EcoLOGIC (NatureBeingArt)

The common denominator between the artists involved in this group exhibition at the Baguio Museum is that everyone is an advocate (but not limited to) of promoting ecological/environmental issues by way of the arts. Lamentable as it is as the Philippine Art Scene continues to witness the disillusion or suspicion on the “phasic” nature of the local arts by the alleged dominance of a particular style or genre of art making; that the term ecological/environmental art (no matter how contemporary the ecological/environmental issue is) has continued to be relegated to the impression of the flora, the fauna and the landscape. It has continued to remain the nativist strain of Filipino aesthetics; marginalized from the perspective of “indigenous art” or the art done in the regions and provinces; thus has to take the backseat.

In this group exhibition, the works showcased are not merely the presentation of the traditional landscapes, flora and/or fauna. The artworks focus on the more elemental side of nature (air, water, fire, metal, earth). The works center when the “landscape” is in a state of flux or transformation. Therefore we focus on the character. The artworks convey nature at very unique or unusual moments, thus capturing the sense of a place. These critical and temporal settings provide a sense of the majestic mythic persona that mother-nature hardly ever unveil. We seek out and expound the consequential when an environment resonates with the human spirit and we try to communicate these moments poetically.

The artists in the exhibit include William Antonio, Ral Arrogante, Aaron Bautista, JCrisanto Martinez, Wayan Narra, Andy Orencio, Christian Regis, Dennis Rito, and Marga Rodriguez. In this exhibit, the artists work with varied format-sized multi-media to convey and capture the contemporary scope.

EcoLOGIC (NatureBeingArt) is curated by JCrisanto Martinez. It opens at The Baguio Museum on April 8, 2011 at 3:0 p.m. and shall be on view until April 29, 2011. The Baguio Museum is located at the DOT Compound, Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, 2600 Philippines. For inquiries about the EcoLOGIC artworks and the exhibition, please contact Ms. Gemma Gardingan at (6374) 444.75.41, sms at (+63) 915.655.06.68, or thru email at baguio_museum@yahoo.com. Further inquiries about the artists and the artworks can be coursed thru sms at (+63) 922.331.41.08, or via email at info@jcrisanto.tk.

Texts by JCrisanto Martinez

Image by Marga Rodriguez

THE GODMAKERS

In this recent anthology of works entitled The Godmakers, JCrisanto Martinez reveals the grim face of human worship. With a set of highly detailed sculptures, he shows us the archetypes of "God" as conceived by man. Martinez exhibits an iconography all presented in an emblematic comportment, though despite its certainty of form, is evidently anthropomorphic. The figures are also enthroned in separate niches/kingdoms, and what binds them together are their crowned heads. At some perspective the figures in the sculptures appear to be mythological.

The major perspective of these recent artworks is the concept of demigods; human by flesh, treated and given the attributes of god. The demigod, as inevitably prone to the clasps of human worship and divination, is often dignified beyond mortal means. “We crown them, we worship them, we listen intently when they speak and we play servants to their beck and call,” the artist explains. With the church’s universal central dogma on the foreground that concentrates on preaching the evasion of the carnal transgressions; flesh-based iniquities which ironically are those that we paradoxically consider (or presume to consider) as what make us human. Contradictory then is the fact that there constantly and consistently parade in our midst the “deities” we covertly idolize the most. It indeed emphasizes the matter-of-fact that we worship the gods we crafted and pay reverence because of our own personal clandestine desires and urges.

By practice a multitude of the human race pays worship for images of those who they engage in prayers and acts of devotion. There is a representation of someone revered for chivalry, for the true, the good and the beautiful, and the like. Why is there not a representation of a persona which in reality and beyond hypocrisy people really patronize the most in their everyday grind? Perhaps an image that man idolizes and worship for his carnal cravings? Such raison d'être then becomes the central declaration in Martinez's artworks. These eidolons correspond to the ‘ramp’ models of society, the social chimeras that we adore much and exalt to a degree that is even beyond gods. We want them. We want to be them. These are the man-manufactured Gods complete with fake crowns and apocryphal kingdoms in which they habituate and rule. These faith-induced monsters, who suck everything that we are or what we own, like black, fat leeches with gilded crowns on their cranium, draining blood, dreams, and even freedom itself.

But then again, we are not in the position to blame because they did not create themselves. They did not install those golden tiaras on their heads. They never called themselves God.

Oh but we did. And continue to do so.


Image: JCrisanto Martinez, “Face of a Saint, Hands of a Sinner,” Mixed media on old wood, 2010
Text: Dave Lock and JCrisanto Martinez “OF GODS AND GODMAKERS”

EKZENA AT RICCO RENZO GALLERIES

Ricco Renzo Galleries puts on view a three-person exhibit entitled “EKZENA” which opens on May 22, 2009. Revolving around the perception of “scenes,” the mind-set of Zen and the concepts of lyrical abstraction, the title has inference to a philosophy where art is presented in a style that combines maximum of technique and a minimum of planning and deliberation. However, the abstractions presented are not the haphazard approach for art’s sake, but of the manner by which the artwork impacts on the viewer.

Scenes are very much a part of everything that is art. A scene can be a subject or the content the artist will portray but it can also be the place and venue where an event takes place. To create and make a scene implies action and movement. This action of a scene is the very essence of the phenomenon of a happening. The occurrence of an art happening alludes to an improvised spontaneous art activity or exhibit where the eyes of an audience are treated to art that is free and unpredictable. Spontaneous abstract art can not be planned and predetermined. Pure and clean abstraction excites visual perception. Looking at an abstract painting oftentimes creates individualistic episodes depending on how the viewer views it. Abstraction is open to varied opinion and interpretations. It combines free will, intellect, intuition and instinct.

“EKZENA,” an abstract art exhibition by the triumvirate of artists namely JCrisanto Martinez, Sio Montera and Javy Villacin suggest all of the things and incidents mentioned above. Each artist presents a personal series of works that tackle chosen themes like time, space, the journey of life, death, wisdom, and the paradoxes of our human condition.

JCrisanto Martinez’s oeuvres reflect on “time” as a sinuous medium to be maneuvered similarly as paint. His washes of acrylics on burlap delve into the continuum of time. By layering images, Martinez incorporates undertones and meanings that summon a response by the viewer. At one end of the premise of his series’ working concept is to defy the notion of art as perceive merely by sight. Intuition – which is the state of knowing something instinctively, or the immediate knowledge of something – as a word and a process came as a challenge to the artist in developing this series.

Sio Montera’s mixed media explore on “free form.” These impasto art pieces bring him to the state of mind where the cerebral authority rules over “art;” an awakening of the artist’s subliminal self. As the outcomes are unpredictable, the artist is conscious all throughout in what he is doing, while freeing himself at the same time from representations that limit visual perception.

The large canvasses of Javy Villacin continue and deepen his foray into the dream world. The aggregate of works aptly about “shambala” which is a “higher level of consciousness and spirituality,” Villacin reinforces his fascination with this dream world that straddles many states of consciousness by focusing more on the emotional atmosphere and visual resonance. But the basic elements of a Villacin artwork are the usual pencil backgrounds that rejoice the reticence, the daring even, in some cases, the mayhem of drawing.

The three artists are highly individual players who have all made a niche in the arena of abstraction. Though a happening is a scene or an “ekzena” in the confines of a gallery it very much includes the creation of an overall feeling of a contained atmosphere in a walled environment. Abstractions can be a trip to an altered state and an environment in an alternate dimension. As products of potent minds, abstract art embraces all and everything the heart and mind can originally conceived and at the same time alienates impossibilities.

EKZENA will be on view at Ricco Renzo Galleries starting May 22, 2009 at 7pm with an opening cocktail. The exhibit runs until June 11, 2009. The Ricco Renzo Galleries is located at the LRI Design Plaza, 210 Nicanor Garcia St., Bel-Air II, Makati City, Philippines. For inquiry please call 898-2545 or 0927-386-1460, email kbn@riccorenzo.com or visit www.riccorenzo.com. [ARTEPINAS / JCrisanto Martinez / Ritchie Landis Doner Quijano]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8PRpStOY-I