The coming from dust, the return to dust, and the in-between called “life”: Exhibitions in January 2024

Some artists are more preoccupied with the end product of their works rather than the process of coming up with it. Some value the process more than anything because it is the process that does more of the talking.

Words Amanda Juico Dela Cruz
January 26, 2024

Some artists are more preoccupied with the end product of their works rather than the process of coming up with it—what is seen (or not seen) on the canvas, how the sculptural subject is posed, how an installation queers the “traditional” forms. Some value the process more than anything because it is the process that does more of the talking. Noëll El Farol’s preoccupation is on dust as a medium while Uri Deger’s goal is to remember fallen activists and to make a political protest. Ryan Villamael uses the imageries of a tropical island as a visual metaphor to the parallelism of history and post-colonial world. Indy Paredes seeks for the uncanny resemblance between her own lived experiences and the concrete structures she lives in. Renato Barja, Jr. relives the memories of his parents through rendering the objects he found in his parents’ home to portrait of the lives they lived and of the grief the artist himself feels. Meanwhile, Juan Alcazaren, Alfredo Aquilizan, Isabel Aquilizan, Victor Balangon, Elmer Borlongan, Annie Cabigting, Roberto Chabet, Jonathan Ching, Mariano Ching, Joy Dayrit, Pardo de Leon, Nilo Ilarde, Geraldine Javier, Mark Justiniani, Romeo Lee, Julie Lluch, Joy Mallari, Manuel Ocampo, Jayson Oliveria, Mawen Ong, Bernardo Pacquing, Diokno Pasilan, Christina Quisumbing Ramilo, Elaine Roberto Navas, Juni Salvador, José Santos III, Mona Santos, Soler Santos, Yasmin Sison, Gerardo Tan, Pam Yan Santos, and Reg Yuson problematize portraiture as a genre.

Cosmographia
Artist: Noëll El Farol | Galleria Duemila 

Photo from Galleria Duemila

Everything comes from dust and returns to dust, an idea that the artist believes in and explores in his practice. Stripping away the essentials of painting and of printmaking, he goes back to the beginning and skips forward to the end of time and of space. From the particles, he studies how things are formed into what we know them as, giving him a different, if not a better, sense of appreciation of what have been formed. The exhibition is not concerned only with the results, but with the process itself as he allows nature—gravity—to be his co-creator.

What Is to Give Light Must Endure Burning
Artist: Uri Deger | Anima Art Space

Photo from Anima Art Space

In one painting, a community carries out a bayanihan, except they are transporting a coffin. Traversing through what looks like an ankle-deep river, the people wear somber faces. In the middle of this rural scene painted in bloody palette is an image of a hand with a gun beside. A crime scene. On the right side is a nipa hut on fire. A blue rectangle bears the seal of “Government of the Philippine Islands, United States of America,” reminiscent of the podium in press briefings. The exhibition is for the fallen martyrs and for the living who are still fighting.

Return, My Gracious Hour
Artist: Ryan Villamael | Silverlens Galleries

Photo from Silverlens Galleries

Think of a tropical island. Think of metal cutouts of leaves of plants native to the region casting shadow on the walls as lights hit them. Think of a diorama of a rainforest encased in a vitrine. Think of the tropical island not merely as a setting, but as a holder of a nation’s memories and identities. Think of illustrations of a nation’s flora as bearers of colonial history. What is the value of reliving history? To parallel the past with the post-colonial present? To make sense of the present struggles? To cry out for accountability and for deep-rooted changes?

Coexistence is a Bliss
Artist: Indy Paredes | KalawakanSpacetime

Photo from KalawakanSpacetime

Build! The artist meditates on the system she navigates day in, day out. It is a gigantic system made up of concrete and brutality. Can the concept of uncanny resemblance be applied to such system? Build! The artist paints the underside of the elevated highway while experiencing pain in her spine. Both her spine and the urban planning system are “crooked yet functional, efficient yet brutal, flowing yet clogging,” in her words. Build! She collected videos of scenes of the elevated highway, muted, then subtitled with scripts from films. The scripts felt like they were written for the video collection.

Stillness and Stagnancy
Artist: Renato Barja, Jr. | Blanc Gallery

Photo from Blanc Gallery

“Ma and Pa, you left some of your stuff behind,” the artist tells his parents through his exhibition of Souvenirs of a Terrible Year. A bent nail. A kettle with a fork to replace its lost lid knob. A wishbone. Pins still stuck into the cushion. A key with a masking tape label of “LIVING ROOM.” The mundane objects he found at home become souvenirs of his parents’ lives. In the Weight of Silence, there are empty chairs being weighed down by cement blocks and rocks, as the artist murmurs only to himself, “Ma and Pa, walang alisan, walang tayuan.”

A Portrait of a Portrait Show: Explorations on Portraiture by 60 Artists (Part 2)
Artists: Juan Alcazaren, Alfredo Aquilizan, Isabel Aquilizan, Victor Balangon, Elmer Borlongan, Annie Cabigting, Roberto Chabet, Jonathan Ching, Mariano Ching, Joy Dayrit, Pardo de Leon, Nilo Ilarde, Geraldine Javier, Mark Justiniani, Romeo Lee, Julie Lluch, Joy Mallari, Manuel Ocampo, Jayson Oliveria, Mawen Ong, Bernardo Pacquing, Diokno Pasilan, Christina Quisumbing Ramilo, Elaine Roberto Navas, Juni Salvador, José Santos III, Mona Santos, Soler Santos, Yasmin Sison, Gerardo Tan, Pam Yan Santos, and Reg Yuson | Curator: Elaine Roberto Navas | MO_Space

Photo from MO_Space - Romeo Lee (2023)

It is not a portrait show in which the works of art are a representation of a person, their faces dominating the space, revealing a particular personality and mood. It is a portrait of a portrait show in which the works of art tackle the problematiques of portraiture. Curating works by artists spanning from the eighties and nineties to the present, portraiture is examined as a depiction of empirical or imagined personal narratives, an introspection of one’s being through a portrait of the other, an expression of abstract universal, and an idea that subverts the idea of the very portrait.