embroidered silk, the inspiration for which came to Miao during the process of building his computer animated models. These works privilege the line as a formal device. For him, lines depict the contours of an object’s fundamental shape and reveal the beauty of its form. Miao is particularly excited about printing these on Xuan paper, as they simulate the beauty of traditional line and ink drawing, but achieve it with the use of a modern inkjet printer instead of traditional Chinese brush and ink.

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MAATGALLERY: Alain ADDED – 16 October 2008

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Galerie Menouar: Charles GOLDSTEIN – 2 October 2008