(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 November:
More light than heat
Calle Wright extends the run of Lao Lianben and Lesley-Anne Cao’s More light than heat, which features works that examine the themes of fidelity, loyalty, and devotion. Consisting of video art and paintings, the two artists collaborate to explore the state of stillness and the relationships of objects when passed on from one person to another.
Runs until November 29 at Calle Wright, 1980 Vasquez Street, Malate, Manila City. For more information, visit Calle Wright’s website.
Everything Black and White
AR Manalo and Mark Nativo capture the mundane and render them in black-and-white artworks that may take you back to painful moments of regret and loss. In Everything Black and White, the artists depict their subjects in contrasting elements through monochromatic hues.
Runs until November 14 at Space Encounters Gallery, Unit 7D, 7/F Padilla Building, F. Ortigas Jr. Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. For more information, visit Space Encounters’ website.
Act Like Nothing’s Wrong
For his second solo show at Artinformal, artist Cris Villanueva Jr. presents a playful take on different acts of human recording, whether it’s a sketch on paper or a drawing in a mobile app. The exhibition invites everyone to view the artist’s works on canvas with awareness, but at the same time, an ironic carelessness as if there’s nothing wrong with the picture.
Runs until November 16 at Artinformal, Karrivin Plaza, Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City. For more information, visit Artinformal’s website.
Bloodline
Taking inspiration from the complexities rooted in being a Filipino with Chinese ancestry, Dexter Sy presents a series of paintings that depict unconventional and unfamiliar notions about families and family portraits. In Bloodline, he transports viewers to a painted world and encourages them to get to know the narrative behind each work.
Runs until November 16 at 1335Mabini, C01 Karrivin Plaza I, 2316 Don Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City. For more information visit 1335Mabini’s website.
flight
Fascinated by stairs, Christina Quisimbing Ramilo showcases sculptural representations of stairs in various forms and designs. Ramilo reflects on these staircase structures as she leads the way for you to take flight and discover what awaits at the end of each set of steps.
Runs until November 17 at MO_Space, 3/F MOs Design, 9th Avenue, Bonifacio High Street, Bonifacio Global City. For more information visit MO_Space's website.
Songspiels and Tragicomedies
Touching on Social Realism as an art movement, collective Chto Delat from St. Petersburg in Russia and our very own Alfredo Esquillo Jr. speak of capitalism and class struggle in Songspiels and Tragicomedies. The works for the exhibition become common ground for Eastern Europe and the Philippines, where society becomes a subject on canvas.
Runs until January 24 at Bellas Artes Outpost, 2/F The Alley at Karrivin, 2316 Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City. For more information visit Bellas Artes Outpost’s website.
Pure Gold - Upcycled! Upgraded!
As the saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” and this is true for all the craftsmen and artists exhibited at Pure Gold - Upcycled! Upgraded! at Vargas Museum. The touring exhibition advocates recycling used materials such as plastic, wood, and rubber, and transforming them into valuable objects. It also features local designer Maco Custodio and social enterprises JunkNot, Siklo Pilipinas, and Rags2Riches.
Runs until November 23 at Vargas Museum, Roxas Avenue, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City. For more information visit Vargas Museum’s website.
Yellow Ambiguities
Yellow Ambiguities prods its audience to speculate on other possible meanings of the works—which are mostly yellow—outside the political context that, these days, is associated with them. From religious art to textiles and pigments, you are treated to everything yellow and, at the same time, encouraged to question the narrative and use of the color.
Runs until January 5 at the Ateneo Art Gallery, Arete, Ateneo de Manila University, Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City. For more information visit Ateneo Art Gallery’s website.
Vertical and Horizontal Dreams
Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Awardee Jao Bautista presents abstract designs inspired by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The foreign artist’s influence is evident in Bautista’s use of geometric shapes. In Vertical and Horizontal Dreams, he explores heights, angles, and a linear orientation.
Runs until December 28, at Galleria Duemila, 210 Loring Street, Pasay City. For more information visit Galleria Duemila’s website.
Autoportraits
From the title itself, Autoportraits reflects on one’s identity as determined by human activities and functions. Nice Buenaventura poses the rhetorical question, “Does the machine in the laboratory, when given agency to create its own sound-image, become an artist?” in the process looking to define one’s role in society.
Runs until November 16 at Artinformal, Karrivin Plaza, Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City. For more information, visit Artinformal’s website.
