Allan Alcantara, Aaron Bautista, Carlos “Totong” Francisco II, and Isidro Jon Santos, in a group show billed “Digressions,” collectively explore a different path using the familiar medium of painting. Digressions, featuring 32 artworks (eight works per artist), opens on July 31, Saturday, at 6:30 p.m. at Galerie Anna and will run until August 15. Galerie Anna is at the fourth level, Artwalk Building, SM Megamall, open from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily.Although they come from Angono, Rizal, the land of National Artist for the Visual Arts Carlos “Botong” Francisco, Juan “Tandang Juancho” Senson, Nemiranda (Nemi R. Miranda, Jr.), and Jose Blanco, like every new generation, the four new Angono visual artists aim to break, penetrate, and set a hole which leads toward what is beyond. “We only want to make a statement on how we view the concept of art-making in a new perspective, retaining its familiar picture, but offering a new standpoint on how things should be understood and perceived,” the artists relates to exhibition notes writer Dave Lock.They add: “This exploration and enlightenment is essential to one’s development. Without it, we remain fixed into a repetitive system of beliefs and further deny the existence of growth and philosophical maturity inside oneself.”In this exhibition, Alcantara narrates his daily experiences as a commuter, worker, and observer as visual memoirs. Of note is his use of the red colour in deep hue as his paintings’ common background, evoking a feeling of emotional turmoil and inner self-destruction. Against this red are a spectre of images muted in time space continuum, which elicit fear and alienation in its viewers.
In line with the development concept of the show, Bautista uses corrugated boards, nails, and enamel paint to show that their beloved Angono is still “under construction”. Childhood dreams and memories inspire his works in “Digressions”. He recollects his homeland that was and foretells what it will be. There is no place like home, he seems to say, even if that home exists between the now and his memories of it.
His is the celebration of nature and divine beauty, Francisco, however, defines this beauty in the soft sensitivities of human flesh and the untainted, universal dance. His monochromatic paintings are contained, depicting optimism and tranquillity. His paintings are camouflages little visual pleasures, hiding a lovely expression of nude figures beneath a playful wash of singular hues.
For Santos’ artworks, his recall Rorschach ink blot tests, with visceral-reminiscent images instead of black, flowing inkblots. His pieces are statements of possibilities, and a reinvention of represented images through abstraction. The artist says his works could be anything. His process was subjective and random, with no particular theme at all.
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For more information on the exhibition, please contact Betty Uy-Regala at 0906.2604175, or email betty_uyregala@yahoo.com.
