An Ode to the Masters

Galerie Francesca presents a fresh perspective to Filipino Neo-Realists with the works of Alex Ordoyo, Herbert Pajarito, and Domeng Sinulid in the latest exhibition, ‘Ode to the Masters’.

Text and Images provided by Galerie Francesca
July 25, 2023

In 1950, the main proponents of Abstract Art in the Philippines called the Neo-Realists, expressed their credo through Francesco de Santis message on the artist’s role in creating a new reality:

“To create reality, an artist must first have the force to kill it. But instantly the fragments draw together again, in love with each other, seeking one another, coming together with desire, with the obscure presentiment of the new life to which they are destined. And the first real moment of creation in that tumultuous and fragmentary world, is the moment when those fragments find a point, a center around which they can press. It is then that the artist’s creation comes out from the unlimited, which makes it fluctuant, and takes on definite form – it is then that it comes to birth. It is born and lives, rather it develops gradually, in conformity to its essence.”

Alex Ordoyo, Domeng Sinulid, Herbert Pajarito, the artists of Galerie Francesca’s “Ode to the Masters” appear to be consistent with their figurative abstractionist predecessors namely Vicente Manansala, Ang Kiukok, Arturo Luz among others, in their predilection for recreating a figurative pictorial plain replete with lines, joyfully belabored with the aesthetic qualities of baroque in the sense that they are both overwhelmingly sensory that they evoke seemingly paradoxically the emotional and the spiritual.

Alex Ordoyo, Ode to Mauro Malang ‘Barong-Barong’ (2023), on view at Galerie Francesca.

Alex Ordoyo, a new artist to Galerie Francesca, breaks the image with seemingly random lines, with some bisecting each other or crossing each other ever so often which, when viewed as a whole, reveal “a new reality” – a pictorial plane in monochrome.

A grand prize winner for water media category of the MADE Art competition in 2018 for his compelling depiction of a devastated Marawi City using his signature technique, Ordoyo comes with homages to Arturo Luz and Vicente Manansala. His largest piece, “City,” is in conversation with Arturo Luz’s 1959 work, “City” from the Ateneo Art Gallery. The other pieces being his renditions of Vicente Manansala’s “Jeepneys”, also from the Ateneo Art Gallery collection.

Herbert Parajito, Beautiful Seed (2023), on view at Galerie Francesca.

Herbert Pajarito, one of the artists represented by Galerie Francesca, is also a MADE 2013 grand prize winner with an intricate signature style of sinuous, undulating lines creating lavishly colored, moving images, often of animals, plants and other natural things where the artist insists the presence of the divine is manifested. For his homage, Pajarito zooms in on the floral works of Juvenal Sansó, whose exuberant flowers, though based on the natural structure of flowers, are also the product of the artist’s imagination, and are the artist’s expression of joy and contentment.

Domeng Sinulid, An Ode to Gustav Klimt (2023), on view at Galerie Francesca.

Domeng Sinulid, the nom de plume of self-taught artist Jeffrey de la Cruz, is known for his layering of thread-like paint to create both image and volume. A new artist to Galerie Francesca, his works have been shortlisted as finalists in many regional art competitions and have been exhibited in various art fairs like Art in the Park, Xavier Art Fest, Sampayan Art Festival and Art Rocks.

For his contribution, his major piece pays homage to Juan Luna’s Spoliarium. And his other works are in conversation with Anita Magsaysay Ho, Ang Kiukok, Pablo Picasso, and Gustav Klimt. In his works, threads of paint seemingly layer and intersect randomly and exuberantly, creating motion and volume, not just an image, imbuing them with qualities that only works by this artist have. In some of the works, the nimble “maya” is seen, as this bird often comes into the pictorial plane of the artist.

Galerie Francesca is pleased to present “Ode to the Masters” by Alex Ordoyo, Herbert Pajarito, and Domeng Sinulid. Aside from continuing the conversation of figurative abstraction that was started by the Neo-Realists in the 1950’s, this exhibition presents to new artists to our viewers and collectors who bring new ways of representing the image.

“Ode to the Masters” ran from July 14-30, 2023 at Galerie Francesca, Megamall with an Artists’ Reception on the 18th of July, 6pm.

For more information visit the Galerie Francesca website www.galeriefrancesca.com. You may also check their social media pages FB: @galeriefrancescaph IG: @galeriefrancescaph for more details.