ArtistSpace of the Ayala Museum is proud to present visual artist Aurelia “Rellie” L. Liwag in her much anticipated solo exhibition titled Faces, Bodies and Places II.
The exhibition showcases a collection of oil paintings described by art critic Cid Reyes as “filtered memories, which are given faces, bodies and places.”
As such, the exhibition is said to evoke a sense of pleasure and pain, emotions that are highly personal to the artist.
Highly autobiographical, the show reveals emotive faces of family and friends and a favorite self-portrait—all rendered in pastel or oil paint—in colors that capture the sitter’s personality. Moreover, landscapes, which were either painted in situ or with an aide-memoire, also form part of the exhibition, with lively scenes that bring viewers from the solitary light towers of Batanes to the small towns and villages of London and Provence in Europe, to the Botanical Gardens of New York. Finally, venerable profiles of saints such as St. Therese Benedicta of the Cross and St. Giuseppe Moscati, complete the collection, giving viewers a glimpse of the actual oil paintings which were commissioned to grace the covers of internationally published biographies of these saints.
After 18 years of living in the USA with her family, Liwag returned to the Philippines with the resolute mindset of becoming a visual artist. Upon her return, she studied figurative painting under the mentorship of artists Andi Cubi and Gig de Pio. Also, she studied Japanese ink painting in Japan under Harumichi Sakata, and enrolled at the prestigious Art Students League in New York, under Robert Cenedella.
Liwag furthered her skills in painting by also attending workshops under the late American artist Nelson Shanks, founder of Studio Incamminati, and Daniel Greene in North Salem, and in the process, learned timeless techniques in portraiture and Plein Air painting.
In 2010, she held a solo exhibition at the Philippine Center in New York, USA and took part in a three-woman show in the same venue in 2015.
Faces, Bodies and Places II opens at 6 p.m. on Oct. 21. The exhibition runs until Nov. 6.
For more information on the ArtistSpace, please contact Lorraine Datuin, gallery coordinator at (02) 759-8288 or email artistspace@ayalafoundation.org.
