The Jungle and the Rain

Gray is the color of lingering malaise, of semidarkness and the approaching storm. It is the soul-deadened hue of concrete, the monochrome of drudgery. In The Jungle & the Rain, Renato Barja Jr. uses the overcast sky as his palette as he paints and sculpts the misery of the urban everyman. And yet, cutting through the cloud bank are flourishes of color—oranges, reds, and aquamarines—that illuminate his art like brief flashes of lightning.

Barja’s characters are real. He collects faces while he sits in cabs and buses, and uses the cityscape that rushes past moving windows as his storyboard. While walking through the streets and alleyways leading to his studio, he senses the quiet desperation of the people around him and captures the stale scent of their dead-end lives in his work.

Exposing the underbelly of society has always been Barja’s concern. He possesses a thematic kinship to Edward Hopper, who said that he painted “the loneliness of a large city.” Where Hopper’s muses were sad cigarette-smoking clowns and apathetic diners, Barja empathizes with “discarded individuals.” This exhibition is his continuing ode to rugby boys and town crazies, to butchers and cuckolds, to the mass of humanity struggling to cope with its insignificance.

MANO MANO:

THE HERMIT AND THE JUGGLER

The show of hands is called for here: hands as exponents of mind and labor, hands as exponents of vista and scrutiny.  Mike Adrao and Iggy Rodriguez are reunited in this exhibit by a shared passion for drawing and its demands on technique and material.  Yet this is less about the spectacle of double-billed dexterity, even if assuredly, both artists have the acumen to exhibit this.  Rather, Mano Mano, is an arena of pointed readings, of reality conveyed by two perspectives of critique-- where one turns inward to escape chaos and ventures to look out; while the other can be said to be immersed in the same chaos and decides to close in on its interiority.  And both are political stances indicative of the artist’s recourse to utilize and make sense of discord.

There is a strong catechistical influence to these works, veering to a subjectivity that proffers the material figure as representation of inner or spiritual states.  Realism is ascribed by approaching the figurative within the device of the tableau, such that even with distortion and cropping, the image is consciously framed or staged within the coordinates of the iconographic narrative.   The sacred is device appropriated to the idea of transfiguration as consequence: the body is modified and distorted, identities are taken over, and nature is in a state of decline and decay.

Two archetypes may be recalled to aid these existential readings.  In the major arcane of the Tarot, the first card is the Juggler, sometimes referred to as the magician.  The Juggler is equipped; his table is laid with the objects of his fancy.  His hands hold the tools for both earthly and heavenly enrichment.  Yet this is the card that suggests humanity’s existence as actors mindlessly plodding on in situations, where carnal delights are distractions from achieving a higher consciousness.  Rodriguez approaches his critique of conspicuous oppression as a circus of absurdities, laying out the victims’ happy complicity with their exploitation.  The play of power is most obvious in Coming of Age and Delusions of Grandeur, where the rulers who hold the reins on their playthings have no awareness of their own perpetual ruin.

The other card is the Hermit, the figure that states existence as a quest in eternal solitude.  The Hermit holds both the lamp of enlightenment and the staff of stability.  He is certain about his inner path, only that his progress is hindered because he is stuck to the past.  Adrao is just as sure of his inward solitary gaze, as he revisits classical and Renaissance figuration and proceeds to reveal the organic and mechanical transmutations within.  His Mekanismo and the smaller DeMekaniko series are intrinsic steps to a process of ‘decomposition,’ where inner lives are bogged down by material concerns, suggesting an existence ruled by maggots and the slither of cold-blooded creatures.  These are passive lives lived to clocks with rusty cogs and wheels ticking in reverse.

Hence, the match acted out in Mano Mano addresses and pits the adversaries within, alternately revealed by sleight of hand and careful probing.   However, this is just another session, another set of readings. Cards do not carve destinies. For that we look to hands propelled by the conscious will to vanquish the death of the spirit.

-Karen Ocampo Flores

If You Fall, You Fall Alone

Allan Balisi paints sadness — not histrionic fits that demand an audience but intimate moments of anguish that occur when no one is looking. His melancholy is the kind that descends on you during the witching hours, when no one else is awake and the world is awash in black and gray. Without revealing many details, he creates poignant stories that slowly drown you in desolation.
In If You Fall, You Fall Alone, he presents five major monochromatic canvases with subtle hints of blue, green, and brown, and a series of smaller works colored in the same muted palette. His paintings, clean and uncluttered, do not confuse the eye with superfluous embellishments.
There is no narrative arc. Each piece is a plot unto itself, open to solitary introspection aided only by cryptic titles. The show coheres because of the emotional resonance of each work. They all feel the same and the nostalgic effects of Balisi’s paintings linger like the smell of rain on a gray day.
If You Fall, You Fall Alone  will open on Friday 6pm October 15, 2010 at blanc compound Shaw.
For more information please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call/sms +63920-9276436.

The exhibition will run until November 5, 2010.

"Penumbra Anino Shadowplay Collective"

A company like ANINO, constantly dealing and coping with such stark contrasts as light and shadow or dark, traditional and innovation, fortune and misfortune, success and failure is expected by many to be more committed in its politics and it’s art. And many end up frustrated with it. Arms akimbo, they demand, “What is ANINO about anyway?” With this art collective’s now classic answer of “nothing, anything and everything”, they end up either loving or hating the collective and its work.

Perhaps, for ANINO, the problem lies in that its chosen art form drives it towards the world of dreams and yet the harsh realities of its milinieu claims its attention. And, rather than taking one and forsaking the other, the collective attempts to marry the two. If hindered, it opts for the middle ground – the grey area.

What interests the collective the most are the grey areas of life- questions begging for answers, concepts waiting for definition. Philippine shadow play, because it is non-traditional to the country and little known as yet, is one big grey area. To develop it, the group takes its cue from Philippines culture itself. That is to say ANINO went for hybridity, invention, resourcefulness and an organic process.

Organic in the sense that plans, concepts, designs, even techniques are adjusted or abandoned as necessary according to the rhythm and realities faced, all the while bearing out beauty by marrying the two opposite yet complimentary concepts of freedom (to play and experiment) and disciplin

March Connections

Melvin Culaba in Connections

Melvin Culaba’s collection of recent works entitled “Connections” tackles on how each and every detail of a painting or of life in general would fall into place to assemble into one important event in a person’s life. According to Culaba, “Lahat ng bagay ay nagtatagpi-tagpi para mailagay tayo sa dito at ngayon. Lahat ng elemento na nangyayari sa kanya-kanyang  buhay at lahat ng elemento sa isang  piyesang biswal ay nangyayari at naroroon dahil sa dahilan na hindi pa natin alam, ngunit parating may dahilan”
And true to his patriotic form, Culaba would like to shake his viewers into realizing the obvious, that each of us would need to our part for the growth of the country. Every individual counts, every action leads to another.
“Connections” opens on Friday March 13, 2009 6PM at the blanc compound.  The blanc compound is located at 359 Shaw Blvd. Mandaluyong city. For more information please visit www.blanc.ph or www.blancartspace.multiply.com email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it call/sms 752-0032/0920-9276436. The show will end on April 3, 2009.

"TutoKKK:  Krisis, Kalunasan... Anong K Mo?"

TutoK is about visual artists collaborating for advocacy.  In celebration of its third year this 2008, it is holding its annual exhibit at Blanc's spaces in Mandaluyong and Makati with almost 200 artists contributing new works on the theme of crisis: probing into its metaphors and transmutations as it collectively forms an active stance beyond resistance.
Primarily conceived as a recount of a crisis-laden period, "TutoKKK" is also an invitation towards a more in-depth scrutiny of pressing issues.  Crisis marks a point of instability in the same way that it highlights a turning point: we are in a crucial moment where decisions will and have to be made.

Paintings, sculptures, installations and residual performance comprise the initial salvo to be held at the Blanc Compound in Mandaluyong from November 25 to December 10.   A flow of wall-bound works in uniform format will dominate the space, interspersed with sculptures and assemblages of objects that overall, will interact with the action and residue of live art performances.   The high point will be an Artists' Reception on Sunday, November 30 with performances and other events starting at 4:00pm.  The party will go on till evening with music provided by various bands.

Coming next is an installation of works on paper by the same artists at Blanc Art Space Makati from December 6 to 31.  Using various media, but also following a uniform format, these vignettes on crises will also be the basis of an installation/performance that will echo the outcry and ephemera of paper.  The exhibit will open on Saturday, December 6 with performance starting at 7:00pm.
"TutoKKK" is presented in partnership with Blanc, and is jointly curated by Noel Soler Cuizon, Buen Calubayan, Jef Carnay, Mark Salvatus and Wesley Valenzuela.   TutoK is grateful to PAG-IBiG, Utterly Art, and Mr. Julius Babao for their support.

Everything Towards the End 

"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed"

-Mahatma Gandhi

We have always dreamed of the skies, and never, amidst all odds, be it human or divine, shall it stop us from the inexorable desire of conquering it. From the creation of Babel 's colossus of bricks and asphalt, to the first ascent of Icarus to the clouds, and even to the construction of metal plated ships to soar the divinity that lies beyond the endless void of space, humans have not changed. The sky is actually an earthly symbolism of God, and it is God's enigma that man wants to grasp and comprehend. It is only but a thin line that separates Lucifer the light bringer and God's children, for both have been poisoned by the venom of greed. One desired to be God, and the other craved to know what God knew. And it is in this circular philosophy of insatiability that Andres Barrioquinto was inspired to generate a one man show entitled: "Everything towards the end".

Focusing on a somewhat nihilistic concept of inevitable human destruction, Barrioquinto believes that the end is completely inescapable and everything existent is unknowingly marching towards their final moment of devastation. Whether they like it or not, no matter how much they try to improve their lives towards perfection and beauty, despite all the material things purchased to deceive themselves in a state of delusory bliss, everything else will wither into the orifice of nothingness, taking everything that they once owned into death and silent fading. It is within this reason that Barrioquinto rendered his paintings with simulated geometric patterns and realistic imagery depicted in a solid, cubist manner. Geometry is all about perfection, and basically, technology is our desperate bridge towards it. While on the other hand, the representation of his figures in an almost human manner is a way of redefining humanity through its flaws and imperfections. Therefore, the entirety of his works speaks for the marriage of humanity and artificial perfection. What results in is a bridge that stands to unite him to the outside world again. Technology, that is. And that link shall be his sole passage to the Tower of Babel 's second birth. However, this time, man is not aiming for the skies. He is aspiring for what's beyond it. But as the artist strongly believes, all this vain effort shall only be consumed by death in the end. Everything will fall, just as broken stones of Babel had fallen into wreckage. Everything will fall, like the shattered pieces of blue toned triangles regurgitating from and going into the open screaming mouths of his images. Everything will fall, even the intensity of colors into the dead tone of blue. Everything will fall, and everyone will.

As they say in Tibetan philosophy, Sylvia Plath sense of the word, we are all dying.

"Yes, we are all dying, but there is something beyond mortal death." Barrioquinto says. By this he means that something else exists behind the absolute closures of nihility. Something that is way beyond the compact reaches of human comprehension. After all, everything falls into the boundless circle of death and rebirth. So, in this death, we are only returning to our place of birth...the sole haven for God's eternal reward. Paradise, that is. And through good deeds and actions shall we reap this lost patch of land again. After all, the end has always justified the means, so if we have lived a life of good between existence and void, then another life of good shall be rewarded beyond it.
Everything Towards the End  opens on Wednesday, October 8, 2008 6PM at the blanc compound 359 Shaw Blvd, Mandaluyong City. For More information please call/sms 752-0032/0920-9276436, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.blanc.ph.

LIKE

In her upcoming solo exhibition entitled LIKE, Pamela Yan Santos explores personal history as known and remembered through various indices such as photographs, written and scribbled language and other signifiers that many of us consider as mundane. 

Working in mixed media and in layers, she uses the processes of serigraphy, painting and collage as components to a kind of visual syntax intended to essay personal episodes and remembrances of emotional significance.   The approaches through which she interrelates the various processes make the works resonate as wish, as a point of comparison, as a mnemonic or as a conjunction, which are among the permutations of the word LIKE. 

From a personal perspective, the works bridge the artist's past and present by transforming events through time into a synchronous testament, expressing how agreeably or uncannily the two echo and mirror each other. 

Pam Yan -Santos graduated with a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts Major in Painting from the University of the Philippines.  A prize winner in the print category of the 1993 AAP Annual Art Competition, she has joined significant number of group exhibitions both here and abroad, the latest of which is ArtBeijing in China.  

LIKE is Pam's 5th solo exhibition and will be curated by Leo Abaya. LIKE opens on Monday, November 3, 2008 6PM at the blanc compound 359 Shaw Blvd, Mandaluyong City. For More information please call/sms 752-0032/0920-9276436, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit www.blanc.ph.

Death Scream

Death Scream is a collaborative exhibit of large scale drawings, paintings and sculpture by Mariano Ching and Louie Cordero. Theirs is a world of mutilation and candy cane destruction. Images of gore and violence, cannibals, guns, monsters and other creatures of a post apocalyptic world are depicted with a strangely appealing pop surreal sensibility, reminiscent of viewing late afternoon cartoon shows of a bygone era.

Six of the large scale drawings, combine Louie Cordero's obsessive horror vacui rendering and aggressive coloring and Mariano Ching's spare use of space and finely detailed drawings to produce an eclectic yet cohesive and dynamic pairing of styles.

Death Scream may sound like a bizarre heavy metal shriek at the world with its depiction of a world gone mad. Much as the works are strange and baffling, or even dreadful and gory, in the end, it's about two guys having fun with drawing and painting. Quoting Black from the Pixies, "There is no point… the point is to experience it, to enjoy it, to be entertained by it." 
Death Scream will open on Friday, August 15 at 6pm at the blanc compound. The compound is located at 359 Shaw Boulevard Mandaluyong City. Please call/sms 752-0032/0920-9276436, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit the website at www.blanc.ph for more information.