Author and nutritionist Adelle Davis famously said: “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper”. People have mixed opinions about breakfast being the most important meal of the day, but the idea of morning meals depends on one’s culture, habit, and lifestyle.
In a typical Filipino household, breakfasts are taken earnestly. The classic Filipino spread consists of hearty elements. Rice, eggs, and meat are staples in the breakfast table.
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Gabby Prado’s exhibition at Galerie Stephanie, purposely titled “Breakfast”, is her way of honoring this familial routine. The moments Gabby and her loved ones shared over meals gave her fond memories that she holds near and dear to her heart, and she would excitedly look forward to it “like waiting for gifts” on a Christmas morning.
Her conviction as an artist is to channel her experiences as a Filipino female artist through her artworks. She wishes to evoke the In this series, she highlights these meals as an integral part of herself and her heritage. She says, “Many of us do not show off Filipino dishes on social media the way we do with Korean BBQ, Croissant, or other Western foods.”
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“Prado relates the chewy consistency of meat (tapa, longganisa) to her resiliency; trying to be independent even with a hearing disability. The taste of Atchara, a pickled preserve made out of grated unripe papaya, reminds her of memories that have gone sour. Garlic rice, a staple for the artist, is like a testament to her achievements: every moment of hard work tossed together to create something whole and unforgettable. However, the dominance of eggs fulfills how the artist sees herself. In this exhibition, ceramic sculptures in its shape are presented. The egg’s structure with its inner and outer bearings proclaim the cycle of fragility and strength of working as a female artist with synesthesia (specifically called Chromesthesia, which translates auditory data into images; another form, lexical-gustatory synesthesia is described to cause an individual to smell or taste a written or spoken word).” -Show curator, Gwen Bautista
