Under the Same Southern Sky

Assembling a compelling group iteration entitled “Under the Same Southern Sky”, the Qube Gallery represents French and Philippine senior artists who work in, or trace their origins from the outside the capital city setting, or for ease, “the south”.

Text and images courtesy of Qube Gallery
February 10, 2023

Get out of the main cities and into the countryside. The roads narrow, the city lights fade, and the human settlements spread out. Life slows down, art turns to more parochial. Such cliched depictions of the dichotomy of provincial and city boundaries have existed throughout history, but they have changed with rapid speed and the distinctions have blurred with frenzied development.

Qube Gallery of Cebu presents its first banner show for 2023 as part of its participation in Art Fair Philippines. Assembling a compelling group iteration entitled “Under the Same Southern Sky”, the Gallery represents French and Philippine senior artists who work in, or trace their origins from the outside the capital city setting, or for ease, “the south”.

Be it south of France or the Philippines, we loosely united this narrative: for six artists to translate the unique bluer skies, vibrant sunshine, and laid-back lifestyle associated with living south of their respective capitals while balancing urban aesthetic and rural sensibilities. Through diasporic connections of artists in metropolises, this also contributes to understanding commonalities and differences in diverse urban contexts.  Furthermore, the exhibition presents a range of artistic responses, from artists' accounts to poetic expressions, through various media including cyanotype, collage, resin assemblages, sculptural forms, and weaving. The show aims to investigate personal and observed narratives exploring the fringes of the city where rural and urban meet and merge.

To continue Qube Gallery’s attempt to describe the pulse of our intricate art scene, the questions we asked have remained the same for our Philippine art fair shows: what is changing? How can we harness the vitality we see? How does this energy manifest itself in the visual arts tableau? 

We examined the works of three senior Visayan artists - Dennis "Sio" Montera's gestural abstractions and layered works, the botanical cyanotypes (Art Fair Philippines 2022) of Angela Silva, and Anton Quisumbing's complex sculptural forms.

At the same time, we expanded our artist response by senior French collage painter Pierre Marie Brisson (Art Fair Philippines 2021), the simulating and captivating resins of Didier Hagege, and the intricate manipulations and weaving of Francis Dravigny.

“Under the Same Southern Sky” is also Qube Gallery’s attempt at celebrating the 75 years of official French and Philippine friendship through a continued discourse through art.