In a rare gathering, Now Gallery brings to Filipino art-lovers and gallery-hoppers this unique exhibition of five selected artists for the month of June. There is no better way to celebrate Philippine independence than with a show of five artists who bring to art audiences their different aesthetics, preferences, and ideas across different age groups (Their birth years range from 1959 to 1989), but all using genuinely pinoy wit.

 

Cris Villanueva, Jr. “Checking the constant” After 20 years of art practice, the self-reflexive quality of Cris Villanueva’s works still naughtily influences the canvas. He uses a noncommittal approach to painting, and manages to come off as ironic yet neutral. “Its effortlessness decides that no issue dominates.”

 

Jucar Raquepo’s, “Cacophony of Monsters” illustrates the Filipino humor and mentality, appropriating the jeepney aesthetic. Lian Ladia writes, “He attempts to work out a reflexive dialogue between global trends and local realities. To Raquepo, the jeepney, which is a hybrid mixture of both Filipino and American inventions, is the center of aberration, a monstrosity of some sorts, and in some of his paintings, the gambling dogs have become funny monsters”. Raquepo puts cultural associations into subversive play.  He is especially provocative in the simultaneous suggestion of underdog and master, of resistance, and power-play, intolerance and overthrow – peppered with a lot of humor.

 

Maxine Syjuco creates objects that present the overlooked details, things that society sees as “feminine”. Syjuco destabilizes and questions by giving these seemingly inconsequential matters some attention. Her current work for this show, “Medusa, My heart is yours” is an assemblage of sculptures of heads or busts which are actually human hearts. The work is an eerie juxtaposition of the feminine, and the Medusa idea, with tubes and arteries extending in wave-like forms, evoking a narrative influenced by performance and fantasy.

 

Irma Lacorte follows the tradition of crafting beauty from recycled materials, an invitation to storytelling, a critique on institutionalized religion, and vice versa. In “My Greens” thick lines bisect the series rendered in metallic colors, with some sections allowing for various orientations, thus changing the idea of what might be placed on top, or at the bottom.

 

Caroline Ongpin, There is No Plan B, shows drawings of graphite and ink, utilizing enlarged blueprints. The blueprints depict the differences between space that is actually used, as opposed to its original purpose- thus showing the disparity between plan and its realization.