(SPOT.ph) We've all witnessed the shift the local art scene has undergone in recent years, as it has consistently gathered momentum and attracted a more mainstream audience. The question now: How do you keep that momentum going? By continuing to go out there to appreciate art, for one thing.
Here are the exhibits worth seeing this October:
Acoustic Childhood
Leonardo Onia Jr. treats the viewer to an auditory experience in Acoustic Childhood. The works displayed here give a visual recreation of fragmented memories from his youth, which is mostly sounds and symbols connected to the Catholic Church. In hindsight, he ironically found comfort and the feeling of freedom in an institution filled with rules.
Runs until October 26 at Blanc Gallery, 145 Katipunan Avenue, St. Ignatius Village, Quezon City. For more information, visit Blanc Gallery’s website.
Fractured Perfection
Brothers Olan and Manok Ventura mount Fractured Perfection, an exhibition where they recreate old masterpieces from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. As a reflection of how technology has changed our lives, they render these classical works in digital art—offering contrasting techniques of the old and new.
Runs until October 26 at West Gallery, 48 West Avenue, Quezon City. For more information, visit West Gallery’s website.
A Topology of Everyday Constellations
The visual narrative of everyday life presents an intriguing appeal in Jem Magbanua’s A Topology of Everyday Constellations. This series, which serves as an extension of her first show, is a study on time, temporality, and transformation as she juxtaposes images of mundane moments with natural and urban vignettes.
Runs until October 18 at Space Encounters Gallery, 7/F Padilla Building, F. Ortigas Jr. Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. For more information, visit Space Encounters Gallery’s website.
Actants
Widely respected Thai artist Mit Jai Inn breaks free and breaks out of the tenets of modernism by showcasing gravity-defying textile installations in Actants. Long strips of linen are heavily layered with the artist’s signature bold colors and put through different processes to achieve texture, such as immersion in hot wax and manually smearing and scraping the textiles.
Runs until October 19 at Silverlens, 2263 Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City. For more information, visit Silverlens’ website.
In Harmony with Nature
In Harmony with Nature is the accompanying exhibit of an international art and cultural exchange program between Filipino and Chinese artists. The exhibition positions works from both cultures, including paintings that resulted from the artists’ three-day residency in Palawan. Inspired by their conversations with one another, the pieces present the similarities and nuances of community, locality, and artistic expressions from both countries, as well as raising awareness on climate change and environmental preservation.
Runs until October 30 at Galeriya Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, 1104 East Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City. For more information, visit BSP’s website.
Cycles
A visual fairytale composed of macabre subjects and dainty, delicate flora is what makes up Cycles, the second solo show of visual artist Itsy Macasaet Dazo. The images presented are reflections of the artist’s exploration of the concepts of mortality, malady, and redemption.
Runs until October 18 at Space Encounters Gallery, 7/F Padilla Building, F. Ortigas Jr. Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. For more information, visit Space Encounters Gallery’s website.
Phenomena
Phenomena, a group exhibition that brings together artists like Gary-Ross Pastrana, Juan Alcazaren, and Corina Borromeo, explores the science behind the art-making process. With varying approaches, these artists commonly integrate the untamable and the manmade to investigate ideas and develop new work.
Runs until October 19 at ArtInformal Greenhills, 277 Connecticut Street, Greenhills, San Juan City. For more information, visit ArtInformal’s website.
Isla
Rocelie V. Delfin’s nostalgic landscapes of beautiful, curious islands recall the quiet afternoons spent exploring the beachside in her youth. Capturing them through minimalist and meticulously drawn minuscule lines conjured purely from memory, these images contain little stories and adventures of what could exist beyond the urban havoc of the world as we know it.
Runs until October 13 at MO_Space, 3/F MOs Design Building, 9th Avenue, Bonifacio High Street, Bonifacio Global City. For more information, visit MO_Space’s website.
unlearning and relearning to see
Three artists—Rinne Abrugena, Iabadiou Piko, and Kristoffer Ardeña—come together in an exhibit that explores how the space around us affects how we perceive truth. Abrugena uses large and broad strokes in her painting to show the struggle in finding clarity amid a busy world. Piko, on the other hand, portrays small fragments of places he's been to see how one holds on to memories. Ardeña paints over tarpaulin, a material which now has cultural significance in the Philippines, and lets them melt under the heat of the sun to show how natural occurrences heavily affect art-making.
Runs until October 12 at 1335Mabini, Karrivin Plaza, 2316 Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City. For more information, visit 1335Mabini’s website.
Quiet Places
In Quiet Places, Brave Singh imagines landscapes of a dystopian world where the surroundings evoke feelings of melancholy and hopelessness. These terrains, more notional than physical, reflect our psychological and emotional states—our very own quiet place—and show somber woods, furious skies, and hopeless clouds.
Runs until October 26 at Blanc Gallery, 145 Katipunan Avenue, St. Ignatius Village, Quezon City. For more information, visit Blanc Gallery’s website.
