Viewing an artwork right where it was made offers a different experience to the audience. The environment, the studio of the artist provides an atmosphere quite nothing like a traditional gallery or museum space provides.
This is exactly what visual artist, poet, and model Maxine Syjuco wanted to achieve in opening the doors of her private studio in Muntinlupa to the public for her latest exhibition.
“By opening my private studio to the public, the audience will not only view but experience my works in the very same environment in which they are made,” shares the youngest daughter of artist and art critic Cesare Syjuco and visual and performance artist Jean Marie Syjuco.
Using her philosophical, often twisted voice in storytelling, Syjuco creates surrealist introspections of the human condition and its fragile intricacies.
For her latest, and perhaps most intimate, solo exhibit, dubbed Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame, Syjuco further explores her compulsion to dissect the subconscious mind—showcasing paintings of romantically-twisted imageries and dark fairytale-like dreams, such as transparently-clad children whose faces have been replaced by delicate paper boats, women falling from the weight of their own winged heads, and little girls morphing into ravenous cats and wolves.
“There is a profound light in the darkness, and my art philosophizes the thin line between seeking that light, and giving in to the blackness that betrays us,” she shares. “My objective has always been to explore the idea of ‘depth’ to the fullest—to look beyond the surface by disheveling it, and to embrace the inner beauty that is invisible to the eye.”
Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame is currently on view 24/7 by appointment until April 8 at ART LAB: Atelier Cesare and Jean Marie Syjuco. For appointments, reservations, and inquiries, contact 0917-534-0779, email [email protected], or visit www.facebook.com/artlabmanila.