I like revisiting unposted photos, but I never feel like posting them up, especially after many months have passed. However, I think that these are still photographs worth posting since they are of a show that I rather enjoyed, of the progression of Gerhard Richter’s work.

We weren’t going to make this show, but a few scheduling jumbles allowed us to. (Though, we did miss Hirst’s at Tate.) I really enjoyed Panorama and reading all about Richter’s life and philosophy. I am in a dumb mood right now—late nights will do that to you—so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Panorama
Gerhard Richter
June 6 – Sept 24, 2012
Centre Georges Pompidou

La Basilique du Sacré Couer de Montmartre off in the distance

The post Gerhard Richter’s Panorama at Centre Georges Pompidou, 2012 appeared first on Nothing Spaces.

Hi all! I’m just popping in to invite you to the Blanc Inaugural Show entitled Tones of Home. It opens on May 22, 2013—which is a Wednesday—at 6PM. It will be held at Blanc Gallery, 145 Katipunan Avenue, St. Ignatius, QC. :)

I have three small works in the show, and my dad and brother also have some new stuff up. Also, as you can see, there are a lot of people involved. I’m pretty sure you’ll find something you like! So, pass by, it’ll be fun!

In case you are curious about the list of artist and the literature that accompanies the show, I’ve pasted it here:

TONES OF HOME
“Geography is destiny” (James Ellroy)

The act of moving house is a function of many different things, mostly having to do with upgrade, with logistics. But if we take Ellroy at his word, it could also be taken as a mastering of destiny, a permutation that dovetails neatly into the implications that come into play if the house in question is a gallery space, in which the movement could signify, on one hand, a shifting of energies, a re-calibrating of dynamics even. But there is something utilitarian in Blanc’s re-purposing of its existing three spaces into backrooms and possibly even residencies and moving all exhibitions into the single, new space, that remains of a piece with its philosophy, which is quintessentially a utilitarian one in and of itself.

The unwavering impetus of Blanc, when it opened the first Blanc gallery seven years ago, is the fundamental thrust of nearly every gallery: to grant public access to and cast light on what was/is happening in the contemporary art scene. And Blanc has certainly sustained that impetus. But then again, Blanc owner Jay Amante has always come to art as a fan and his curatorial advocacy has always tended to multi-task, into the reconnaissance of new talent, into the widening of the gallery’s reach, commercial viability was a consideration but never the most paramount of concerns. The contemporary art scene here is exploding. It’s a thriving, alive thing. There is a glut of galleries and artists growing exponentially with every year. The explosion is not abating anytime soon. And Blanc simply wants to harness the blast. And keep at it, with all the stream-lined efficiency moving into a single space brings.

Centralizing everything certainly optimizes attendance, not just at Blanc but in other galleries as well. But there is an under-layer to the move, a sense of establishing a firmer ground, a firmer sense of place, a firmer sense, if you will, of home. The show that inaugurates the new space is not called Tones of Home for nothing and will feature some of the artists who’ve had exhibits in the space, in many ways elucidating the sense of community Blanc has always imbibed, but also loosely representing Blanc’s vision of the cream of the scene, while remaining aware that it is an incomplete vision.

Running a single space has its logistic perks, of course, but it is not without its loftier nuances. In a way, Blanc is mastering its destiny and becoming a sort of locus almost. And Tones of Home is a celebration of this new centering, in which past and present converge and look to the future, commemorating the seven years that has come before and taking the first step into the intoxicating possibilities of the next seven and beyond. It may be a leave-taking of sorts but it is more of a homecoming, a re-establishing of Blanc’s presence as it kicks off its thrust to bring more artists into its fold and to further evolve its vision.

Invite design by Saturnino Basilla and essay by Dodo Dayao.

Tones of Home opens at the new blanc gallery on May 22, 2013 Wednesday, 6PM. Blanc Gallery is located at 145 Katipunan Avenue, St. Ignatius Quezon City. For more information please visit www.blanc.ph and www.facebook.com/blancgallery, email info@blanc.ph or SMS/call +63920.9276436. The exhibition will run until June 15, 2013.

Tones of Home will feature the works of:
Vic Balanon • Janet Balbarona • Allan Balisi • Renato Barja Jr • Zeus Bascon • Micaela Benedicto • Robert Besana • Broke • Zean Cabangis • Buen Calubayan • Ronald Caringal • Mariano Ching • Jonathan Ching • Louie Cordero • Jigger Cruz • Melvin Culaba • Don Djerassi Dalmacio • Bembol dela Cruz • Ranelle Dial • Dina Gadia • Nona Garcia • Geraldine Javier • Lao Lianben • Romeo Lee • Mike Muñoz • Leonardo Onia • J. Pacena II • Ivan Roxas • Don Salubayba • Arturo Sanchez Jr. • Luis Santos • Carina Santos • Isidro Santos • Yasmin Sison • Soler Santos • Hamilton Sulit • Albert Sy • CJ Tañedo • Mimi Tecson • Kadin Tiu • Wesley Valenzuela • Ronald Ventura • Tanya Villanueva • The Weather Bureau • MM Yu

The post Tones of Home: Blanc Inaugural Show appeared first on Nothing Spaces.

I’ve been trying to upload and edit my pictures as diligently as possible—to no avail. It doesn’t help that my connection speed has been akin to a snail’s. I got back fourteen rolls of film, though (3, I have yet to have processed) and I’ve scanned them all. I guess I should try to find the time to do that, too.

In any case, it’s been a high stress situation, being back. Something I’ve decided to remedy by vegging out while reading bad YA lit, and super-cramming everything

We started our Roman holiday by alighting from the metro, thinking we were two minutes away from our rented apartment’s street—only to find out that we were not. Rome’s underground rail covers only a little bit of the city. The quickest way to get to our new home was to cross the entire Vatican City, dragging our luggage on the cobblestones. As unpleasant as the experience was on our arms and fingers, Rome, at least, offered a spectacular view.

We settled in, had spectacular pizza (!) and a new dish my mom discovered made from Bresaola (dried beef), rocket salad, and shaved parmesan. The next day, we planned to conquer the Vatican Museum and to see, of course, the Sistine Chapel.

We crossed St. Peter’s Square everyday, to get to the central places, as well as the Roman underground.

Space invader! I saw one in Montmartre, Paris as well, near the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

I think Rome might have my favorite trees. Check these ones out, lining the first floor wall of the Vatican Museum.

They have such wonderful mosaic floors, too.

There was a room dedicated to maps. It was quite thrilling to see people who made these partly from imagination, as there had been no cameras to take accurate pictures of land and water at the time.

Isabel.

I had no idea that Raphael’s “The School of Athens” was going to be there! I walked into one of the rooms, which was adorned in the style that was typical of this Museum. Then, I turned around, and there it was! I love this fresco; we talked quite a lot about it in school.

A bigger surprise: a series of Matisse!

We finally reached the crowning jewel—the Sistine Chapel. It was so breathtaking, I actually thought I was going to cry. The last restoration was conducted between 1980 and 1994, which reportedly made the colors really pop. Prior to the restoration, the chapel was dark and badly cracked. Imagine being part of that restoration team! I suppose it would have been exhilarating but frightening as well.

Technically, you weren’t allowed to take pictures, but of course no one listened.

Painted drapery.

The exit by the post office was an enormous spiral staircase and a thing of beauty. My dad wanted a picture, but we couldn’t time it properly without other people passing.

We had pizza from a random place called Pizzeria Rustica (near the Ottaviano stop), which created personal delusions of how any random place in Rome had great pizza. Lots of places had excellent pizza, but you could luck out and eat at a bad one—which we did. Here, you pointed to your chosen variety, they cut it for you, and charged by weight.

The crust is a bit thicker than typical Roman pizza (they like their crusts thin!) but it was delightfully crispy and burnt in some parts.

We took the underground to the Spanish Steps, which as you can see, a lot of tourists also wanted to see. I don’t exactly understand the fuss, but my brother said it was a big deal because it connected the Piazza di Spagna to Piazza Trinità dei Monti. It is also the widest staircase in Europe.

This fountain, the “Fountain of the Old Boat,” was thought to have been made by Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s less famous dad, Pietro Bernini.

We walked to Fontana di Trevi from Piazza di Spagna, and I can’t seem to find the name of this statue (monument?), but we all loved looking at it.

It is said that if you throw a coins into the Trevi Fountain and drank water from it, you would come back to Rome. I didn’t see the later part and just threw in a bunch of coins, so I guess my Roman future is still up in the air.

Apparently, around 3,000 euros are thrown into the fountain everyday and it’s being used to subsidize a supermarket to feed Rome’s needy. I wonder if there are enough coins thrown into the Trevi Fountain, in total, to get Italy out of debt.

Michael Jordan.

A lady sitting in the Pantheon. I don’t know why, but I expected to see a lot of Renaissance renditions of old pagan gods and goddesses in the Pantheon, but I did not.

Accordion player at Piazza Navona.

Piazza Navona is a city square that’s flanked by three fountains, the center one (called “Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi” or “The Fountain of the Four Rivers”) made by my one of my favorite sculptors, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. I learned quite late that my favorite work of his are housed at the Galleria Borghese, which requires pre-booked reservations, so I’m happy I got to see this fountain, at least. It’s supposed to represent the Nile, the Danube, the Ganges, and the Platte—great rivers of territories or continents where papal authority had spread.

Lady in the window. Tomorrow, the Colosseo!

The post Roman Holidaze: the Vatican & Capella Sistina appeared first on Nothing Spaces.

Because of scheduling conflicts, we didn’t get to go to Versailles until the last full day, which turned out to be rainy. We opted to just tour the palace instead of going around the gardens. It was a little useless to do so in the rain, and in the middle of autumn. Or so I would imagine.

Versailles, now a city, was a province of France in which the royal palace could be found. It is, as you can see, extraordinarily lavish. I can’t imagine living in something that rich or that big. I suppose you can call it impressive, especially when you think about how it might have looked against the milieu of the starving French peasants.

For the record, I am not a fan. It’s a great place to visit, but it doesn’t appeal to me aesthetically, and I guess morally (though the fact that it’s been opened as a “museum” of sorts remedies that). For this reason, I don’t have a lot of pictures of the interiors. On that note, their beds are freakishly small.

I am, however, a fan of these floor tiles, which were by the exit.

We decided to ride back a little bit after lunch, in hopes that we could catch Musée d’Orsay before it closed for the day. We were met by a loooong line of people and a relentless downpour of rain.

(We went inside anyway.)

Technically, you can’t take pictures, but nobody ever said anything.

Look familiar, Whovians?

And that is the last of Paris! We caught a train to Munich, which entailed a transfer of trains at Stuttgart. A transfer to a train that we nearly missed. We literally had to run along the side of the train, which if you know me, might have been a pretty funny sight. In case you were wondering, we made it on the train just fine.

The post Château de Versailles, Musée d’Orsay & the last days of Paris appeared first on Nothing Spaces.

We’ve finished our Italy leg, and are now in Amsterdam (which is currently my favorite place, despite spending less than 24 hours here), so obviously I am quite far behind. I actually have not been taking a lot of digital pictures (or at least less than usual), so you and I have to wait for the film to be processed. I hope they turn out nice.

Monument near the Catacombs.

Anyway, back to Paris! After the Sunday flea market, we tried going to see the Catacombs. Upon arriving, however, we were met with a very long, disgruntled line of people due to some difficulties in the Catacombs’ operation. We decided to forego it, not wanting to risk getting stuck underground, and just visit the Centre Georges Pompidou, which houses Frances’ modern art.

There was a special exhibit on Gerhard Richter when we went, but I’ll get into that later.

A lot of people in Paris read on the train. I suppose people in Manila would do the same, if it weren’t so crowded all the time.

I am the annoying stranger who takes pictures of everybody and everything.

I didn’t bring a wide enough lens that could take Pompidou’s side view (it’s the famous metally one that has the impression of steps outside), so here’s the view from the top. If you look really closely, you can see Sacré-Coeur and Notre Dame, I think.

Here, you can see the Tour Eiffel.

A beautiful Calder piece outside.

A Pollock that I actually like.

Outside, the street was equally busy.

A tarot-reading session.

An artist making some pieces on the sidewalk.

The day was still early, so we decided to go see the Eiffel Tower, which is a whole other animal altogether. Which means that it warrants another post.

In other news, it’s my birthday in the Philippines! In an hour and a half, it will be my birthday here, too.

The post Paris 2012: Centre Georges Pompidou appeared first on Nothing Spaces.

On our first full day, we went to the Louvre, Notre Dame, but I’m splitting up the posts because I went a little too snap-happy and took way too many pictures. However, what you will see will still be only a fraction, as I literally made hundreds of photographs and a few minutes of footage. I hope you enjoy anyway.

My little art heart was ecstatic having seen all the art that was in the Louvre. There is a random fact/statistic that said that if you spent a minute on each piece, it would take you four months to complete the museum. A river cruise in the later days revealed that the art on display currently comprises only about 8% of the Louvre’s current collection. Can you imagine?

You enter the Louvre through the glass pyramid located in the central grounds (surrounded by the Sully, Dennon and Richelieu wings). The Louvre was constructed in 1793, with the glass pyramids added in 1988 by architect, I.M. Pei, under a project to renovate the Louvre by then-president, François Mitterand. Though initially met with vehemence (90% of Paris opposed the proposed design), majority of the Parisian population came to love it.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace or Nike

I was people-watching, too. This girl was sitting by a balcony-type area overlooking Nike.

Mona Lisa. Yes, it’s that small!

Some areas were undergoing renovation and some were closed to the public. It was exhausting trying to find your way around. I didn’t get to see some of the works I wanted to get a look at, but it was okay.

Cy Twombly’s The Ceiling at the Louvre’s Salles de Bronzes.

Even their staircases were beautiful.

A room full of Rubenesque women! I felt right at home over here.

My mom taking a picture of my dad taking a picture of Vermeer’s The Astronomer.

Venus de Milo

The inverted triangle inside the Louvre. I don’t understand why, in all of the places that we looked in Paris, not a single store sold any miniatures of the Louvre’s pyramids. Stroke of genius, in my humble opinion.

The post Musée du Louvre, 2012 appeared first on Nothing Spaces.

Here are some pictures from my dad’s last exhibit, Soler’s Static Nature, the (sudden) egress of which has prompted me to finally post. Both of us thought it would be up until September 1, but alas, it was taken down on August 27. Let me show you photos from the exhibit anyway.

Not to toot the familial horn, but I’m a huge fan of my dad’s. From when he started mounting exhibits in the late 80s, dropping out of school to pursue a career in art, he never seemed to be stuck inside a single idea or way of doing things. That’s not even considering the other variations of his work, outside of the things he chooses to show the world. Even without a show scheduled, he kept on working and trying out new things. His sketchbooks always piqued my curiosity, even though they were mostly rough sketches and plans for bigger pieces. It was fun to see the little box drawings come to life.

My fear in this pursuit of art is to be boxed into one particular thing. My dad has been a big motivator for me to try new things, even if they don’t seem to work out too well at the start. He somehow understands the constant flux in the business of making things, and he embraces it. Instead of being afraid of it, he uses it to his favor. Which is both intimidating (because, LOL, how can I ever come up with something like this?) and encouraging.

Though more known for his paintings, Soler created a stunning study of material and space with this three-piece series. Along with a (kinda meta) snapshot of the work, he created a clean divide of emptiness and fullness, using natural materials, and retaining the grid from his paintings. This is one of my favorite series.

This series is something more familiar to people who are already familiar with my dad’s work, although I find that the composition and Richter-esque “deconstruction” create an interesting semi-departure from his other, earlier work. Moving to abstraction from realism, and then sort of back again, he has managed to strike a great balance between the two.

This is, once again, something new. I don’t think he’s ever done small paintings of isolated objects before. The pieces were curated by Nilo Ilarde, spread out on a single wall, which was a great way to showcase them.

Unintentional matching with my pre-blonde sister. New-ish favorite green pants.

And now a barrage of pictures of Iniko’s face. Sold!

The post Soler’s Static Nature appeared first on Nothing Spaces.

My dad’s show is opening on Saturday at Finale, which reminded me of my backlog from July 11, which was when the shows of Nona Garcia, Pow Martinez, and Pipo Alido collectively opened at the same venue. Sorry I’m posting these at a time when you can no longer see them up, but here I go anyway.

Because it was my brother’s birthday, my sister came along with us to see the shows, after we all had dinner together. This is an unnatural thing. Here she is, playing Pocket Planes:

And again, from afar:

Pipo Alido’s O

Pow Martinez’ Sploshing

Nona Garcia (detail)

Pow Martinez (detail)

I have realized that I have to be a little bit more adventurous when it comes to making stuff—writing, making art, designing, everything. Sometimes, it just all becomes a little repetitive and a bit redundant. I have a very good feeling that I won’t have much to lose when I try something new. Even if it doesn’t quite work out, I would taken away a lesson from that—which is basically, don’t do this wrong thing again!

I think I also need to be more adventurous with clothes, as I am almost always in stripes, navy, and grey.

And I need to remember to keep my eyes peeled for beautiful things like the texture of this floor…

Or this private moment…

Or this quiet place.

The post Somewhere else appeared first on Nothing Spaces.

On June 23, my second one-man show, How Still, How Fast opened. I was met by a lot of encouraging feedback, and an overwhelming number of people, most of whom I never thought I would get to see soon. That’s another story. This post is about the day before, when we put everything up.

I literally (physically, emotionally, and a ton of other different ways) couldn’t have done this without these individuals. Yes, even Philly.

Lastly, a video Sarie made of the entire afternoon. 2,400+ manual shots equals a minute:

The post Setting Up For How Still, How Fast appeared first on Nothing Spaces.

Closing on Monday next week at West Gallery are exhibits by Ranelle Dial, Jojo Lofranco, Lotsu Manes & Mervin Pimentel, and Bembol dela Cruz.

Ranelle Dial’s Subsistence fills the space of Gallery 1 with large paintings of deserted rooms, a digital projection of “waiting” and graphic icons a few busted screens. As a commentary on technology and its role in today’s society, there is a visual disconnect between her digital displays and paintings, but they still somehow tell a story together.

Dial offers compelling renditions of deserted rooms—presumably void of people because of the pervasiveness of easily accessible technology found on devices such as smartphones and computers. Venues that are normally swarming with people are now deserted because people seem to “subsist” on technology and their pseudo-connectivity with the world via the Internet and other forms of digital media.

It’s a haunting portrait of how there is currently a lack of humanity, of warmth and of really connecting to and speaking with “real people,” even in the most basic areas of interaction, because we rely so much on being bridged by less physical means.

In Gallery 2, Jojo Lofranco’s Back to Black is a bold burst of a singular color. A handful of painted black-and-white images are collected, each marred by a single black squiggle. This makes me think of a deliberate abstraction, of the “ruining” of something that is delicate and intended to be representational.

Though these kinds of marks—made over realistic paintings—are often seen as something destructive, they, in this case, complete the picture, the collection, and the statement.

Lotsu Manes

A two-man show, Habol-Hininga, by Lotsu Manes and Mervin Pimentel in Gallery 3.

Mervin Pimentel

Gallery 4 houses Bembol dela Cruz’ Actus Reus, which in Latin refers to the “guilty act,” or a crime. A fitting title, considering the exhibit is made up of small square paintings of different handmade guns—weapons that accompany crimes. The paintings are hung opposite an axe engraved with a Latin phrase and a tumble of dark cloth draping one corner.

All shows are on display at West Gallery until June 25.

West Gallery
2/F 48 West Avenue, Quezon City
Mon-Sat: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Tel: 411-0336

The post West Gallery: Dial, Lofranco, Manes, Pimentel, dela Cruz appeared first on Nothing Spaces.