Was supposed to post the winners yesterday, but I had server issues, so apologies for that!

Anyway, because my parents are amazing people, I have drawn 5 names, instead of 2! So, I’m giving away 5 pairs of tickets to the ManilArt 10. I used http://random.org to draw the names.

1. #2 Mara
2. #8 Krinessa
3. #23 Jeric Rustia
4. #25 Nante
5. #29 Tim

Because I drew Tim’s and Krinessa’s names first (so they are, technically, the original winners), they will be the only people I can probably LBC/mail the tickets to. Please send me an e-mail to yankee@nothingspaces.com. To the rest of the winners, let me know if you can pick up the tickets from West Gallery, 48 West Avenue, Quezon City. Gallery hours are 10am – 5pm, Monday to Saturday. If not, send me an e-mail so we can arrange something.

Yay, congratulations!

For other ticket concerns, please send an e-mail to jonsy@manilart.com. I’ll ask about the tickets (if they will sell onsite, etc) and make an update for everyone else interested.

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.

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

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.

Nilo Ilarde

Wall of paint tubes!

My face!

Car detail.

This was written next to the car.
I suppose it’s the title. (I giggled.)

This hole was cut into one of the walls. It “leads” into the stockroom. See?

Top View!

Paulo Vinluan

Jonathan Ching

fin.

Barrioquinto.

Jaylo.

Jaylo’s exhibit is very lush and rich, having his space (the walls, at least) painted in a very deep red, paired with a squishy faux-grass floor covering. Which, I thought, really set off the surreal quality of his works. While they are rendered realistically (and really, really well, if I may say so), the hybridity of familiar elements result in surreal and dream-like images. It’s an odd sensation, to see these not-quite-real occurrences rendered so clearly and so precisely. The strange composite images are offset by his careful execution, which I love so much.

Lock.

This is the only photo I have of Lock’s exhibit, which is an unfair representation, but you can see the rest of his works here. Lock’s exhibition is largely comprised of black-and-white illustrations, representing the artist’s own struggles with life itself. His works are filled with emotion, and are largely concentrated on the human face.

Rain’s pretty tattoo!

More photos under the cut. For a complete gallery of the works cataloged, please visit West Gallery’s official website.

Exhibits will be up until July 17, 2010.
48 West Avenue, Quezon City.

Ling Quisumbing & Papa. She bought my first artwork! :D
A lot of her pieces are my favorites.

Mama, Rain Dial, Papa.

I think it’s pretty obvious whose exhibit was my favorite.

Kaloy Sanchez.

Frederick Sausa.

Michael Muñoz.

The shows were by Kaloy Sanchez, Frederick Sausa and Miguel Muñoz. I honestly can’t pick a favorite among the three. I’m super attracted to the aesthetic of Sausa’s work. It’s really the kind of look that I love, especially this one piece that was all wrapped up and ready for pick-up (sniff, sniff). You’ll see the photo later. I love the ideas behind Muñoz’ work, and obviously, the look is very striking and bold. Sanchez works for this show are mostly black-and-white, but his show is far from muted. The strokes are bold, and the resulting look is intense.

Obviously, I’ve lost a little bit of my ability to articulate these things in an art majorly manner, but I hope the photos speak for themselves.

M.m.’s calculator watch! Jealous.

(After my viewage of the exhibits, I had lunch with the parentals, M.m. Yu, and Nona Garcia in Omakase. The pictures I took of the food sucked, but the company was great and I left the restaurant as happy as a stuffed clam. Not that I know how happy stuffed clams get.)

Click for the actual photos. The pieces are quite lovely.

This is the piece I was talking about earlier. So pretty!

What made the night fun and hugely successful were the staggering support from friends, family and spectators, the dedication and commitment of the people involved, the inescapable, obvious talent of the artists whose works were being shown that day. Despite the stress, the bumps, some inevitable problems that one encounters with huge projects like this one, it was a solid first effort, from a golden group of artists who will, hopefully, change the frakking world.

It was a spectacular sight, seeing everybody come together like that. Pouring rain and all.

I only have a few photos from the exhibit because I am having a weird love-hate thing with the G-10 I used that night. (I think I might prefer the Olympus Pen EP-1 when shooting exhibits/dark indoor events, etc. My G-10 takes photos with so much noise!) But that’s another story.

In any case, these are the photos! Enjoy, maybe?

Outerspace Gallery, The Collective.

by Tim & Nina.

by Bia & Kris

by Pau & Gabby.

Pau & me!

Becca, Laurine, me!

Rob & Tim.

Raymond: H-Bomb Explosion.
(V-neck, suede shoes fancier than mine,
Looking For Alaska, chillin’ on a bean bag.)

Shadow puppets! & Jan’s head.

by An & En Estrada & Christian San Jose.

People.

Clark.

For the fourth day we were in Shanghai, we roamed around the city without any itinerary and surprisingly ended up going to pretty interesting places. Before lunch, we headed to East Nanjing Road, which is closer to the city’s center, if I’m not mistaken. We went to The Bund, from which we could see the infamous Shanghai skyline from across the river (Wusong, I think).

We were then able to go see an interesting exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was very near a nice park in People’s Square. At night, we went to Xintiandi, which is gorgeous. It’s a very popular area with lots of restaurants and bars. Most interesting: the architecture and feel of the place. Very traditional meets modern; I quite loved looking around here.

Then, we had excellent shao mai and dumplings for dinner.

Brother.

I don’t know, I like taking photos of strangers.

More photos under the cut; of the exhibit, Xintiandi and some more
from The Bund, and the walk back home.

Park! They were planting in a new tree.

Lots of table games, and lots of spectators.

I must admit, I do not understand.

Best shao mai in the world, pretty much.

My tea & a book.

The walk back home.

Cherries!

Neon lights read: “This Music Thing Has to Stop”

Siren’s Hall is a group show arranged and curated by Mariano Ching. Here’s an excerpt from the write up from the Mo Space website:

Visual arts and Music have always had a particular link. What with all the music one needs to listen to while making art, to the reference artists have been making in their art works. [...] Siren’s Hall came up as a way to tie up music and art together not as cover art to a band’s album but as a separate project that talks about music in a visual way.

Sleepyheads!

A music video! Drawn by Louie Cordero.

Mariano Ching!
My brother has a piece like this (but, of The Talking Heads) in his room.

Pretty cool, right? Well, it gets even cooler. My brother and I get there pretty late because he is a slowpoke, and by the time we reach the place, it is packed and the Sleepyheads are playing a pretty entertaining set. We go around the place, and there is such an excellent variety of works, I still get excited as I am writing this.

MM Yu.

Mawen Ong & Geraldine Javier.
This is such a creeper photo, I’m sorry.
But allow me to flail!

There’s a lot of mixed media work, installation pieces, paintings, photos, collages and videos. And none of them look excessively alike. I don’t know what it is about the collection, but it just seemed so fresh to me. It was pretty exciting to see how differently music moves people, and how people respond to music. I hope you get to check it out, it was amazing to be around so many different sorts of people, even if I didn’t really know a lot of them.

I don’t know, everything was just so pretty. Which maybe explains this pretty gigantic photo post. Apologies if your internet is connection is slow. I just wanted to take photographs of everything.

And then, it was kind of a win-win, because my brother bought me cupcakes.

On the way there!

Self-portrait fail.

The end!

So, yesterday, after work, I went to Finale to see three simultaneous exhibits. All of which were fantastic, by the way. I’m not in such an art-critic-y mood right now, so I’ll just let the photos speak for themselves.

Nona Garcia.

MM Yu.

I really love Finale’s space.
I’m glad the changed the lighting;
it looks a million times better.

Ian Quirante

CLOTHES.

Raymond Ang, art extraordinaire.
(LOLJK.)

French Macaroons! These things are weirdly expensive,
but also really, really, really good. (And pretty.)

We had a late dinner in Italianni’s after.

Some guy & my brother in the same shirt!
Waitress picked a table for us right beside them,
but my dad asked to be moved.

For more information on the shows, visit the Finale website. Here’s the gallery information:

Finale Art File,
Warehouse 17,
La Fuerza Compound (Gate 1),
2241 Pasong Tamo, Makati City (across Philippine School for Interior Design).

Mon. to Sat. 10AM to 7PM
Tels (632) 813 2310,
812 5034

More photos under the cut.

Nona Garcia

MM Yu

Ian Quirante

Raymond gave me a quill from his trip to Europe! Yes, as in to write owls with.

More pictures of macaroons!
We bought 14, a mix of butterscotch, raspberry, mint, lemon, rose and coffee, I think.

Thanks to Gabby, Aliver & their friends who stopped by, and Nash. :)

The exhibit will be up until May 30, 2010. Gallery hours are 11am-8pm daily. If you get lost, look for Nike & dimensione. This gallery is at the third floor of the building across them (the one that has BoConcept). Click the cut for more photos:

Isabel.

Reggie Yuson’s magnets are all over High Street.

Papa.

Mama.

Nash.

Me & Nash.