Gajah Gallery

Navigating Truths, Traditions and Taboos: A Group Show of Contemporary Artists in Southeast Asia

23 Mar to 1 Apr 2022

From abstraction, figuration, hyperrealism to contemporary sculpture, six established artists from Indonesia, Singapore and the United States employ various artistic approaches to navigate their ever-shifting interior, societal, or cultural landscapes. Going beyond the limits of traditional representations, they offer rich, deeply nuanced perspectives on diverse contemporary realities in Southeast Asia.

Six artists from Indonesia, Singapore and the United States employ unconventional approaches in various practices and traditions, from abstract expressionism, hyperrealist painting to contemporary sculpture, to intimately navigate their ever-shifting interior, societal, or cultural landscapes. Whether they’re making visible otherwise invisible emotions, satirically critiquing stereotypes about their locales, or questioning dominant representations of larger beliefs and worldviews, the six artists immerse themselves in their contexts to go beyond the limits of traditional representations and offer instead rich, deeply nuanced perspectives on diverse contemporary realities in Southeast Asia.

West Sumatra-born artist Ibrahim is known for his evocative abstract paintings that masterfully juxtapose colour; capture quick, spontaneous movements on canvas; and portray a visceral beauty free of ideological encumbrance. While he employs abstract expressionism to explore the truths of his interiority, he is still heavily influenced by his surroundings. In particular, he draws inspiration from the colours and textures of West Sumatra’s natural landscapes to translate his evolving, honest moods and feelings, ranging from calm to turbulent. Similarly born in West Sumatra, Yunizar, on the other hand, depicts recognisable objects and figures in his raw, childlike paintings and sculptures: flora, fantastic creatures, illegible texts akin to vandalisms on street corners. Yet, like Ibrahim, he imbues an expressive, affective approach in his work—determined to articulate the true feeling and essence, or rasa, of subjects that animate his immediate surroundings.

Challenging specific cultural and societal values, Bali-based artists Ashley Bickerton and the late I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih employ figuration and familiar imagery to reflect critical reflections of their contexts in Bali. A westerner who has lived on the island for almost 30 years, Bickerton is hypercritical of its intoxicating tourist culture, depicting silver-skinned Balinese women against idyllic tropical backgrounds to parody the western ideal of ‘paradise’. The Balinese woman was similarly a constant subject of I (GAK) Murniasih, who subverted taboos in the local art world through her bold depictions of women’s fantasies and desires. Her pioneering works that reclaimed her sexuality and body ultimately paint a striking picture of an artist breaking free—from social convention, from the demands of the art world, and from the stereotypes of what a woman, a Balinese, and an artist could create.

In their meticulously rendered conceptual works, Indonesian artist Rudi Mantofani and Singaporean artist Suzann Victor provoke audiences to shift and broaden their perspectives of long-held systems of belief and knowledge. Victor’s haunting, ethereal sculptures of Christian icons and hearts coated in shattered stained glass boldly invite viewers to reflect on the ideologies that sustain them, whether religious or scientific, in a fresh light. A spirit of challenge similarly permeates Mantofani’s highly refined, hyperrealist paintings often described as ‘visual parables’. Manipulating everyday objects and ubiquitous symbols, such as globes and the Garuda, a mythical bird used to represent Indonesia, Mantofani literally turns our world on its head–suggesting that what we hold as capital-T Truths may actually be subjective, culturally influenced beliefs of a specific time and place.

The Crucible

The Crucible Gallery Explores NFTs for Art Fair Philippines 2022

23 Mar to 1 Apr 2022

The Crucible Gallery launches contemporary artists’ works as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for viewing and bidding.

The Crucible Gallery launches contemporary artists’ works as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for viewing and bidding.

The gallery first explored the world of NFTs upon the invitation by CryptoPop in January this year to explore a new way of exhibiting art. The Crucible launched its first NFT (feat. Kajo Baldisimo last Jan. 25) and is currently working on the next tokens by Junyee, Igan D’Bayan, and Alfredo Aquilizan (with drop dates to be announced).

The project is a collaboration between the gallery with Luis Buenaventura and Anton Vera Pinoy, rockstars in the world stage of NFTs.

The Crucible Gallery NFTs will be auctioned at the blockchain market throughout the summer of this year. For information on the preview and bidding of the NFTs, contact 0917-5014595 (look for Chari) or The Crucible Gallery via Facebook Messenger.

To discover more works by contemporary artists, visit The Crucible Gallery’s Backroom Exhibit during Art Philippines 2022.

Galerie Roberto

Vouching Vigilant Volition | Varied Inferences

23 Mar to 1 Apr 2022

On-view at Galerie Anna | Solo Exhibition by OTTO NERI | CJ TANEDO, BULLET DEMATERA, RAM MALLARI, FERDIE CACNIO, EMMANUEL MIRANDA, JOBERT CRUZ, SALVADOR BANARES

‘Chronicling urgencies, qualifying decisions’ Galerie Roberto / Art Fair Philippines 2022

Our daily engagements remain vivid and diverse stemming from seemingly unpredictable and complex cues, factors, and experiences interweaving the personal and the social. Such proliferation of interconnectedness among these two, among many other quotidian contexts, is viewed as a spirited trope indicative and suggestive of manifestations, naturalities, and fluidities of urgencies and decisions.

In ‘Chronicling urgencies, qualifying decisions’, participating artists employ myriad visual languages, purposive tendencies, and vivid interventions to tackle narratives and materialities. This exhibition series explores ideas related to exigency and resolution, perceived as two axes which shape, inform, and engender moments of imaginative and artistic resonances on various entanglements stemming from our being as well as our conventional and aesthetic experiences.

‘Chronicling urgencies, qualifying decisions’ brings forth an invitation to ruminate on meticulous considerations, positionalities, articulations, and assessments to issues, perspectives, and intricacies of specific courses of action shaped by diverse day-to-day cues, factors, and experiences.

Words by Alain Zedrick Camiling

Art Elaan

Effervescence & 12

23 Mar to 1 Apr 2022

A Two-Man show by Christian Tamondong "Effervescence" and Kobusher "12"

District Gallery

Vanguard Synthesis

23 Mar to 1 Apr 2022

Nasser Lubay’s Vanguard Synthesis is a collection of abstract and surreal expressions drawn from the artist’s subconscious.

Nasser Lubay’s Vanguard Synthesis is a collection of abstract and surreal expressions drawn from the artist’s subconscious. A closeup glance on each work reveals a repetition of circles punctured by biotic elements, with each brushstroke and line conveying a different feeling from the artist’s mind. There is no blueprint to Lubay’s opus, which is a reflection of an unbridled stream of thought and emotion influenced by pandemic woes and political uncertainty, and the eventual triumph of collectively rising above these anxieties.

Repetition and consistency in the details of Vanguard Synthesis birthed uniqueness and individuality, something representative of the collective feelings of people pursuing their truths in an uncertain world.

The flaming, bright, and striking hues of Sunrise radiates like summer after a long, dark period of stupor. Flesh Movement evokes life and its existence in the microverse. Fresh Tone is an ode to the color of the human flesh and its purity. Dry Chrome reflects spontaneity and randomness in the dryness chrome. Eco Haptics reveals a fusion of nature and life with the haptics of the digital age, while Endless Reflection tells a story of endless, infinite depth like the ocean, yet like its surface, is reflective just like the pigment used in the piece.

“The collage of various elements, although repetitive, proceeds to a certain form or story,” says Lubay. The collection’s charm lies in how each layer was influenced by a different feeling or emotion, unplanned and yet synergic as a whole.

As much as Vanguard Synthesis captures the artist’s state of mind, it also evokes people’s togetherness in rhythm as they move forward from the past, like collective cells working together for renewal and rebirth. The overall effect is undeniably movement: stirring, stimulating, emotional.

-- Mario Alvaro Limos

Salcedo Private View

Transcendence

23 Mar to 1 Apr 2022

Salcedo Private View, the gallery arm of the country’s premier auction house, presents ‘Transendece: Recent Works by Norberto Carating, Pardo De Leon, and JP Duray’