I’ve got four extra tickets to ManilArt 2010 that I’d like to give away to 2 lucky art-lovers. (2 tickets for each winner, so you can bring a date, or go on two different days, if it turns out that you have no friends.)

What is ManilArt anyway? MANILART10 is the second international art fair hosted in the Philippines, featuring the country’s leading art galleries. This is a place where art collectors and enthusiasts can view some of the finest examples of Philippine Contemporary Art today. (Here is a confirmed list of exhibitors.) There are also lectures and talks held over the duration of the art fair.

MANILART10 will be open to the public from 11 am to 8 pm, from July 30 to August 1, 2010. Admission tickets are priced at Php200 or approx. US$4.50 each. (You can buy tickets by e-mailing jonsy@manilart.com.) It will be held in SMX Convention Center.

Well, what’s so great about this? Well, my cynic-friend, the excellent thing about this is that you will be able to see some of the best works of art made by some of the best Filipino artists, curated by the some of the best galleries in the country today. That’s what’s so great about it, man-friend¹. You don’t even have to buy anything (but buying art is good for the soul—both yours and the artists’, since they get to eat and live another day); you can just go there to see all the pretty things!

SOME IMPORTANT NOTES:

• You can use the tickets on any day of the exhibit duration, but they will only be valid once.
• They are complimentary tickets and cannot be sold. (Don’t be a douche!)
• You must be in Manila at the time of the exhibit, or else we are just wasting time.
• You have a valid mailing address. Gon’ ship these tickets to you, if you win, is why.

So, just leave a comment, and I’ll use an Internet randomizer to pick the winner. Since the event is going to be in a few days, I’m going to leave this post up until the weekend (July 24th, 3pm Philippine time!) and announce the winner then.

Yay for art!

Click to visit their Facebook page, where there is a gallery of some of the featured art. Here’s a few:

Kapitbisig” by Elmer Borlongan, 60″x48″ , oil on canvas, 2010 from 1/of Gallery

“After Yves Klein” by Annie Kabigting, 48″ x 72″, Oil on Canvas, 2010, courtesy of Finale Art File

“Growing A Peach Tree” by Amy Aragon, 36″ x 60″, Oil on Canvas, 2010, courtesy of Manila Contemporary

Please comment if you have questions, etc. I’ll be glad to answer them if I can. For basic information about the event, visit their official website.

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¹ If you get where this is from, then you are automatically cool in my book. Unless you are an asshat.

NO THOUGHTS is an alternative photography magazine dedicated to showcasing new and emerging talent from around the world.

Here’s a list of the featured photographers with links to their websites:

• Corey Smith | http://highpoweredstreetdrugs.com/
• Kelley Smith | http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelleynsmith/
• Jamen Lee | http://www.jamenlee.net/
• Jeff Luker | http://www.jeffluker.com/
• Alyssa Noches | http://www.alyssanoches.com/
• Michael J DeMeo | http://www.michaeljdemeo.com/
• Tamara Lichtenstein | http://www.tamaralichtenstein.com/
• Virgina Del Rio | http://www.flickr.com/photos/virginiadelrio/
• Ariane Geffard | http://ritavogt.free.fr/
• Cuathemoc Suarez | http://www.c-suarez.net/
• Ryan Paonessa | http://www.ryanpaonessa.com

For $5 US, you get a 36-page black & white zine filled with fantastic photography. This fee includes shipping. Hurry up, because this issue is limited to 300 copies. Here’s a bit of sneak peek:

Still not convinced? Here’s a flip-through, so you can see what you’ll get for a measly fiver:

Money goes to funding for the future issues, future issues, which judging from the contents of this one and the one I already have, should definitely happen. You can purchase the zine by going to this page. There’s a buy button somewhere in there.

on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wearenowinspace
the blog: http://www.wearenowinspace.com

Since graduating, my life has pretty much been haphazard and disorganized, no matter how much I make it appear otherwise. Recently, I’ve been thinking about ways through which I can try and “hold the reins,” so to speak. Not a lot of changes, but then I suppose most things take a few tiny first steps before incredible things are expected to happen. Anyway, here are a few of my mostly organizational steps. Over the next few days, I will try to document and report (!) the steps I have been taking towards being less of a bum. The thought is at least already there, right?

• Cyan July Moleskine Daily Planner — I got the stupid idea to use a daily rainbow planner, which has resulted in several failures at organization. (Here are the ones for January – June.) I have since found a use for them, which is planning my day. It works because I get pressured to cross off things by a certain time. Sometimes, results are disastrous, though, and I don’t cross any items off at all.
• Field Notes notebook — for when I don’t want to bring big notebooks. That’s it, really.
• Dark Blue Moleskine Blank Cahier — for sketches! I draw raw sketches here, scan them and tweak on my Mac. Sometimes I just try to sketch out ideas for layouts, etc. This mostly stays at home.
• Large Muji Lined Notebook — I have drawn on this cover! (See below.) In lame lettering. This is mostly for notes and plans… I find that I process things I read better if I take down notes. I have been using 43Folders.com as a guide, for example, and it just translates better when I take notes.

As an extra organizational procedure, I caved in and bought myself an 18-month Moleskine Weekly Planner + Notes. I know this sounds like rationalizing and justifying a probably-indulgent purchase, but I really have been more productive ever since I got this planner. I have been using this format since freshman year of college, so I suppose that has something to do with that as well:

Okay, so I’ve been meaning to make a stronger portfolio… and I’m going to do that by actual reading up on design. Not to dis anyone, but I really felt like my formal education is lacking, in terms of preparing me to take on actual design jobs. Talent and skill can only get you so far, I think. So I’m going to try to learn stuff.

Currently concentrating on absorbing information from Ellen Lupton’s “Indie Publishing,” which I actually have had for a long time. I’ve only just browsed through some sections, though. I also hijacked my brother’s copy of Timothy Samara’s “Making and Breaking the Grid.” I think this will really be useful to me. And then, there’s magazines I can flip through for inspiration… or you know, to read when my brain needs a break.

And then I cleaned my Desktop, which still features Sara Frakking Quin, because she is an amazing human being:

Click for full size, Nosy McNoseface.

This post was actually laid out much better in my head. This is all probably just useless information for you, whoever you are, reading this. You’re lucky this is a series! The next one will be more insightful, I promise.

(It really did come off as a better post in my head, though. Apologies.)

P.S. One of my goals is to make five or so posts under this series. Fingers crossed and stuff. That I actually stick to this goal, and also that the posts will be useful and, at the least, make sense.

This is a super late picture post of the last Daylight Saturday, because of life getting in the way, and the storm and the power outage. I got there pretty late, and I didn’t know a bunch of people. But here, a few meager photos of some friends, new and old. It was such a pleasure. :)

Cel.

Tim & Solo. He gave me film that day. :D

Gabby.

Pasha, sweetface.

Kris’.

Blurry, mustachioed Rob.

Laurine.

Anna.

Kris.

And because this has been both beautiful and sad, here’s a song by The National called “About Today.” This version is the one from the Cherry Tree EP

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Tim’s.

More photos under the cut. Continue reading ABOUT TODAY: DAYLIGHT V….

Last Friday, we have discovered the wonder that is Friday Night Traffic. My family and I don’t really like going out, unless we absolutely need to, or if we are suffering from too much hermity behavior. Usually, these excursions don’t fall on Friday nights. So, when we went on our merry way to Makati for these shows, we had no idea what kind of traffic we were in for. But the shows and the late dinner made it worth the two-hour travel time.

Entering Warehouse 17 of the La Fuerza Compound along the Pasong Tamo Ext., which is where Finale’s base of operations is located, you are first greeted by a massive diamond suspended from the ceiling. This is the moment that you know that you are about to experience something really massive.

Not just in terms of scale, either. Nilo Ilarde’s show, Painting as Something and as the Opposite of Something, seems to be a commentary on art and how it is made. I don’t really want to put any meaning on something that might have other meanings that have nothing to do with my interpretation, or none at all. All I know is that there is a lot of thought put into his pieces. There’s a little bit of humor, wordplay, and I suppose it’s really hard to think of anything else when you’re faced with works as enormous as Ilarde’s pieces.

Mounted in Finale’s Tall Gallery are the following, among other pieces: a Hulked-up Beetle, an actual boxing ring and a wall of used up paint tubes.

I think that the question of what art is is still brought up by his show. At least, that’s what it made me ask, in the end.

(Click here for some detail of the middle painting.)

In the Upstairs Gallery is Paulo Vinluan’s Heads Will Roll, featuring works that have adopted an amalgam of very distinct styles. I haven’t been to any of Vinluan’s other shows, so I can’t really assess this show in terms of his style (i.e. how it’s progressed, how it hasn’t, etc.) but I see that his style is very uniquely his, and the overall effect of his works, to me, is that: “Yes, these parts belong where they are.”

I can’t explain it quite so articulately, but I just felt like his pieces, together and individually, worked. No idea what the message of the pieces are, unfortunately… I liked them a lot, though.

This particular stretch of works, I liked. From the left, I went, in my head: “Oh, this is really nice,” and then I moved to the one beside it, “Oh, wow, I want this in my house,” and then I moved on to the next one and went, “Oh, this is really, really nice, too.” Turns out my brother went through the same thought process. (Pictures of the individual works after the jump.)

Inside the Video Room is Jonathan Ching’s Where in the World is Botero’s Leg. According to a write-up on the Finale website, this exhibit toys with the idea of the fallibility of human memory, and how perspective touches a memory’s meaning and truth. Ching is very liberal with the use of symbolism, using a lot of seemingly random imagery to convey his message.

I admire Ching’s work because his strokes are so bold, and so heavy. It adds a feeling of depth and tension to the work, and not just aesthetically. I really feel frakking hopeless, at times, when I look at his work. The palette is a little Stygian, the strokes, bold; the imagery, dark.

I’m pretty glad I went to this exhibit (even though I missed my nightly viewing of Magkaribal). Gave my mind a lot to chew on.

More photos under the cut. Continue reading Nilo Ilarde, Paulo Vinluan & Jonathan Ching // Finale….

Saving the best for last.

The Daylight Series started out as a personal project of photographer (and one of my awesomest friends) Gabby Cantero. I’ve actually blogged about her here, when she was just starting one of her earlier projects, These Portraits.

Daylight is a super favorite among Gabby’s friends, friends of friends, and has been featured in a few places. The one happening this Saturday is pretty special, kind of bittersweet—it’d be pretty amazing to share this one with Gabby is what I’m saying. So, go, if you are so inclined. It doesn’t really matter if you don’t know anybody. Well, it’d be kinda awkward at first, probably.

But we’re friendly if you are, too. :)

(Poster is of Wanda, taken by Gabby as part of the series. Kris & I tinkered with it a little bit, and this is what happened. You can click on it to view a bigger size on Flickr.)