My brother, Luis, had his first one-man show on the same day that I did. However, he also had another one-man show at Manila Contemporary that same week. (Insane, I know. He is cray.) Exposition features some of his larger work, which I love without bias.

Typically, I look for themes and meanings behind works of art. Coming from a show I put up myself, I have realized how potentially irritating and inaccurate it is to form analyses of works that have no literature to back it up. I don’t really mind so much; it’s more of I don’t want people to get the wrong idea. In any case, Exposition is pretty straightforward. I think the message here is more of the beauty that can be found in something as commonly depicted as skulls, and that this subject matter doesn’t necessarily have to be macabre or horrific.

I personally think that the fact that these were rendered so detached and void of anything thematic is partly what makes them so beautiful. The scale and the skill with which these pieces were made are what make these pieces so visually arresting. How is one moved by what is essentially a symbol of death, something that depicts the absence of life, feelings, and emotions?

It’s a funny feeling trying to explain why my brother’s work is so good (haha), so I’m going to stop now. If you find these photos to be stunning, however, I urge you to stop by the exhibit one of these days because they are so much more beautiful in real life.

Spot the Shinji.

This is Sarie with my favorite piece, for scale! (She’s about as tall as me.) It’s of a fox, and everyone seems to love it the most.

Detail.

Lion skull.

Our youngest sibling, Isabel, also passed by. We almost never see her around these parts, so it was nice seeing her there. I mean, she’s always fun:

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Exposition is on display until January 8, 2012 at Manila Contemporary (Whitespace 2314, Chino Roces Avenue, Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati City). Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday: 11am – 7pm, Sunday: 11am – 4pm. It’s closed on Mondays and public holidays. Contact information: +63 2 8447328, info@manilacontemporary.com.

I went to the Ayala Museum for an exhibit by Ang INK (celebrating their 20th year!) last November 21 so I could meet up with Zeus Bascon, who’s a part of INK. He’s an artist and I’m a fan of his work with collages. I also went there because my friend, Franny, is also a part of it.

There were so many people.

By Pepper Roxas, someone who I’ve always associated with INK.

By Bru Sim. Took this partly because I felt like my sister would love it. :)

Here is Fran! And my fat face!

This is what she made. It’s kind of hard to photograph, because it’s glass on both sides, but I can assure you that it’s very, very lovely.

A close-up of a paper boat!

The Fran abides.

You can view 20 Taon at Ayala Museum’s Ground Floor Gallery until January 15, 2012. Follow the link for museum details.

Hello! As I said in the last post, I’ll be having my first solo exhibit soon. It’s called Excavations from the End of the World, and I wanted to make you feel like rifling through the remnants of an apocalyptic event, like the last remaining archaeologist.

Douglas Adams ascribed a new meaning to ‘ahenny,’ which points to the way people stand when they look at other people’s bookshelves. I just wanted to mention that because it generates a certain image of the type of work I’m going to make, and how people will respond to them. At least in my head.

WHEN: December 6, 2011, 6pm.
WHERE: West Gallery, 48 West Avenue, Quezon City
MAP:

If you go, you’ll also see new work by my brother, Luis Santos, Frederick Sausa and Kaloy Sanchez. They are some of my favorite artists, no biases. I posted about Sausa’s and Sanchez’ work before. Also, I will feed you food and beer.

If you can’t make it to opening night, it’s still going to be up until the end of the year (December 31). Let me know if you’re going to pass by, so I can say hi!

Thanks for reading, and I hope I see you there!

Gallery hours are Monday-Saturday, 9am – 6pm.
Telephone: +63 2 411 0336
Fax: +63 2 411 9221
Email: info@westgallery.com

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These are some of my old pieces, but they’re pretty close to the kind of work I’m making for this show:

From Manilart.

From a group show.

It’s been nearly a week, but my fingers still shiver at the prospect of folding over sheet metal. Not that I come across opportunities to do so very often. The last time, though, was on October 3rd (which was a Monday), for Tom Dixon‘s Flash Factory in Manila.

Held at MO_Space, the Flash Factory involves the assembly of Tom Dixon’s Etch series onsite. Visitors can observe the production of these pieces, which can be bought as soon as they are finished being assembled. In some countries though, the pieces are also available disassembled, so people can be part of the production of the goods that they buy.

Meggie

Messy table!

Goofing around with Sarie, who took some of these pictures.

It’s a pretty encouraging statement, actually. The Flash Factory introduces an approach to design and production where a person can act out all the roles needed for output to see the light of day.

In theory, strictly speaking, anyone can take care of all the steps—from the vision (design), to the production (sourcing the materials, putting everything together), to the selling and marketing. I mean, if a cretin like me can put together a pretty expensive lamp, I’m sure you can, too. Of course, not everyone is born a Tom Dixon, but I don’t think this process promises success. I think it highlights possibility. It’s proof that it can be done, and that’s good enough for me.

(He is working on a candle holder. This is a smile of lies.)

(Also a smile of lies.)

It was a humbling experience. Our work conditions were far from actual labor environments here in the Philippines. The table we were working on costs more than the total of what I made when I used to work for Lomography. Still—imagine feeling defeated because of a puny candle holder! Those were hellacious to fold. The Etch Lights were fun to make, because construction was pretty easy. We all made roughly around 4 to 5 candle holders and the numbness didn’t go away from my hands until maybe three days after. As with most difficulties, though, comes reward!

YAY! :D I bought one for myself. A little more than what I would normally pay for, for anything, but it’s the fruit! Of my labor! Plus, it’s technically designer furniture. Also, it is really, really pretty. On the upside, each purchase of Tom Dixon’s Etch range benefits autism in the Philippines.

Sarie has been taking a series of exhibit videos, and this is the first one she got around to editing. Check out the process below, and as always, there are more photographs under the cut!

Tom Dixon’s latest collection and micro movies are going to be on display in MO_Space until October 16.

MO_Space
MOS_Design Building
B2 Bonifacio High Street,
Bonifacio Global City

Open daily: 11am-8pm

(If you’re lost, this is the place that’s often misattributed as the Bo Concept Store. I think they carry Bo Concept, but they also have tons of other stuff. It’s right across Nike, and right beside Krispy Kreme, if that helps.)

Click me for more photos. More detailed view of the process, plus general mucking around.

I like it when my parents’ gallery opens exhibits. Aside from the obvious reasons (e.g. convenience, relentless bias), it’s always enjoyable because there are usually four shows up for display and consumption. Last Tuesday, four amazing artists—Mark Andy Garcia, Jigger Cruz, Dexter Fernandez, and Bjorn Calleja—had their works up! And I was pretty excited.

My favorite of the bunch were, predictably, Jigger’s and Dex’s. I don’t know if it’s because I’m most familiar with their work—it’s probably not—but I just felt so excited looking at their work.

Dead End
Jigger Cruz
Gallery 2

The one on the right is called “The Extremist,” and it’s a portrait of Jacques Derrida. My brother thought it was Freud. At one point Jigger was telling us the story behind it, and it fascinated me that there even was a story behind it.

Jigger’s work is the most aesthetically appealing to me, though, I like his old colors better. Comparing these pieces to his old works, there’s a lot more figurative images at play (vague but more pronounced renditions of what seem to me to be flowers?, for example) and a lot more paint. His applications are more liberal and seem more deliberate.

And, look! There was a sculpture, too.

X O X O X O
Dexter Fernandez
Gallery 3

Dex’s work is so cheeky to me. Looking through these works (I think there were about 40), I giggled and chortled so many times. In the words of someone that was there that night, but whose identity I have conveniently forgotten, to Dex, “Mabait ka kasi, kaya dinamitan mo sila.”

It made me think about subliminal messages, and what image our brains process, even when there’s nothing really obscene about what we see. Strictly speaking, Dex’s images are a bunch of people, with lots of different photos and colors strewn about around them. What’s funny is that even though those images and colors are loud and sort of in-your-face, it’s hard to keep your mind away from what you’re supposed to be seeing but aren’t (i.e., pornography).

I think it’s pretty clever, too, that these cover-ups actually somewhat calls to attention the lack of obscenity that you kind of expect. You end up filling in the blanks, whether you like it or not.

My favorite pieces were the ones with illustrations, and the one with cut-out holes that form a pattern. Optical illusion, sure, but you kind of know what you’re supposed to see anyway.

Acquainted with the Night
Mark Andy Garcia
Gallery 1

Some Failed Attempts In Creating A Good Image for Painting
Bjorn Calleja
Gallery 4

All shows will be up until the 8th of October.

What to do with a good head on some shoulders? The face you are now seeing is that of Lauren Hutton (shot by Irivng Penn in 1960) and is the “base” for Roberto Chabet’s Head Series, on display at Galleria Duemila currently. Works on Paper is comprised of several pieces from the Head Series spanning from 1986 to 1992.

The writeup that accompanies the exhibit was written by Ma. Victoria Herrera, who was my professor for “Narratives in Western Art” back in Ateneo. I thought it was an interesting piece, since she chronicles the history and progression of Chabet’s work, noting influences by Kurt Schwitters (who was referenced in one of pieces in this series). She also goes into the workings of collage-making, in an effort to understand the appeal of the process and the medium, as well as to provide its historical background.

A different and condensed version is up here, but I’ll try to scan the printed writeup soon because I loved reading it a lot. Nothing like a well-researched piece, really!

Anyway, onto the show! Works on Paper features over thirty works. It’s really cool to me, because it reminded me of the iteration exercises we used to have for design. By setting a limit or a boundary (in this case, that photo of Lauren Hutton), the artist is tasked to rework it several times. It’s kind of like trying to solve a problem using more than one solution, or looking for more than one way to draw a line. Or something.

For one project we had that dealt with iteration—it was aptly called “8×8″—we were tasked to make eight designs (that fell under a theme; e.g. mine was “animals”) and find eight ways to apply them on apparel/merchandise. It was fun because you really had to think outside the box and, usually, when you’re at your wit’s end, that’s when you come up with the best solutions and results.

Here are some of my favorite pieces. My camera setting was absolutely wrong for their lighting set-up, so I only have a few photos. You can view the exhibit over here, anyway. Or you know, go visit the gallery!

Galleria Duemila
210 Loring Street
1300 Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines
(view map)

Tel: (632) 831-9990 or (632)833-9815
Fax: (632) 833-9815
Email: gduemila@gmail.com
Website: www.galleriaduemila.com

Read the rest of the entry & see the rest of the photos!