Art Hopping in Makati: 5 Exhibits this January

By: Brian Jules L. Campued & Raizza T. Dauz

2019 has just begun and what better way to start the new year right but to enjoy it with some art hops!

The Filipino art scene hasn’t been livelier (and coincidentally in time for this year’s Pantone color of the year: Living Coral, well, it is safe to say that the art corals of the Philippines will never be as alive) as it is today without the growing support and appreciation of its audience and the undying love of the artists to their craft. To keep this trend going and to make it stay as a norm for the people, more and more art exhibits are getting curated every month.

Here are some of the most interesting and unique art shows this January that will surely check every aesthete’s artsy bucket list:

1. Ryan Villamael’s A Paradise Lost brought by Silverlens shows his works built upon his ongoing dialogue with Philippine History. “With A Paradise Lost, Villamael returns to the intimacy of paper; hand cut made intuitively and in isolation,” making use of negative space and paper cutting to generate images and narrate stories.

Villamael’s fascination with pre-colonial history started from discovering some early maps that show sketches of the Philippine archipelago before getting colonized. He is one of the few artists of his generation to have refrained from the more liberal modes of art expression to ultimately resort to the more deliberate handiwork found in the cut paper.

His works have been showcased in Manila, Singapore, Hong Kong, UK, Australia, and Paris. While he was still pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in Painting from the University of the Philippines, Villamael was already included in several group galleries up to the time of his graduation in 2009.

See Villamael’s 7^th solo exhibition in Silverlens Gallery, Makati City as it runs from January 12 to February 9.

2. Indeed, photographs evoke a myriad of emotions. Charico Miranda Cruz chose to express solitude and stillness captured in the predictability of everyday life and the deeper stories that lie in the people’s mundane routines in his latest solo exhibition, All the Lonely People.

Cruz presents a collection of pictures of strangers doing their daily routines as he clicks his camera’s shutter—may it be walking across the bustling city streets or sitting by the corner, intimate yet public moments. He also highlights the role surroundings play in people’s solace and loneliness.

Cruz, a travel photographer professionally trained in Multimedia Arts and Photography, couldn’t help but wonder about the verses of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ of The Beatles where he got the inspiration for his exhibit: “All the lonely people, where do we all belong? All the lonely people where do we all come from?”

Cruz’s photos are displayed until January 27 at Altro Mondo Gallery in Makati City.

3. Krista Nogueras breathes life to ceramics and sculptures in her exhibit, Lake Predicament, in which she attempts to show the human body in its primordial form, focusing on human responses.

The artist explores the cycle of sensitization and desensitization which “create an environment where one becomes heavily sensitive to a specific situation; responding to [a] stimuli drawn from our perception of images.”

One of the most interesting media, Krista was able to showcase delicacy and grace in her works, greater contrast between hard and soft, it is something to watch out for in her exhibits.

Nogueras graduated Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines and studied ceramics at the UP College of Fine Arts Ceramics Studio.

Lake Predicament runs from January 12 to February 9 at Artinformal, Makati City.

4. A collaborative installation by Vietnam-born Tomas Vu and Argentinian-born Thai artist, Rirkrit Tiravanija, “Do We Dream Under the Same Sky” consists of live art session on silkscreen painting and graffiti to investigate the layers of resistance that go into street art. The two artists moved from one country to another upon growing up, it resulted in them creating an interactive space where guests can immerse themselves in the art process.

Cooking can be an art too and you can be excited about this interactive part of the show ­— if the artists have decided to include this for this year’s installation. In the 2016-2017 era of the exhibit, cooking sessions, curated film programmes, and surfboard designing were included.

And art heads are excited for this year’s “Do We Dream Under the Sky” exhibit. No one knows what the awesome artists have stored for us.

“Do We Dream Under the Same Sky” runs from January 12 to February 5 at The Drawing Room, Makati City.

5. Gene Paul Martin’s Improvised Exits is a genre-defying solo exhibit that “collides virtual excess with worldly ephemera” that are collectively deemed as existence, skillfully toggling between abstract and representational devices from imaginative paintings to confound the human senses.

Back then, Martin was immediately offered solo shows at Secret Fresh Gallery and Silverlens. Since then, he has had nine solo exhibitions including one at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Aside from Manila, he has shown exhibits in Malaysia and Taiwan.

One of the strong artists of his generation, Martin’s work has caught the attention of important collectors and art audiences. And for Improvised Exits, he will give a “slipping glimpse of a world of interstitiality, a contemporaneous condition of everywhere and nowhere, in-betweenness, always beginning and never-ending, entering and leaving at the same time, simultaneous, and infinite.”

Feeling spacey amidst feeling human connections in a pervasive culture of technology? Check Improvised Exits, which will run from January 12 to February 9 at Artinformal, Makati City.

Now, go out there and appreciate art! Support the local and foreign contemporary art scene and spread the love for the arts. Whether you are a newbie or a connoisseur, guaranteed these exhibits will ignite something artsy in you.