Collecting Space | Joe Bautista

Calle Wright 3:00PM

ALLEGORIES AND REALITIES Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi: In Retrospect

22 February to 24 May 2020

Literature and art history strongly influence the works of Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi. Earning two degrees in Fine Arts and English from the University of the Philippines in Diliman, her approach to image making emanates from her deep understanding of the literary and visual arts. Close friend and fellow artist Nonon Padilla once noted that “the world of the divine is very much present in” Gelvezon-Tequi’s works. She has been highly acclaimed for her use of allegory to express and articulate statements on social ills and current struggles. Culled from medieval manuscript illustrations and biblical texts, her series of prints in the mid-1980s were filled with images of the sacred juxtaposed alongside the ordinary and everyday. Yet her works are also heavily grounded on the real and personal — family life and losses, greed and corruption, the turbulent political climate, or simply a row of trees, a lush garden or a still life. Referring to Gelvezon-Tequi’s prints and paintings, Leonidas Benesa notes a strong sense of “nostalgia for the past… but the idiom is pop, even folk” in her works. Aside from appropriating medieval texts, she also explored silk painting (an old Asian practice) with aniline pigments and adopted the format of the anting-anting for a series of prints. Religious personages are rendered with as ordinary folks — familiar and with warmth. Her more recent painted works assume similar qualities — composed in a hierarchical scheme, figures float in minimalist almost blank backgrounds as in medieval illuminations and frescos. Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi maintains a consistent presence in the local art scene. She exerts that although based in France, “I don’t address myself to the French, but to Filipinos.” Hers is a voice empathic of the conditions of the marginalized and critical of the foibles of the dominant.

TFI x Kristoffer Ardeña

Feb 15

Join Kristoffer Ardeña and Tropical Futures Institute this Saturday February 15th, 3PM for their Art Fair Philippines 2020 preview featuring a small run of hand screened and painted t-shirts by the artist along side some of works that will be on exhibition at this year’s fair. Tropical Futures Institute will be presenting a solo presentation of Kristoffer Ardeña’s works at this years Art Fair Philippines in a show titled “Basahan”, exhibition notes as follows: Kristoffer Ardeña explores the idea of adaptive reuse and models of circularity in his upcoming solo presentation at Artfair Philippines 2020 with Tropical Futures Institute. “Basahan” represents work based on the socio economic conditions that surround Ardeña’s studio and practice. Material scarcity and abundance also reflect ideas of dystopia/utopia and new frameworks in which we could be approaching material manufacturing in order to combat waste and outdated modes of production. The concept of ‘basahan’ is ubiquitous in the Philippines, we see it everyday, we touch it everyday. The practicality and simplicity of the upcycled object holds ideals of the future and carries a distinct symbol woven into each piece. From the color combinations, the basketball jerseys and the synthetic fibers. The journey, combination and deconstruction of the materials in ‘Basahan’ offers another look at the beauty in the everyday object. Tropical Futures Institute (856G)

Yellow Ambiguities

Until Feb 29

In collaboration with guest curators, Fr. Jason Dy SJ and Carlomar Daoana, Yellow Ambiguities explores the complexity of the color yellow in the Philippine context. Divided into sections to show different representations, it engages the modern art collection of AAG in dialogue with pre-colonial artefacts; Hispanic colonial religious artifacts and Marian images; contemporary naturally-dyed woven fabrics; works of the Conservative and Modernist schools represented by Fernando Amorsolo and Galo Ocampo, respectively; and the experimental works of contemporary artists.

Not Visual Noise

Not Visual Noise is a seminal photography exhibition that features more than 30 artists living in the Philippines and in the Filipino diaspora. It aims to showcase a diverse range of artists engaged in photography-based art practices whose works broadly represent what is happening in the fields of photography today — from photojournalism, long-form documentary photography to conceptual and installation photography, and web/social media-based projects. The exhibition examines the tension between high/low culture and high/low art photography in a media-saturated world in the hopes of drawing in wider and newer audiences. Not Visual Noise is curated by artist, writer, cultural organizer and educator, Angel Velasco Shaw.

Transcendental Mervy Pueblo x Atsuko Yamagata

Until Feb 23

Mervy Pueblo and Atsuko Yamagata, visual artists based in Manila, have met, created and exhibited their works at the recently concluded 7th international art festival called the Nakanojo Biennale in Japan last September 2019. Working both individually during their artist in residency of the biennale, Pueblo and Yamagata have realized projects that respond to the physical and nonphysical realm. Pueblo’s installation is interjected with coded references, creating socially charged mysterious draperies that function as a portrait of our contemporary reality. Yamagata playfully explores animist processes and presents a materialistic definitions of the immaterial just like how one’s journey is recorded by one’s own footprint. Transcendental offers an immersive experience that sets the space for an examination of one’s own values and of the indelible tracks that continues even after one’s presence is relinquished.

Inscapes: A Retrospective by Agnes Arellano

Agnes Arellano looks back into her 36 years of practice in Inscapes. Combining several sculptures created from 1983 to 1996, Arellano retraces her life's journey through works that dwell on the themes of Sacred Feminine, Eros, yin and yang, mythology, and psychology among other inspirations.

“Nevertheless” Lawrence Borsoto

Feb 8 - 25

Eskinita Art Gallery

“Cosmic Grounds” by Eric Zamuco

Tuesday – Friday, 10 AM – 7 PM, Saturday – 10 AM – 6 PM

Silverlens Galleries

The Asian Cultural Council Art Auction 2020

February 15-21, 2020

Leon Gallery G/F Eurovilla 1, Legazpi Street cor Rufino, Legazpi Village, Makati

Material Culture by Daniel Dela Cruz

Feb 8 - 29

Art Cube Gallery
February 8 - 29, 2020

Peter Zimmermann Cross/Linked

Modeka Creative Space
20A La Fuerza 1, 2241 Don Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City
Feb 6-29

CUE FROM LIFE ITSELF: FOUND OBJECTS

February 8 to May 7, 2020

Cue From Life Itself reflects on the instinctive way Filipino artists make do and dream up, transforming everyday forms with intuition and insight, and in their critical awareness of the material conditions of their milieu and ecology. Curated by art historian and scholar Patrick D. Flores, the title is lifted from a monograph by artist, educator, and cultural advocate Brenda Fajardo, who frames the concept of "aesthetics of poverty" through the artist’s responsiveness to an encompassing but transformable world.

“Sudor” by Syaiful Garibaldi

Tuesday – Friday, 10 AM – 7 PM, Saturday – 10 AM – 6 PM

Silverlens Galleries

BLUE Marble

Feb 15 - Mar 5

Galerie Roberto Tammy De Roca, Ina Jardiolin, Maria Francisca Andraianne Juarez, Maribel Magpoc, Shiela Molato, Marge Organo, Aryan San Diego, Valen Valero, and Meneline Wong

“A Spectacle of Coming Together” by Bernardo Pacquing

Tuesday – Friday, 10 AM – 7 PM, Saturday – 10 AM – 6 PM

Silverlens Galleries

“Searching Sanctuary”, Curated by Gregory Halili

Tuesday – Friday, 10 AM – 7 PM, Saturday – 10 AM – 6 PM

Silverlens Galleries Participating Artists: Pope Bacay Marionne Contreras Jigger Cruz Rose Delfin Patricia Perez Eustaquio Dina Gadia Mark Andy Garcia Gregory Halili Paolo Icasas Bree Jonson Pow Martinez Maya Muñoz Raffy Napay Wawi Navarroza Elaine Roberto-Navas Bernardo Pacquing Christina Quisumbing Ramilo Popo San Pascual Nicole Tee Ryan Villamael Liv Vinluan  

Curatorial Development Workshop Exhibitions

7 December 2019 to 7 March 2020

The Japan Foundation, Philippine Contemporary Art Network, and University of the Philippines Vargas Museum present the culmination of the 2018 Curatorial Development Workshop. The exhibitions curated around the central concern of ‘space’ by the five participants Karl Albais, Pristine De Leon, Jay Nathan Jore, Carlos Quijon, Jr., and Christian Tablazon which is on view at the museum’s 1st and 3rd Floor Galleries, and 2nd Floor Video Rooms until 7 March 2020.

Mark Copino: Untitled Lovers

DISTRICT GALLERY

Continuum

Feb 15 - 17

Art Verité Gallery

The Horizon of Expectations Samantha Feleo

Until March 22

The exhibition is primarily composed of a series of hybrid sculptures made out of fired stoneware and artificially grown crystals. The works are a reflection of the artist’s phenomenological experience of time and space and the representation of an expansive and imaginative universe through the creation of dynamic and ever-changing work. Writer Stephanie Frondoso expounds, “Feleo’s decision to work with crystals as a medium to explore the sublime is based on her observation that their sparkling beauty inspires awe but their hostile shapes also trigger fear. Each crystal is a hybrid piece: first a tiny ceramic sculpture is fired in a kiln and then prepared as substrata in crystalline-forming baths. Time and care are needed to produce well-structured crystals, whose growth is affected by conditions such as air temperature and amount of space. The resulting crystal formations are partly controlled and partly imaginative, and are not strictly biologically-derived. The core, spherical in shape, is the symbol of life. Its evolution to sputnik form manifests the potential of stored energy.”

The World According to Charlie Co: Drawings and Works on Paper

Ateneo Art Gallery

Charlie Co continues to chronicle his world and environment through the graphic medium of drawing. In The World According to Charlie Co, the exhibition presents his drawings and works on paper collected in over nearly four decades of artistic practice. These illustrations record his life in Bacolod, his views toward global and environmental issues, and other current socio-political concerns. Often vibrant and allegorical in his works, Co has used drawing for many years to process his own personal experiences thus, he considers it integral to his own creative practice. By recalling the images that he had seen, the emotions, and experiences connected to it, Charlie Co creates his own reality through drawing.

ARTE POVERA: ITALIAN LANDSCAPE

February 10 to April 30, 2020

Arte Povera captures one of the most pivotal points in the history of Italian contemporary art with the way it broke boundaries in traditional art making, its new engagement with audiences, and its experimental approach in making life and everyday objects integral to art. The exhibit offers for the first time in Southeast Asia the opportunity to see masterpieces of Italian artists who gave birth to the Arte Povera movement of the sixties and seventies"

KOREAN CONTEMPORARY ART TODAY

November 28, 2019 to February 28, 2020

Korean Contemporary Art Today features artists who are currently active in the contemporary art scene of Korea. From the traditional medium of painting to experimental sculptures and installation, the works in this exhibition aim to showcase the diversity of Korean contemporary art as well as to examine the current state of oriental art more generally. This exhibit examines the wide-ranging practices involved in the creation of visual art that is both engaging and meaningful in our current contexts."

PORTRAITURE AND THE PHILIPPINE TERNO

Until March 15

Commissioned Paintings of Filipinas by Rafael del Casal On the occasion of Ternocon’s second edition, we honor women who chose to be captured in the terno and the families of some of these women who made the decision to immortalize their loved ones in the terno. We also pay tribute to artists like Rafael del Casal, who have remained true to their art form in spite of its perceived anachronistic nature. Like the Philippine terno, they carry on headstrong to the present. (Gino Gonzales)

Sad Emitting Pancake

ART UNDERGROUND | LEON GALLERY Opening Reception on Feb 18, exhibition runs until February 28.

An I For Art: Art Appreciation Workshop

Celebrate Arts Month at the MET with a 2-hr art appreciation workshop! Museum workers will share with you some tips and exercises to better connect with artworks. Register here: tinyurl.com/artappreciationworkshop Participation fee PHP 300 (regular) PHP 250 (students, senior citizens, and differently-abled) Open to ages 13 and above Dates February 1, 2:00 pm February 8, 10:30 am February 9, 10:30 am February 15, 2:00 pm February 22, 10:30 am February 29, 10:30 am Tall Galleries, Metropolitan Museum of Manila

“Performing My Self-archive, My Other Body: An Autobiographical Installation Art Performance, A Work of Institutional Critique” by Judy Freya Sibayan

Tuesday – Friday, 10 AM – 7 PM, Saturday – 10 AM – 6 PM

Silverlens Galleries