Lexygius Calip
ARTIST TALK
20 June 2013, 2-4pm
MKP Hall, 4F CCP Main Theater Building
This activity is free of charge and is presented in line with the exhibit MEMORIES ARE SACRED by Lexygius Calip on view at the Pasilyo Vicente Manansala (2F Hallway Gallery) until 18 August 2013. Mojitos will be served courtesy of Dex Fernandez.
Artworks of MEMORIES ARE SACRED
by Lexygius Calip
7 June - 18 August 2013
Bulwagang Vicente Manansala (2F Hallway Gallery)
(Source: culturalcenter.gov.ph)
Lexygius Calip
MEMORIES ARE SACRED
6 June - 18 August 2013
Bulwagang Vicente Manansala (2F Hallway Gallery)
Artist’s Reception: 6 June 2013; 6pm
Lexygius Calip equates memory with the notion of the “void”, a viewpoint allied to Asian philosophy. The void is not empty. It is space filled with the vitality of the universe and at the same time with the feeling of loneliness. It is this very essence of space that led some abstract artists to explore the image beyond the image itself.
How does one visualize the void? French artist Yves Klein describes this concept as a “nirvana-like state that is void of worldly influences; a neutral zone where one is inspired to pay attention to ones own sensibilities, and to ‘reality’ as opposed to ‘representation’”. Similarly, Calip’s works do not portray pictures but they are rich with markings, with traces of what were once there. These are imprints of his past. Using the technique he describes as “water engravings”, the visible patterns are actually indentations from water droplets that remained on painted surfaces and registered its presence. The process also involves patiently applying layers of pigment (acrylic and enamel) and, for some, rubbing these same layers away to reveal new textures and forms.This series of works began in 2011 as part of his “conversations with water”. Although since his student days, Calip has always gravitated towards “process-based” art projects. His early works were experiments with water and its reaction through time with industrial and organic materials. He asserts: “water marks are always different and never the same as the last one… The idea came from the concept of individualism and adaptation, that everything in this world is unique in its own way, even if something or some appears to be similar.” Moreover, knowing that water is a very unstable element adds to the vulnerability of his process, thus achieving accidental and astonishing results.
(Source: culturalcenter.gov.ph)
Artworks exhibited in PORTRAITS
Pasilyo Victorio Edades (4F Hallway Gallery)
24 April - 9 June 2013
Artists: Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera, Diosdado Lorenzo, David Medalla, Justin Nuyda, H. R. Ocampo, Alfredo Roces, Manuel Soriano, Guillermo Tolentino, Jose Garcia Villa
(Source: culturalcenter.gov.ph)
Pasilyo Victorio Edades (4F Hallway Gallery)
features PORTRAITS
24 April - 9 June 2013
(Source: culturalcenter.gov.ph)
PORTRAITS
Pasilyo Victorio Edades (4F Hallway Gallery)
24 April - 9 June 2013
Included in this exhibition of artworks from the CCP Visual Arts Collection are portraits made by the following artists:
BenCabNational Artist for Visual Arts (2006) and Thirteen Artists Awardee (1970)
Upon his return to the Philippines, Lorenzo taught at the University of Sto. Tomas and eventually headed its Fine Arts and Design Department for 26 years.
Featured in this exhibit are two of the many portraits done by Lorenzo. East and Westfeatures his Italian wife LinaPaolini on the right and Juana Tecson, his paternal grandmother, on the left. This work, along with his Self-Portraitis representative of his modernist take on the traditional or European style of portraiture. In it, Lorenzo makes use of impasto strokes and tropical colors.Justin Nuyda
Thirteen Artists Awardee (1972)
Justin “Tiny” Nuyda is a graduate of the University of Sto. Tomas Fine Arts Program. After graduation and a few solo exhibitions under his sleeve, Nuyda received two study grants in France, one in 1971 and again in 1974. Known for his surreal landscapes, he continues to exhibit in various galleries in Manila to this day.
David Medalla
David Medalla has been known to say that his art is “dialogic”, often involving a dialogue between himself, his art medium and his collaborators and viewers. It is also said that he carries with him a notebook full of scribbles, project ideas, notes and performance scripts. A good example of this habit of capturing scenes and ideas on paper is seen in this early series of drawings of one of his first patrons and close friend, the painter Fernando Zobel de Ayala.In Medalla’s drawings, Zobel is depicted during his art history lectures conducted for the Ateneo Graduate School in the 1950s. This lecture series, perhaps the first of its kind then, was attended by individuals who later became leading figures in the Philippine cultural scene. Among them are critics Emmanuel Torres and Leonidas Benesa, visual artists Lee Aguinaldo, Arturo Luz, and Roberto Chabet, and art patrons Leandro Locsin and Tessie Ojeda Luz.
Medalla’s recent series of portraits exhibited in the Ateneo Art Gallery (2013) possess the same naïve quality in rendering and fine attention to details. Since the making of this 1956 series, which he signed as “Gaybriel”, Medalla has lived in Europe and North America and has exhibited and received awards in many countries around the world. He currently lives in London, England but still chooses to carry a Philippine passport.H. R. Ocampo
National Artist for Visual Arts (1991)
Ocampo won numerous awards from the annual competitions of the Art Association of the Philippines. He was posthumously awarded the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining in 1979 and the National Artist Award in 1991.
Alfredo RocesAlfredo Roces received his Fine Arts Degree from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, USA in 1954, where he majored in painting. He later took classes at the Art Students League of New York under German artist George Grosz. Roces has been part of numerous exhibitions and competitions. In 1974, he had his 20-year retrospective exhibition at the CCP.
Manuel SorianoThirteen Artists Awardee (1974)
Manuel Soriano graduated from the Fine Arts Program of the University of Sto. Tomas. He is best known as a printmaker, particularly working on woodcuts.
Soriano eventually delved into other art forms, and in 1981 headed the Creative Arts Visual Communications Group of the Design Center of the Philippines. He also worked as an art director, and was a member of the Philippine Advertising Counselors Inc. and the Art Directors Club of the Philippines.Guillermo Tolentino
National Artist for Sculpture (1973)
Tolentino was trained in the European and American classical styles after studying in New York University Institute of Fine Arts and in the ReggeIstituto di Belle Arti in Rome, Italy. This is clearly evident in the classical forms of his sculptures, as well as in his portrait studies seen in this exhibit. It is possible to surmise that the drawings in this exhibit were made while he was a student in New York from 1919 to 1921.
Jose Garcia VillaNational Artist for Literature (1973)
It is said that Jose Garcia Villa’s first interest was painting but he turned to writing after reading Sherwood Anderson’s novel Winesburg, Ohio. In 1929 Villa first gained infamy for his bold and aggressive poetry after being suspended from the University of the Philippines for a publication he wrote. Ironically, he would later receive awards for his writings from UP and also from the Far Eastern University and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among others. Villa introduced a new rhyming scheme called “reversed consonance” wherein “The last sounded consonants of the last syllable, or the last principal consonant of a word, are reversed for the corresponding rhyme. Thus, a rhyme for near would be run; or rain, green, reign.” He also presented a poetic style called “comma poems”, wherein commas are placed after every word.
(Source: culturalcenter.gov.ph)
Artworks exhibited in LARGE FORMAT
Pasilyo Carlos V. Francisco (Little Theater Lobby)
19 April – 23 June 2013
Artists: Ang Kiukok, Lao Lianben, Arturo Luz, Romulo Olazo, Gerardo Tan
(Source: culturalcenter.gov.ph)
LARGE FORMAT
Pasilyo Carlos V. Francisco (Little Theater Lobby)
19 April – 23 June 2013
Upsized or doubled in mass or scale is a common option within reach in today’s consumer society. Similarly, in current visual art practice, the opportunity to create large-scale works is commonplace given the scale of spaces art galleries, museums, and collectors offer. Many of today’s exhibition venues have appropriated old storage facilities and developed spaces that are industrial in scale and quality.
This was not the case in the 1960s when the few exhibit venues then were quite modest in height and area. When the CCP was inaugurated in 1969, the Main Gallery (now the Bulwagang Juan Luna) was already considered spacious even with its relatively low ceiling. Artists featured in solo and group shows were given enough room to challenge their creativity and skill in executing large format works.
In 1976, the CCP opened another facility, the Museum of Philippine Art or MOPA and was in operation until 1986. This is now the Museo Pambata but was originally the site of Elk’s Club, a private club founded for American expatriates. When converted into an art space, this early 20th century Art Deco building was ideal for contemporary exhibits because of its high ceiling and spacious gallery halls. Young artists took advantage of the luxurious space with experimental and installation works. With Arturo Luz as its Director, MOPA organized the annual “Museum Artists” as well as major retrospectives on leading contemporary artists such as Hernando R. Ocampo, Cesar Legaspi, Napoleon Abueva and Pacita Abad, among others.
The five works on exhibit were among those made specifically for these spaces. Their scale may be considered average by today’s standards, but not so 20 or 30 years ago. That was a time when artists, mostly abstractionists, were grappling with the aesthetics and expressive power of scale and medium.
Artists: Ang Kiukok, Lao Lianben, Arturo Luz, Romulo Olazo, Gerardo Tan
(Source: culturalcenter.gov.ph)
Artworks of woodcut prints
by Dr. Rod. Paras-Perez
FLORANTE AT Laura
19 April – 22 May 2013
Pasilyo Vicente Manansala (2F Hallway Gallery)
Woodcut prints by Dr. Rod. Paras-Perez
FLORANTE AT Laura
19 April – 22 May 2013
Pasilyo Vicente Manansala (2F Hallway Gallery)
In commemoration of Francisco Baltazar’s 225th birth anniversary, the story of Florante at Laura is presented thru twenty-seven original woodblock prints. Dr. Rod. Paras-Perez created these xylographs for the 1977 edition of the Baltazar’s epic poem with an English translation by E. San Juan, Jr. and a facsimile of the handwritten transcription by ApolinarioMabini.
Francisco Baltazar, more popularly known as Balagtas, first published Florante at Laura in 1838. Written in Tagalog, it was then considered a courageous move at a time when most published works were in Spanish. Moreover, it was considered revolutionary since it dared to depict the injustices Filipinos suffered under the hands of the Spaniards. Because of its language and content, this poem became an important text of the revolutionary movement in the late 19th century. With limited access to the printing press, intellectuals of the movement made handwritten transcriptions of the text for their own use. Apolinario Mabini was said to have written the entire text from memory while in exile in Guam on 1900.
Dr. Rod. Paras-Perez (1932 – 2010), visual artist and art historian, created the set of “xylographs”, the Greek term for woodblock prints, depicting select scenes. Designed in book form, he conceived of each image based on two specific stanzas to illustrate episodes in the story.
As a graphic artist, Paras-Perez always had a close affinity to woodcut, underscoring the medium’s unique surface and textural quality. Equally fascinated with the Eastern anagram of the Yin and Yang, he employed its aesthetics in creating multiple imageries in his compositions.
His contribution to Philippine graphic arts is not so much through teaching but by promoting the discipline and sophisticated craft if printmaking among his fellow artists. For Paras-Perez, “Prints are probably the most welcome art form in our age. For in fine prints, we can have the aesthetic qualities and the appeal of works of art in more expensive media.” Together with Manuel Rodriguez, Sr., known as the “Father of Philippine printmaking”, Paras-Perez aimed to “make graphics an integral part of the artistic hierarchy”.
(Source: culturalcenter.gov.ph)
Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom - Bobby Chabet at his exhibit ““China Collages, Ziggurats, & Other Unexhibited Collages” held April 2013 at West Gallery in Quezon City. (Photo from the Facebook
(Source: Yahoo!)
Roberto Chabet, father of PH conceptual art, passes away
By Ces Rodriguez, Yahoo! Southeast Asia | Yahoo! Southeast Asia Newsroom – Tue, Apr 30, 2013
Roberto “Bobby” Chabet, widely acknowledged as the father of Philippine conceptual art, died Tuesday, April 30, of cardiac arrest at the UERM Hospital in Sta. Mesa Manila. He was 76.
According to relatives, Chabet was brought to the hospital on Monday because of chills and a high fever. He suffered a first heart attack at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, was revived, and died of a second attack at 7:30 p.m. the same day.
Chabet was single and had no children.He is survived by an elder sister, Carmen Mesina, and a younger sister Milagros Garcia. His remains will be brought to the Arlington Memorial Chapels in Araneta Avenue, Quezon City on May 1.
Radical art
Chabet was born Roberto Rodriguez on March 29, 1937. He took the maiden name of his mother when he began making art because the artist Manuel Rodriguez,Sr. (no relation) was already established in the scene.
An Architecture graduate of the University of Sto. Tomas, he is known for his radical art. His experimental works included installations, drawings, collages, sculpture and paintings.
He used found materials like plywood, pop detritus, plumbing materials, and stale bread to create art at a time when nobody else was doing it in the Philippines.
Celebrated 50 years in art
His authority was so profound, he went on to influence both his peers and a generation of artists that are now stalwarts in their field.
In 2011, he was the subject of a year-long retrospective called “Roberto Chabet: Fifty Years,” where selected works toured galleries in the Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Although often seen in a wheelchair in his later years, he remained prodigious—making art and showing new works until he died. His exhibit “China Collages, Ziggurats, & Other Unexhibited Collages” just ended on April 22 at West Gallery in Quezon City. He has an ongoing group exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines called “The Mona Lisa Project.”
Legacy to young artists
Another of Chabet’s lasting legacies was the Thirteen Artists Award, which he initiated in 1970. It was granted to young artists by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, where Chabet was founding Museum Director.
The award is the most prestigious recognition to be given by a national institution to young Filipino visual artists whose works show “recentness and a turning away from the past.”
To view some of Chabet’s art, visit the Facebook page on his retrospective, Roberto Chabet: Fifty Years.
(Source: Yahoo!)
Artworks of THE MONA LISA PROJECT (CCP Visual Arts)
(Source: culturalcenter.gov.ph)
Cultural Center of the Philippines
The West Gallery
THE MONA LISA PROJECT
Bulwagang Fernando Amorsolo (CCP Small Gallery)
Pasilyo Victorio Edades (Fourth Floor Hallway)
24 April - 16 June 2013
The image of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (c. 1503–07) has been the subject of many discussions related to art history, art theory, aesthetics, and the art market. It has been borrowed, reinterpreted, and ridiculed by artists and the media since the late 19th century. The earliest satirical take was made on a photo-relief illustration of the portrait executed by Coquelin Cadet for an 1887 edition of Le Rire (The Laugh). On this print, EugèneBataille drew her a pipe with smoke circles emerging from it. The more popular of course is Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q (1919) when he drew a goatee and moustache on postcard reproduction of the Mona Lisa. Both artists did not just criticize the painting itself but also its popularity as a cultural icon, attested by its reproducibility.
The appropriation of the Mona Lisa, its image and what it represents, has since been an issue artists would attempt to explore, examine, and understand. This may happen in the form of a single work or a series of works done in succession or over a period of time. Perhaps the question is what makes the Mona Lisa a subject of these acts of appropriation? What makes artists want to take this image, seize, recycle, and claim it as their own? Undoubtedly among the reasons is its stature as one of the masterpieces in Western art and how it has been mass-produced in different forms and contexts. Thus appropriation is in many ways a critique on the notions of originality, identity, and property. It has also been noted that the ambiguity that surrounds the Mona Lisa, has lend itself vulnerable to various reinterpretations – from its historical background, the sitter’s smile, position and disposition, and the artist’s technique (Da Vinci’s use of perspective and sfumatoor blurring of lines). It has, thus, become a “terrain of infinite variations.”
The works in this exhibit, The Mona Lisa Project, are a merging of varied interests and perspectives on this iconic portrait. It began as a personal long-term project for Soler Santos, a visual artist, as a present for his wife, Mona, also a painter. He began a modest collection of works acquired from artist friends that integrate the image of the iconic portrait. He eventually continued to commission other artists of different styles and genres. The parameters Soler defined were open enough (limiting only the physical scale of the works) to allow each artist to engage with the subject from their respective aesthetic concerns.
For some, the project started as an attempt to “copy” but eventually disputing that same act. For others, the aesthetic philosophy inherent to the Mona Lisa provided various avenues to explore and assess. While other artists took the Mona Lisa simply as a preset format or a template to engage with using their own conceptual approach and distinct styles. Some artists opt to interpret the subject within present day conditions and concerns, either in an apocalyptic tone or in a pop and playful mood. The resulting collection is varied in style and provides a sampling of works by some of the most dynamic artists in the Manila art scene today.
Artists:
Allan Balisi, Bearded Ladies, Lyle Buencamino, Zean Cabangis, Annie Cabigting, Froilan Calayag, Bjorn Calleja, Roberto Chabet, Jonathan Ching, Iya Consorio, Louie Cordero, Jigger Cruz, Don Dalmacio, Kawayan De Giua, Bembol Dela Cruz, Ranelle Dial, Dex Fernandez, Dina Gadia, Mark Andy Garcia, Nona Garcia, Sarah Geneblazo, Carlo Gernale, Edric Go, Raymond Halili, Troy Ignacio, Nilo Ilarde, Jon Jaylo, Pete Jimenez, Sam Kiyoumarsi, Romeo Lee, Jacob Lindo, Dave Lock, Luis Lorenzana, Jason Montinola, Jason Moss, Raffy Napay, Elaine Navas, Epjey Pacheco, Lynyrd Paras, Neil Pasilan, Raul Rodriguez, Arturo Sanchez Jr., Kaloy Sanchez, Carina Santos, Luis Santos, Stevesantos, Frederick Sausa, Yasmin Sison, Tatong Racheta Torres, Manok Ventura, Olan Ventura, Gail Vicente, Marija Vicente, Ryan Villamael, Tanya Villanueva, MM Yu, and Christopher Zamora.
Curated by NiloIlarde.
This exhibit is presented by the CCP and West Gallery and will run until 16 June 2013. Gallery hours: 10am to 6pm, Tuesdays to Sundays.
(Source: culturalcenter.gov.ph)
