(SPOT.ph) The pandemic threw a huge curveball for everyone, including artists and cultural workers. Being crowd-gathering indoor spaces, a number of art galleries and museums temporarily closed in the early part of the quarantine in 2020, forcing them to adapt and shift to the digital platform through virtual exhibitions. Now that our favorite places are opening up again (art fairs included!), most galleries are once again welcoming art enthusiasts. If you're part of the crowd that sorely misses the quiet of an exhibit, then don't forget to reserve an appointment in advance and strictly follow health guidelines. Stay safe!
Check out these art exhibits in Metro Manila this April:
Lures from the Other Land
Pope Bacay continues to develop his landscapes that are deeply rooted in his memory of a place he considers home. Lures from the Other Land offers a different perspective of viewing a landscape through the composition and features that characterize it.
Runs until April 21 at the Artinformal Gallery, The Alley at Karrivin, 2316 Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City. For more information, follow Artinformal Gallery on Facebook.
When death dies, all things live.
The contemplation of the sublime opens up another possibility for mankind in an apocalyptic world as described in When death dies, all things live. Participating artists Diwa Abueva, Cholo Cardenas, Liam De Leon, Alyssa Gwen, One, and Vien Valencia, reflect on this kind of existence that leads to an end.
Runs until April 22 at the Gravity Art Space Gallery, 1810 Mother Ignacia Avenue, Quezon City. For more information, follow Gravity Art Space on Facebook.
Ten Thousand Things That Breathe
Renato Orara speculates on how the physical and intangible values of an object deteriorate in a time of crisis. Ten Thousand Things That Breathe responds to the shifting ideas and realities that inform our perception of things as exemplified in the manner he depicts objects using ink and paper.
Runs until April 5 at Silverlens Galleries, 2263 Don Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City. For more information, follow Silverlens Galleries on Facebook.
The Hotel Painter 2
Jonathan Olazo’s The Hotel Painter 2 responds to earlier paintings that depart from the association of abstraction in art as merely decorative in nature. The exhibition, which is curated by Ringo Bunoan, situates the artist and his art in a hotel setting where it permits meditation on the potential of a painting.
Runs from April 7 to 30 at Galleria Duemila, 210 Loring Street, Pasay City. For more information, follow Galleria Duemila on Facebook.
Cartographic Memories
Cartographic Memories consists of works produced at the start of the pandemic in 2020—the same time when artist Marika Constantino relocated to her new home in Roxas City, Capiz. The process of interweaving threads with rubber cut prints "provided a sense of connection despite [the] distance," writes Constantino in an Instagram post.
Runs until April 9 at Pablo Gallery, Unit C-11, South Of Market Condominium, 26th Street, Fort Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, visitPablo Gallery's website.
Assorted Ornaments
Australian-born and now Laguna-based artist Jessica Dorizac touches on both organization and disarray in her series of works that resonate with the aesthetic properties employed in making a collage and an assemblage. Dorizac is also one of the two featured artists alongside Maria Lourdes Abulencia at the Project Space Pilipinas in Lucban in Quezon.
Runs until April 12 at HUB Make Lab, First United Building, 413 Escolta Street, Binondo, Manila City. For more information, visit The Den Manila's website.
A New Earth
Kalawakan SpaceTime gathers more than 90 visual artists for its 2022 inaugural exhibition A New Earth. The group presentation includes artists coming from various backgrounds and practices, including Dex Fernandez, Lourd de Veyra, Allan Balisi, Dennis Bato, Kiko Escora, Indy Paredes, Zeus Bacson, Tanya Villanueva, and Jan Sunday.
Runs until May 6 at Kalawakan SpaceTime, 2/F Casa Bella Building, 1046 Quezon Avenue coner Don A. Roces Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City. For more information, follow Kalawakan SpaceTime on Facebook.
ARTipolo
Pinto Art Museum organizes ARTipolo, which presents the City of Antipolo as another creative hub for artists and art enthusiasts. It features Norberto Villez, Vivian Nocum Limpin, Joemari Cagas, Jaspreet Kaur, and more than 40 other artists. The exhibition title is a play on the word Antipolo, the city where the museum is located.
Runs from April 3 to 24 at Pinto Art Museum, 1 Sierra Madre Street, Grand Heights Subdivision, San Roque, Antipolo City, Rizal. For more information, follow Pinto Art Museum on Facebook.
Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts
In a very timely exhibition, Filipino and UK-based artist Pio Abad comes home to the Philippines for the presentation of a project 10 years in the making. According to the Ateneo Art Gallery website, Fear of Freedom Makes Us See Ghosts probes the "conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos" by revisiting the atrocities of the Marcos regime during one of the darkest periods in Philippine history.
Runs from April 19 to July 30 at the Ateneo Art Gallery, Areté, Ateneo de Manila University, Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City.. For more information, visit Ateneo Art Gallery's website.
The Glass Menagerie
As the title of the exhibition suggests, The Glass Menagerie features exquisite glass pieces from artists Gabriel Lichauco, Lilianna Manahan, Stanley Ruiz, and other collaborators. It is a reprise of this year’s celebration of the United Nations International Year of Glass.
Opens on March 25 at Aphro, The Alley at Karrivin Plaza 2316 Chino Roces Avenue Extension, Makati City. For more information, follow Aphro on Instagram.