Exhibits
Labyrinthine
Video Room, Finale Art File, Makati City
Ongoing until February 27
Visual artist Keiye Miranda uses water as a symbol of passage and transition in her latest series of paintings that revolves around her personal reflections on loss, life and death, memory, and time.
With bodies of water as her base, Miranda merges fluid, flora and textiles to create abstracted fragments of a fleeting world. She gathers wilted flowers from a memorial park, submerges them in water, and combines these with small wooden boats laced with colored fabrics. The act of submersion symbolizes cleansing, while the water connotes physical and symbolical journey. With these two elements, her paintings are able to show how things can be momentarily purified, revisited and seen anew.
For more details on this exhibit, visit www.finaleartfile.com.
Bululs And Other Oddities
Silverlens Gallery, Makati City
Ongoing until March 12
In his solo exhibition, Eduardo Olbés commemorates the Bululs by presenting his version of these once-considered guardian figures of Filipinos before foreign religious figures arrived on our shores.
The sculptures of Bululs on display take the viewers back to the time when virulent antagonisms between warring religions did not yet exist, and back when we had a more equal nature – the time when women could manage their own property even after marriage, have children with no husband, and be a political leader or a priestess, among other rights. Olbés also exhibits another cultural oddity, a series of Smoking Mirrors (obsidian) which are considered sacred in the Mesoamerican context to the god Tezcatlipoca.
Call (02) 816-0044 or email info@silverlensgalleries.com for inquiries and more details on this ongoing exhibit.
Beyond
The Big Room, ArtInformal Gallery, Mandaluyong City
Ongoing until March 12
Where do we go when we die? How about the animals around us, do they have a certain kind of heaven or hell or limbo as well? Dazed with the enigma of death and modern societies’ continuous practice of religious rites that involve blood and animal massacre, Jonas Eslao exhibits his current series of paintings and, for the first time, a makeshift shrine installation that scrutinizes the endless string of theories and probabilities of our destination following our demise.
A serial surrealist, Eslao sketches images of existing barbaric death rituals using earthy colors tempered by pastel patterns, rendering lightness into an otherwise dark and violent phenomenon. The artist adds layers of animal anatomy into people in his paintings, deliberately paints headless humans to show what it looks like when people take out that body part from the animals they slaughter, and packages wild animals as a way of giving them proper burial which not only humans deserve.
The title of the solo show ends with a semicolon to let the spectators add their own questions and other speculations on their end and destiny.
For more details, visit www.artinformal.com.
Drawing the Lines
Lopez Museum and Library, Pasig City
February 26 to July 8
Lopez Museum and Library opens the year with an exhibit that reassembles defunct publications by piecing together clippings, old photographs, caricatures and other materials to reevaluate the role of editorial and political cartoons and the importance of this medium in light of different contexts.
The group show features the powerful editorial cartoons of Danilo Dalena, Neil Doloricon, E.Z. Izon, Dengcoy Miel, Dante Perez, Jose Tence Ruiz and Pinggot Zulueta. Completing the exhibit are illustrations by Liborio Gatbonton and Vicente Manansala, as well as social realist and abstract works by Onib Olmedo, Cesar Legaspi, Brenda Fajardo and Galo Ocampo, among others. The exhibit attempts to position these artists as rightful co-authors of history through illustrated media, while complementing the written texts and musings of their readers.
Entrance fee to the museum to view this exhibit ranges from P60 to P100. Call (02) 631-2417 or email lmmpasig@gmail.com for inquiries and more details.
Theater plays
Almost, Maine
Onstage Theater, Greenbelt 1, Makati City
Ongoing until March 13
The Repertory Philippines tells a story of warmth, love, hope and friendship set in a cold, bleak and fictional town of Almost, Maine. Veteran theater actors Reb Atadero, Jamie Wilson, Caisa Borromeo and Natalie Everett play the 19 characters in this critically-acclaimed John Cariani play.
Directed by another Rep veteran, Bart Guingona, Almost, Maine is an endearing story that captures the audience’s imagination. It follows the emotional journey of friends in the loneliest and most solitary landscape, but somehow, through their stories, made it a place worth living.
For more details and ticket inquiries, call the Repertory Philippines at (02) 843-3570 or visit www.repertoryphilippines.ph.
Workshops
Calligraphy Workshop
Ayala Museum, Makati City
February 27; 10:00 a.m.
Modern calligrapher Anina Rubio teaches the basics of decorative handwriting in a one-day workshop. Participants will learn how to choose nibs and papers, create strokes and textures, and perfect the art of lettering using pen and brush.
During the session, participants will be taught how to either immortalize their personal messages or replicate phrases from historical love letters courtesy of Filipinas Heritage Library. The P3,500 workshop fee comes with materials, handouts and snacks.
For more inquiries, call (02) 759-8288 loc. 35 or email education@ayalamuseum.org.