The inactive volcano that is Mount Banahaw functions in our Philippine social life in different ways: a natural fortress against tropical cyclones from the Pacific, the dwelling place of mystical, and a protected forest reserve. This mountain solidifies its enchanting presence in the heart of the Philippine Pavilion at the Venice Biennale with the exhibition Sa...
Tag: visual arts
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Sea people and their buoyant ontology
Who are the sea people? What does it mean for people to embody the vastness of the sea? What happens when the sea’s massiveness measures up with the collectivity of the people? I view these questions as urgent with the return of Jon Cuyson to Vargas Museum of the University of the Philippines Diliman with Taong...
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Grayscale pessimism
If drawings lend themselves to the world as an artistic medium for one to experience discovery, an insight drawn from the radically hopeful imagination of John Berger, the drawings of the artist Lyra Garcellano in her just-concluded show at Finale Art File, titled Land, Labor, Life: Tracing ‘Progress’ in Selected Notes, expresses political despair, which,...
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Discovering Clyfford Still, bold, brave, pioneering abstract expressionist
DENVER, COLORADO—As a fine arts graduate, I must confess that it was my first time to hear Clyfford Still’s name. Yes, I know the stalwarts of the Abstract Expressionist movement from Jackson Pollock to Mark Rothko to Helen Frankenthaler. But Still escaped my radar. And yet here he was, spoken with such ardor and respect...
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When we melt together
Italian painter Viviana Riccelli, currently based in the magical island of Siquijor, ushers us into Galleria Duemila where her new abstract paintings, collectively titled “Chaos,” are being exhibited until April 13. The exhibition welcomes us with a diptych, The Beginning of a Journey, mixed media on carton board on paper in which the field of...
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Colliding scapes of happiness
What does hell mean in relation to heaven and the earth? Why do we visualize hell when our lives have been dominated by Christian values, believing that one’s life on earth must lead us to heaven? Does heaven continue to hold a profound meaning despite how life on earth has been mostly described as hell? ...
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Wood sculptors highlight an uncommon and vanishing resource
ILOILO CITY—Ilonggo artists made big waves in the 2023 iteration of the Philippine Art Awards. Of the five winners from the Visayas, four are Iloilo-based, including the brothers Tyrone Dave and Jun Orland Espinosa. Tyrone’s work, Family Tree (5 x 6 feet, inlay on wood), is an ode. “The importance of the family is the main...
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Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel exhibit opens in Manila
The painted scenes on the ceiling of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel have fascinated me since I received the book “Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling” more than a decade ago. A gift from my then future wife, the 384-page paperback by Ross King recounts the four extraordinary years–from 1508 to 1512—that the genius Michelangelo spent producing...
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Artist paints tribute to heroes in time for Independence Day
The artist Juanito Torres completed a 58-by-85-inch artwork titled “Parade of Heroes” in time for the Philippines’ celebration of its 125th Independence Day on June 12. The painting shows a gathering of heroes led by Dr. Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio in a parade, waving small Philippine flags. It was unveiled in Salcedo Auctions’ “Finer...
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Sisterhood produces sculpture of connections
To mark its 90 years as a sorority of empowered women, the University of the Philippines’ Sigma Delta Phi (SDP) pooled its talents and resources in partnering with the state university to bring into sculptural form the characteristics that make the Filipino woman and the connections that she makes possible. Envisioned as a work by...