MATERIALS
OF
THE
ARTIST
A LT P H I L I PP I N E S 20 20 , F EB R UA R Y 14 - 1 6, 2 02 0
SMX C O NV E NT I ON C E NT E R, S M AU R A P R E MI E RE , TAG U I G CI T Y
MATERIALS A LT P H I L I PP I N E S 20 20 , F EB R UA R Y 14 - 1 6, 2 02 0
OF
THE
ARTIST
RAENA ABELLA
CHARLES BUENCONSEJO
JC JACINTO
LV SHANCHUAN
TOSHA ALBOR
ZEAN CABANGIS
LUI MEDINA
RODEL TAPAYA
JUAN ALCAZAREN
PABLO CAPATI III
ELLA MENDOZA
MARK VALENZUELA
BRISA AMIR
LEC CRUZ
KRISTA NOGUERAS
OCA VILLAMIEL
JAN BALQUIN
MONICA DELGADO
NEIL PASILAN
ALVIN ZAFRA
NICE BUENAVENTURA
WINNIE GO
ELAINE ROBERTO-NAVAS
COSTANTINO ZICARELLI
RAENA
ABELLA
Raena Abella studied Fine Arts, Major in Painting, from the University of the Philippines, and completed further studies B&W photography at International Center of Photography in NYC, Wetplate Collodion at Gallery 44 in Toronto and Platinum Printing at Penumbra Foundation in NYC. She has exhibited her fine art prints at Manila Contemporary, Mo Space, Art Center, Light and Space Contemporary, Ayala Museum, Finale Gallery,West Gallery,Blanc Gallery,Galleria Duemila,TAKSU Singapore, Artinformal and Artfair PH. She has been recognized in Preview Magazine’s 2012 Creative IT list. Building on her diverse portfolio,Abella is currently focused on a new series ranging from landscapes to the human form, and is pushing the boundaries of her art through alternative photographic production processes such as wetplate collodion, silver gelatin print and platinum print. She is the only artist in the country who uses a 1900 type of photography for her exhibits. Her work as an Operations Manager for a construction company and her training as a certified engine mechanic also inform her unique artistic vision and visual narratives.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
RAENA ABELLA
I want to be with this who know secret things or else alone 1 7.1 x 5.1 x 29 in / 18 x 12.95 x 73.66 cm ambrotype, wet plate collodion positive on glass 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
RAENA ABELLA
I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone 2 10.5 x 8.5 in / 26.67 x 21.59 cm (7 pcs) 7.5 x 5.5 in / 19 x 13.97 cm (11 pcs) ambrotype, wet plate collodion positive on glass (framed) 2020
TOSHA
ALBOR
Tosha Albor (b. 1982) is a Filipino-American artist now based in London. After graduating from the University of London in 2006, she spent several years living and working in dierent countries both as an artist and as an international development professional. Working in these two very dierent sectors helped shape her creative practice and allowed her to explore an aesthetic that is influenced by her work with local communities and philanthropists. She has exhibited in San Francisco, New York, and Manila. She has completed artist residencies in Morocco and Macedonia.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
TOSHA ALBOR
Rise
72 x 56.5 in / 182.88 x 143.51 cm acylic and graphite on canvas 2020
JUAN
ALCAZAREN
Juan Alcazaren (b. 1960) currently works and resides in Pasig City. He studied Landscape Architecture and Sculpture in the University of the Philippines, where he taught at the College of Fine Arts there for two years. In 2000, he was awarded the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award. He has had over 20 solo shows and over 50 shows, mostly locally and around Asia in galleries including: Utterly Art Singapore,TAKSU Singapore, Osage Hong Kong, Manila Contemporary, West Gallery, Mo Space, Finale Gallery, and The Drawing Room. Alcazaren and his siblings put up Alcazaren Brothers Animation for stop-motion animation for short films, music videos, and tv commercials.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
JUAN ALCAZAREN
JUAN ALCAZAREN
Quid Pro Crow 2
Quid Pro Crow 3
15 x 21 x 38 in / 38.1 x 53.34 x 96.52 cm found materials, steel 2020
18 x 22 x 39 in / 45.72 x 55.88 x 99.06 cm found materials, steel 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
JUAN ALCAZAREN
Kalso
51 x 5 x 5 in / 129.54 x 12.7 x 12.7 cm wood, steel, casting stone 2020
BRISA
AMIR
Brisa Amir (b. 1992) allows mundane urbanity—rainwater drippings, street dust and grime, morning coffee spills, crumpled paper inside stuffed bags—to leave indelible marks on her works.These autoconstuctions serve to translate the chaos of movements, sounds, colors, materials, and more within shared spaces and in the neverending experiences of the everyday. She has done a number of exhibitions since her recent graduation from the University of the Philippines, College of Fine Arts (2017). Her first solo exhibition at Artinformal, Slow Painting (2018), was widely received and earned her a review at Artforum magazine.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
BRISA AMIR
Spitting Out Demons
40 x 26 in / 101.6 x 66.04 cm acrylic, acrylic laquer, marker and graphite on acid free paper 2020
BRISA AMIR
Always Racing
39.5 x 28 in / 100.33 x 71.12 cm acrylic, acrylic laquer, marker and graphite on acid free paper 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
BRISA AMIR
BRISA AMIR
File Not Found
A Giant Ball of Fire
39.5 x 26 in / 66.04 x 100.33 cm acrylic, acrylic laquer, marker and graphite on acid free paper 2020
47 x 32 in / 119.38 x 81.28 cm acrylic, acrylic laquer, marker and graphite on acid free paper 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
BRISA AMIR
Ghosted
40 x 26 in / 101.6 x 66.04 cm acrylic, acrylic laquer, marker and graphite on acid free paper 2020
BRISA AMIR
After Glow
39.5 x 27.5 in / 100.33 x 69.85 cm acrylic, acrylic laquer, marker and graphite on acid free paper 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
BRISA AMIR
flame extraction
31 x 31 in / 78.74 X 78.74 cm acrylic, oil, graphite, emulsion 2020
BRISA AMIR
Mr. Magic
32 x 26 in / 81.28 x 66.04 cm acrylic, oil, graphite, emulsion 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
BRISA AMIR
kundalini grove
35.25 x 39 in / 89.53 x 99.06 cm acrylic, oil, graphite, emulsion 2020
BRISA AMIR
A Whisper to Ruby
41.25 x 30.25 in / 104.77 x 76.84 cm acrylic, oil, graphite, emulsion 2019
JAN
BALQUIN
Jan Balquin (b.1989) lives and works in Quezon City, Philippines. Balquin studied Fine Arts major in Studio Art at the University of the Philippines, Diliman and received a grant for her thesis. She has joined group shows since her High School years at Philippine High School for the Arts in 2007. She has been actively exhibiting as part of group shows since 2010 in galleries within and outside the metro including Underground Gallery, Blanc gallery, Post Gallery and West Gallery to name a few. She has had four solo exhibitions with her most recent,“A Bargain Between Margins� held at The Drawing Room gallery.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
JAN BALQUIN
Rudimentary Series
dimensions variable air dry clay, resign, tile grout, fiber glass, plaster, cement, and concrete 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
JAN BALQUIN
Rudimentary Series
dimensions variable air dry clay, resign, tile grout, fiber glass, plaster, cement, and concrete 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
JAN BALQUIN
Rudimentary Series
dimensions variable air dry clay, resign, tile grout, fiber glass, plaster, cement, and concrete 2020
NICE
B U E N AV E N T U R A
Nice Buenaventura (b. 1984) translates ideas into a highly organized visual language by constructing images as documents. Her current focus on handmade facsimiles of print failure is an ongoing commentary on the conditions for the value of art, using mechanical reproduction and its discards as source material. A technical manner and a steady hand allow the work that is painted to appear printed. As an extension of her practice and exploration of her lineage as an artist in the global south, she conducts research into contemporary Filipino aesthetics through the Tropikalye project. She is also a member of the Fine Arts faculty at the Ateneo de Manila University.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
NICE BUENAVENTURA
Institutional Conscience No. 1, 5, 12
14.96 x 18.9 in / 38 x 48 cm each graphite on toned paper mounted on blank notebook 2019
CHARLES
BUENCONSEJO
Charles Buenconsejo’s artistic practice builds upon an inquiry on the deconstruction of visual culture. Through print, video, and installation, Buenconsejo looks at the image as social and personal functions, as both a means of surveillance and tool for self-actualization. His work is also heavily informed by contradictions, in particular, the contradiction of the photograph as both an instance of available light and as a digitized sequence. With this contradiction he expresses how one surface can contain both the poetry of the creative act and the routine of living in the age of the algorithm. He studied Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines and had his first solo exhibition,‘Reality is a Hologram’, at Artinformal in 2012. Since then he has exhibited prolifically and won numerous awards. Most notable are the 2013 and 2014 Ateneo Art Awards, which earned him a residency with the La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre in Bendigo, Australia. He currently resides in New Zealand.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
CHARLES BUENCONSEJO
A Copy Theory of Representation by Plato 40.5 x 50.9 in / 102.87 x 129.28 cm (unframed) 41.25 x 60 in / 104.78 x 152.4 cm (framed) HP matte print 2016
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
CHARLES BUENCONSEJO
Spectra
26.5 x 40 in / 67.31 x 101.6 cm lambda metallic print ed of 3* 2012
ZEAN
CABANGIS
Zean Cabangis (b. 1985) transforms memories and scenes from his travels into abstracted and ambiguous landscapes. Perception and examination of place figure prominently in his works, with heavy lines and planes redefining spaces and structures, rendering the familiar unfamiliar, the real into somewhere new and imagined. These works, which consistently rethink abstract painting in the age of photography, have been shown in a number of solo exhibitions, the most recent of which include Somewhere, Anywhere (2018) and Loom (2016) at Artinformal, and Echoes (2017) at Art Basel Hong Kong. He was artist- in-residence at the Southeast Asia Art Group Exchange Residency (SAGER) in Jogjakarta in 2011. He was a recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award in 2015. Cabangis was also shortlisted for the Fernando Zobel Prize in the Ateneo Art Awards in 2019, 2017, 2014, 2013, and 2012.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
ZEAN CABANGIS
60 x 48 in / 152.4 x 121.92 cm acrylic and emulsion transfer on canvas 2020
ZEAN CABANGIS
36 x 48 in / 91.44 x 121.92 cm acrylic and emulsion transfer on canvas 2020
PA BLO
CA PAT I
III
Pablo Capati III (b. 1975) was first introduced to ceramics in Kobe, Japan. He later took pottery classes in the University of Southern California in Los Angeles while studying for a Business degree. He became a full-time potter in 2003 and established the pottery studio at Artinformal in 2005. His practice is focused on the rigorous and demanding method of wood-firing pots and sculptures using an anagama or ‘cave’ kiln. The distinctive forms and surface of his works display the dance and flow of flames and ash throughout their journey through fire. He has exhibited widely in the Philippines and has participated in exhibitions in China, Thailand, Australia, Singapore, and the US. His works are held in numerous private collections. He is the pioneer of Tropical Blaze, a biannual international wood-firing workshop held at his studio in Batangas and supported by the University of the Philippines.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
PABLO CAPATI
Tomodachi 1, 2, 3 dimensions variable gas-fired stoneware 2020
LEC
CRUZ
LeCruz, or Lec Cruz (b. 1982), has done solo exhibitions since 2015, beginning with 39:40, which was shown at a private residence in Manila, and The Sun Sets in the West shown at West Gallery in 2016. He is a philosophy and fine arts graduate of the University of the Philippines. On occasion, he writes about art exhibitions for galleries and artists.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
LEC CRUZ
Novena
22 x 33.5 in / 55. 88 x 85.09 cm oil on palette paper 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
LEC CRUZ
A Natural Occurence I
54 x 43 in / 137.16 x 109.22 cm oil on canvas 2020
LEC CRUZ
A Natural Occurence II
54 x 43 in / 137.16 x 109.22 cm oil on canvas 2020
MONICA
DELGADO
Monica Delgado (b. 1979) was born in Manila but currently lives and works in New York City. She graduated Cum Laude from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts in Painting; and has gone to exhibit both locally and abroad in places such as Istanbul, New York, San Francisco, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Delgado works with acrylic paint as her main medium, with a sculptural approach to her practice.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
MONICA DELGADO
Achromatized
30 x 48 x 2 in / 76.2 x 121.92 x 5.08 cm acrylic paint mounted on wood 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
MONICA DELGADO
MONICA DELGADO
Protean
Tintinnabulation
30 x 25 x 2 in / 76.2 x 63.5 x 5.08 cm acrylic paint mounted on wood 2020
30 x 25 x 2 in / 76.2 x 63.5 x 5.08 cm acrylic paint mounted on wood 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
MONICA DELGADO
CAPSTCHA 2
variable dimensions of 140 pieces largest: 3.5 x 3.5 x 0.75 in / 8.89 x 8.89 x 1.9 cm smallest: 2.25 x 2.25 x 1 in / 5.72 x 5.72 x 2.54 cm acrylic, bottle caps 2019
WINNIE
GO
Winnie has been crafting ceramics for more than twenty years. In her works, she interprets the treasures of the earth with themes of abundance and optimism, ultimately conveying a freshness to life. Her creations suggest an affinity for the beauty of nature with a curiousness towards origins and the concept of growth.An undercurrent of contemplation permeates throughout her functional and nonfunctional objects in her exhibition ‘Sacred Valley‘ (2015) at Artinformal. Her ongoing series,‘An Apple A Day‘, intends to showcase 365 varieties of ceramic apples, each one unique from the other. Representative of daily endeavour, she began this series at Art Fair Philippines 2018, with a popup exhibition in Artinformal the same year. She expects to complete the collection in the fair’s 2019 edition.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
WINNIE GO
Flower Market Series
dimensions variable white stoneware with vintage glass 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
WINNIE GO
Flower Market Series
dimensions variable white stoneware with vintage glass 2020
JC
JACINTO JC Jacinto (b. 1985) has been slowly moving from painting mostly organic subjects to using actual organic materials for his new take on painting. This mirrors his earlier shift from painting figures to painting apparitions, if not abstractions, of these same figures. His interest in the autonomous life of rocks, trees, and minerals and their inherent capacity to record their lives and the passage of time figure prominently in recent exhibitions such as A Crack in Everything (2018) at Artinformal and Independent As The Sun (2018) at Art Stage Singapore. He received his arts education from the University of the Philippines. In 2014, he completed a residency at the Abu Dhabi Art Hub. In 2019, Jacinto was shortlisted for his show, A Crack in Everything for the Fernando Zobel Prize in the Ateneo Art Awards.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
JC JACINTO
Live
78 x 48 in / 198.12 x 121.92 cm oil on canvas 2020
LUI
MEDINA
Lui Medina (b. 1981) continues to interrogate form and figure using landscapes as framework. From geologic to geographical forms, her works in recent exhibitions like The Notion of the Edge (2018) and Where does landscape begin? (2016), both at Artinformal, explore the plasticity of topographies and how expanses can become isolated parcels, islands into sprawls, landscapes without landmarks, mainly with the use of graphite.This interest in shapes and the organic has in turn also shaped the canvases and materials that she uses for her drawings and paintings. She has been part of exhibitions at the Langgeng Art Foundation in Jogjakarta (2017), Mind Set Art Center in Taipei (2016), and Equator Art Projects in Singapore (2015). In 2018, she was artist-in-residence at Fusion/ Inaudita in Turin, Italy.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
LUI MEDINA
Untitled (Work #1 and 2)
47 x 95 in / 119.38 x 241.3 cm each graphite on paper 2020
ELLA
MENDOZA
Ella Mendoza (b. 1993) recently completed her second degree in Art History from the University of the Philippines. A painting major by training, she started doing ceramics in 2015 and has since been an active presence in the field. She is currently a facilitator at the UP College of Fine Arts Ceramics Studio. She helped organized key international pottery and ceramics events such as Tropical Blaze and Paglulual. Her first exhibition, ‘For Your Convenience‘ (2018), at Artinformal, referenced both art history and economics, in particular, the forms of mass-produced packaging materials such as tin cans, plastic cups and bottles, packets, and sachets. Meticulously crafted by hand, each piece helps to expand the viewer’s understanding of contemporary consumerist cult.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
ELLA MENDOZA
Perpetually Sporadic Series variable dimensions of 12 pieces gas-fired stoneware 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
ELLA MENDOZA
Perpetually Sporadic Series variable dimensions of 12 pieces gas-fired stoneware 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
ELLA MENDOZA
Perpetually Sporadic Series variable dimensions of 12 pieces gas-fired stoneware 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
ELLA MENDOZA
Square One and so On
19.68 x 23.62 / 50 x 60 cm as assembled, set of 25 pcs gas-fired, variable ceramic materials 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
ELLA MENDOZA
Lot 1
10.62 x 142.24 x 2.95 in / 27 x 56 x 7.5 cm gas-fired stoneware and found objects 2020
KRISTA
NOGUERAS
Krista Nogueras has always been drawn to the intimate process of working with her hands through sculptures. Many of her works are autobiographical and they explore themes that thrive on femininity, sensuality, sexuality, mental health, and the observation of dierent cultures. She wrestles with the paradoxical binaries that are heavily present among the narratives of her works (suering and redemption, misery and pleasure, life and decay). Although she mainly works with clay, Nogueras also works with other mediums such as metal and found objects. She received her degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines, Diliman in 2009. She was shortlisted for the Fernando Zobel Prize for Visual Art award at the Ateneo Art Awards in 2019.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
KRISTA NOGUERAS
COME UNDONE
dimensions variable, installation of 8 pieces gas-fired stoneware, vitrified china, high-temp wire 2020
NEIL
PA S I L A N
Neil Pasilan (b. 1971) is a self taught artist from Bacolod. Now based in Manila, his works have been exhibited in various galleries, such as The Drawing Room, Artinformal, and West Gallery.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
NEIIL PASILAN
Kristo
41 x 31 in / 104.14 x 78.74 cm oil, acrylic, and mixed media on canvas 2020
NEIIL PASILAN
Old Healer
41 x 31 in / 104.14 x 78.74 cm oil, acrylic, and mixed media on canvas 2020
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
NEIL PASILAN
Always Dear
31 x 41 in / 78.74 x 104.14 cm oil, acrylic, and mixed media on canvas 2020
ELAINE
R O B E R TO - N AVA S
Elaine Roberto Navas (b. 1964) completed her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (1985) from Ateneo de Manila University and Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting (1991) from the University of the Philippines. Her most recent solo exhibitions include: Nothing Moves Itself (2017) in Artinformal, SaltWater (2016) at Silverlens; Flower Arrangements (2015) at West Gallery; Painted Palettes/Palette Paintings (2014) at Mo Space; After Sir (2014) at Finale Art File; and Exit This Way (2013) at the former Manila Contemporary. She was a recipient of Honorable Mention (2002, 2004) from the Philip Morris Singapore Art Awards as well as Honorable Mention (1995) from the Philippine Morris Philippine Art Awards. She now lives and works in Singapore.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
ELAINE NAVAS
LOVE LETTER
6 x 8 ft / 72 x 96 in / 182.88 x 243.84 cm (diptych) 6 x 4 ft / 72 x 48 in / 182.88 x 121.92 cm per panel oil on canvas 2020
LV
SHANCHUAN Lv Shanchuan (呂山川) graduated from the department of Fine Art at the Fujian Normal University in 1992 and completed his postgraduate studies at the Central Academy of Fine Art in 1997. He taught at the Fujian Normal University from 1992 to 2009, and went to Germany on the Sino-German Cultural Exchange Scholarship for furtherstudies in 2005. He currently lives and works in Beijing. Lv has held solo exhibitions and participated in group shows throughout China, Asia, Europe and the USA. His works have been collected by the National Art Museum of China, Shanghai Museum of Art, Chengdu Museum of Contemporary Art, King Kuei Art Foundation and other international public institutions.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
LV SHANCHUAN
Kongming Lanterns No 2 35.43 x 47.24 in / 90 x 120 cm mixed media on canvas 2019
RODEL
TA PAYA
Rodel Tapaya (b. 1980) filters his observations of the world through folktales and pre-colonial historical research, creating whimsical montages of his characters utilizing a range of media — from large acrylic on canvasses to an exploration of under-glass painting, traditional crafts, diorama, and drawing. Each work has its origin in Tapaya’s reflections on a particular time or place that possesses an enduring resonance, from its correspondence with the formalistic and psychological implication of the grid in his earlier works to protracted ventures which excavate and interpret myth and folk aesthetics. Inherent in the work is a tension between objective investigations of art and the subjectivity of perception and experience, providing his work with an enigma that comes from the impossibility to paint a story without revealing inflections made by the painter’s hand. Rodel Tapaya is one of the most active artists in Southeast Asia today. His breakthrough came when he was awarded the coveted Top Prize in the Nokia Art Awards, which allowed him to pursue intensive drawing and painting courses at Parsons School of Design in New York and the University of Helsinki in Finland. He completed his studies at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
RODEL TAPAYA
Sit A Spell
7 x 5 ft / 84 x 60 in / 213.36 x 152.4 cm acrylic on burlap 2020
M A R K VA L E N Z U E L A Mark Valenzuela (b. 1980) examines forms of conflict, dominance, and resistance through an interdisciplinary practice that combines installation, ceramics, drawing, painting, and video. He utilises a vernacular of repetition, mutation, and reconfiguration to interrogate power and stratagems for its disruption. In his works he integrates personal concerns with the broader socio- political contexts of his home country of the Philippines and adopted country of Australia. His works have been featured in recent editions of the Australian Ceramics Triennale and the Jakarta Contemporary Ceramics Biennale. He is one of very few Southeast Asian ceramics artists chosen to develop the permanent collection of the Fule International Ceramic Art Museums (FLICAM) in Shaanxi, China. He is co-curator of Boxplot, a curatorial project aimed at providing artists from Australia and the Philippines with opportunities for exhibition, collaboration, and exchange.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
MARK VALENZUELA
Blind Spot 6
55 x 39.75 in / 139.7 x 101 cm porcelain and stoneware paper clay, black underglaze 2015
OCA VILLAMIEL Oca Villamiel (b. 1953) is known for his installations and assemblages that reflect his stance on various issues, be it spiritual or political. He is not just an artist but an avid collector of objects seemingly forgotten or abandoned, most of which become the materials of his works, such as the discarded dolls, flood soaked books, and bullhorns as seen in his previous shows. His works are continuously impressive in their sheer magnitude as well as in the breadth and scope of thinking that goes into their making. Villamiel had his first solo exhibition in 2009 after nearly two decades of work as a set designer and entrepreneur. In 2013, he represented the Philippines in the Singapore Biennale.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
OCA VILLAMIEL
Oh Pussy, My Love
20.5 x 24 in / 52.07 x 60.96 cm acrylic on canvas 2019
OCA VILLAMIEL
Grey Pussy
20.5 x 24 in / 52.07 x 60.96 cm acrylic on canvas 2019
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
OCA VILLAMIEL
Oh Lovely Pussy 1
20.5 x 24 in / 52.07 x 60.96 cm acrylic on canvas 2019
OCA VILLAMIEL
Oh Lovely Pussy 2
20.5 x 24 in / 52.07 x 60.96 cm acrylic on canvas 2019
ALVIN
ZAFRA
Alvin Zafra (b. 1978) has been making distinctly powerful works by etching and scratching found objects on the surface of sandpaper.The resulting marks or images become the work’s surface information, resonating with the object itself used in production.Throughout the years, he has worked with human and animal bones, steel, bullets, knives, stones, and glass. He has exhibited works in Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Poland, and Germany. His works were also part of exhibitions at the Yinchuan Biennale in China (2016), the Mediations Biennale in Poznan, Poland (2012), and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2009). He was shortlisted for the BMW Art Journey Prize in 2016. He received the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award in 2015.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
ALVIN ZAFRA
Colors and Numbers
47 x 47 in / 119.38 x 119.38 cm glass on sandpaper 2009
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
ALVIN ZAFRA
Ruler
35.5 x 46.5 in / 90.17 x 118.11 cm stainless steel ruler, sandpaper, wood 2011
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
ALVIN ZAFRA
Sailboat
60 x 47.1 in / 152.4 x 119.63 cm stainless steel on sandpaper 2009
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
ALVIN ZAFRA
Auto Compartment 001, 002, 003 17 x 17 in / 43.18 x 43.18 cm each sandpaper, whitestone 2020
COSTANTINO
ZICARELLI
Costantino Zicarelli (b. 1984) shifted from oil paintings and mirror installations rooted in the dark side of popular culture into an elegant repertoire of graphite drawings and found wood assemblages. From works that give a nod to the history and subculture of black metal, goth, and everything rock n’ roll, to works that reference science fiction, he now creates works that oer a glimpse into the future or the unknown. He has shown a profound interest in patterns as evident in his large-scale wood grain drawings in graphite and in wallpaper- like paintings on canvas. Working across installation, sculpture, drawing, and painting, he has done exhibitions in Manila, Singapore, Malaysia, Norway, and New York. He received the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award in 2012 and the Ateneo Art Awards in 2017 and 2019, for which he was awarded a residency at Liverpool Hope University in 2018 and La Trobe University in 2020.
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
COSTANTINO ZICARELLI
Two Unknown Women Digging (Second Act) 35.83 x 49.61 in / 126 x 91 cm (unframed) graphite on paper 2019
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
COSTANTINO ZICARELLI
Museum Wallpaper (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) I 72 x 48 in / 182.88 x 121.92 cm graphite and gesso on canvas 2019
ALT PHILIPPINES, 2020
COSTANTINO ZICARELLI
Museum Wallpaper (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) II 24 x 18 in / 57.6 x 45.72 cm graphite and gesso on canvas 2019
F EBR UA RY 1 4 - 1 6 , 20 2 0
A LT PH I LI P PI N E S 2 0 2 0 , S M AUR A P R E M IE R E, TAGU I G C IT Y
MATERIALS ARTIST
OF
INTERVIEWS
THE
ARTIST
ARTIST
INTERVIEWS
NICE BUENAVE N T U RA
1
A LVIN ZAFRA
2
R AENA ABELL A
3
TOSHA A LBOR
4
JUA N A LCA ZARE N
5
JAN BALQ UIN
6
ZEA N CA BANG IS
7
C OSTANTINO ZI CA RE LLI
8
C HA RLES BU ENC O N SE J O
9
JC JACINTO
10
L UI MED INA
11
EL LA MEND OZA
12
PABLO CAPATI
13
LEC CR UZ
14
MONICA D EL GA DO
15
WINNIE G O
16
NEIL PA SIL AN
17
ELA INE ROBERTO-NAVAS
18
BRISA AMIR
19
RODE L TA PAYA
20
MAR K VA LENZUELA
21
OCA VILLA MIEL
22
LV SHANCHUAN
23
K RISTA NOG UER AS
24
ARTIST
INTERVIEWS
A R TINFOR M A L / MATER IA L S OF THE A R TIST, ALT P HI LIP P INE S 20 20
1
NICE BUENAVENTURA
Nice, do you start with materials? No. I start with tension. That is what I try to resolve through a process I’m comfortable with, like making. In some ways my practice is really just an offloading of personal and social tensions, but incidentally productive. You make it sound psychological. It feels that way. Can you give me an example? My last show at Artinformal was a response to Walter Benjamin and his attack on mechanical reproduction. I was unsettled by the idea that a celebrated Marxist could be against something that aided in the democratisation of information, entertainment, art. The works I had in that show featured motifs that appear accidental but took ages to make. One nine-by-twelveinch work took me a week. And yes, in the case of drawings, the paper is more important than the pencil. I have to have paper with a deep enough tooth to catch the tones I need. Do you make prints? Yes, but by drawing them. If I did it by etching, I would have to vary them all, make each a little different. I like the minor differences in all machine-made things. I like blips, errors and misregistrations. My dilemma now--or should I say tension; is whether to continue resisting technology or to integrate it into my methods. I’m working on a new media installation for a class—an acrylic box with a plant and some
sensors and motors inside. The idea is to present nature and technology not as divergent but as parallel systems. It’s something that excites me but you have to realise, my interest in technology lies in that I can subvert it. And how does the material affect what they eventually mean? I like to think that the materials I end up using are products of improvisation, a theme that runs parallel to the problems I set out to define through art-making. To my mind the more important thing that separates man from machine is not the quality of their output but of their manner. When confronted with difficulty, a machine just stops working. We, on the other hand, improvise. I was never formally trained as an artist, not even now that I’m taking up an MSc in Media and Arts Technology, and so the charcoal I suspend in oil or the eraser shields I craft out of paper are things I just make up as I go along.
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ALVIN ZAFRA
What is different about your new work? It is made with white stone on sandpaper, but then I put smoked glass over it. I wanted to emulate what things look like when I don’t have my glasses on. The image is from a photo I took in a flea market – the parts of a sewing machine. Is that image important to you? The inspiration for it came from my mum. She used to teach home economics. Sadly, soon after I made this new work, she had a stroke and her eyes became blurred. Can I ask what your most recent show at Artinformal was about? How how were they made? The images were of public sculptures here in Manila. They are not powerful, they are small, battered, rundown, often not very good. As usual, sand paper is my support. The material I chose to draw on the sandpaper was white stones. It seemed appropriate because it felt urban, the same colour as concrete and the city. What else have I used to rub against or draw on the sandpaper? A skull (twice), bullets, fingernails. I plan to use precious materials like gold, silver or jade. Both for the colour and the value or symbolism. Way back in 2000 I rubbed sandpaper with gold but once done on it looked grey. What problems does your chosen support cause? It is difficult to mount on wood. It is very difficult in the Philippines to find large sheets of fine sandpaper which is what I use. I don’t add varnish but I have
been experimenting with other ways to ensure the material sticks. I injure myself often, especially when smudging areas by rubbing. My fingers get worn down, the skin gets thin. But there is no alternative: I can’t work with gloves on. It is a very physical process. I have found ways to avoid allergic reactions to the sandpaper. Sometimes I wear a mask which is awkward if you wear glasses like me! I have now made 65 photo-realist works on sandpaper. I am faster than I was but it is still a very slow process—something like the triptych I showed at the recent Artinformal show took three months to complete. Do you sometimes wish you had never discovered sandpaper? And how did you discover it? No. It’s my thing now. My teacher, Sir Chabet, told me I needed to find something original. My first sandpaper work was made from a statue of the Virgin Mary. I saw it stood on a piece of sandpaper so I literally put the two things together. It was a eureka moment for me. The next thing I made was a realist drawing of a finger bone using a finger bone. Both early works are lost, though I made another version of the Mary statue later on. How do you construct these realist works? I simplify things. I omit lines from landscapes. I am more faithful to what I feel than to what I see. The images or subjects should speak to me.
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RAENA ABELLA Please describe your medium. I specialize in ambrotypes—a positive photograph on glass that uses the collodion wet plate process. In this process, the photographic material is coated with chemicals, exposed and developed within a span of seven minutes, necessitating the use of a portable darkroom in the field. Each photo is unique and cannot be duplicated. Ambrotypes were first used in the 1850s. Why did you choose to specialize in ambrotypes? After working for five years inside my own darkroom, I wanted to try something new by shooting outside the darkroom. Traveling with a portable darkroom turned out to be liberating and extremely challenging. It is a temperamental process; the outcome always uncertain, affected by factors such as the heat of that day. It is one of the most difficult types of photography. I believe that art must come with a mastery of the craft. Once you commit to a medium, you must do your best with that medium. This is even more important when showing ambrotypes in the Philippines because the audience deserves to see the best example of a process that is often not available here. Although it is difficult, I consider it fun. It involves a mix of luck, alchemy, and magic. Please share with us some details of your process. I like to drive alone to my shoot locations. I enjoy the solitude because I am able to think without distractions. Sometimes I select locations that I have passed by many times before and have always wanted to shoot. Since I only have a seven-minute window for the process, preparation is crucial. And even with an enormous amount of preparation, I still have many rejected plates. I instinctively know when, despite the markings and imperfections, or because of them, I have been able to
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TOSHA ALBOR What materials do you use? Dry and wet, charcoal and graphite, but also a lot of ink and watercolour. This is what the environment that I am in allows me – I paint in my front room. And that becomes part of the process. When I had a dedicated studio, I experimented a lot more with spray paint and enamels. As for supports, now I use a lot more paper since I live in London and have to send work to the Philippines and elsewhere by post. But I like that challenge. It pushes me out of my comfort zones. If you don’t have limitations you wouldn’t really push yourself. Are you fussy about choosing paper? Quite. I have learnt the hard way. Nothing less than 300 gsm. And with a rough surface. I begin with wet – water is a surface I use. I create a wash of water on the paper and let the ink or watercolour flow. Recently I was working on a canvas on the rooftop and it rained but I carried on in the rain. Was it a success? It made a good background for what I will do next with the canvas. Generally, I let the sediments build up and then I start excavating – especially when I am working on canvas. I scrub them; I love the look of semiwashed off paint. Often I use a dry medium, normally graphite to scrub things off. What have I buried? What can I discover? I once titled a show “Dig” meaning dig as in archaeological dig. When do you work? It is difficult to be a full-time artist in a rich country like the UK. I make art before I go to work. I work in digital design for Cancer Research – it’s an interesting work and a good cause. What do I do there? For example, there was a fund-raising app. They wanted to enhance it so people could to upload and share photos. What I did was mainly user research. Do people in the community want that and which community? How does this digital work feed into your art work? When software developers make a work, it is an iterative process–lots of play and prototyping. Making art is like that for me now. I don’t know what it will look like at the end. I iterate and the work pivots and flows. It is bad form to assume that you know the solution to a problem in advance and that is my mantra for my painting.
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JUAN ALCAZAREN
Do you begin with materials? Sometimes yes, or sometimes with an idea, a word I heard or something I read. I make objects but they tend to look conceptual perhaps because I incorporate text. Why? to seem profound? I think everything is mock profundity. I don’t know if I am capable of making anything truly profound. The only profundity comes from God. Yes, I go to church every week; it is an aspect of my work, though I don’t think I could make things for a church. Perhaps, I am Dadaistic at heart, like the Fluxus guys. There is a strong element of play in your work. Wholly. But my personality is melancholic, or phlegmatic. I don’t think I am cynical, though my wife say I make a joke out of everything. How did the piece installed on the stairs of Ateneo begin? With the stairs. That dictated what we could do. Originally, I meant to embed words made from children’s wooden ABC blocks, but the engineers couldn’t work it out. Therefore, I used words cut in metal: I like the clattering sound that work makes when you go up the stairs. I had those metal words fabricated – because it was a commission it was one of the few occasions when I could afford to do that. I like steel, it co-operates – you can hammer it into shape, it doesn’t fight back. If you make a mistake you can shape it into something else. Because my work place is on the roof of our town-house it gets rusty. Sometimes I put it out specifically to rust. I varnish these works if collectors ask, otherwise I am happy for it to keep changing. Recently I have been working with Michael Munoz
on San Sebastien cathedral which was made from prefabricated steel. They have been scraping off rust – four hundred year old rust. I have been given a box of it to make new work. Do you miss painting? I stopped painting in 2003 or 2004. I used to paint on the ground floor but my wife and I had children so I had to move upwards. But I am going back to it. My brother and I have rented a space nearby. What shall I paint? I have a catalogue of all the objects I have made, all their shapes. It looks as if they should be in translated into something flat. There is a painting waiting to be done there. I am also working on a stopgo animation which is all silhouettes. Very flat. How do you work normally? I dig up the boxes on the shelves of my work space and look for things that connect one with another or that generate ideas. I have, for example, many boxes of old toys. Are these the toys you had as a child? Some are my old toy cars, plus all the toys no longer needed by my seven siblings. I have seventeen nieces and nephews who contribute too. As with Boltanski they have to be used toys. A lot of my work is about the history of objects. I also get a lot of old kitchen stuff from my siblings. In Finale, I made a work out of old plastic chopping boards, with lights set behind to expose all the cuts and scuffs – the history objects accrue. Sometimes however I buy flat-pack stuff from hardware stores. Do you like hardware stores? Yes! To me they are like candy stores!
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JAN BA L Q UI N What materials do you work with? I use resin, plaster, cement, grout, eggshell dust, silicone, printed images for collages, and different kinds of paints. What do you make with these materials and why? I like to make objects that disguise the material’s characteristics. When I was still at art school, our teachers would insist that we highlight the material for what it is: that wood must look like wood. Now that I am a practicing artist, I like to do the opposite of that: make wood look soft or make resin appear like jello. Please give more specific examples of these material experiments. I cast eggshell dust so that it would look like bone. I used cement reinforced with fiber to make it look like a tree branch. I made silicone look like charcoal, but gummy to the touch like a tire. I used plaster to form shapes resembling stones. I mixed oils with latex paint and partially peeled the paintings off their surface as if they are about to fall off, with the intention of creating paintings that behave like sculptures. As experiments, many of these works produce surprises. I like to try combining unlikely materials, for example plaster with resin, even if I am unsure of the outcome, not knowing if these materials will bind or stick together. Might you continue in this direction? Yes because these types of experiments are endless and mastering them is an ongoing goal.
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Z EA N CABAN GI S
What is your favorite material? Acrylic paints and I get along. I like to be able to cover up mistakes immediately and easily move on if there is something I want to change about a painting. Acrylic has the characteristic that allows me to do that. You also use transfers with your paintings. When did this begin and how? During my first year at university, I was studying under Liv Vinluan. She taught our class how to use transfers and then left us alone to experiment. I started making little projects using transfers, like personalizing pin badges of Metallica or Incubus. Then I discovered that my father is really good at using transfers so he helped me further refine my process. In 2011, I began using transfers in just a small part of my paintings. But during a portfolio review at Silverlens, they suggested that I use transfers for the entire painting. In 2012 I had my first show with transfers on the whole surface. What do you like about using transfers? My works are made of five layers. Transfers are transparent so you can see the layers underneath. I like how transfers can show a combination of play and serious work.
What are these layers made of? I combine images—photographs, magazine cutouts, printed collages of photographs. I have even used finished works as part of collages for my next works. When I find a magazine image that I really like, I duplicate it so that I can use the image again in other works. What other surfaces do you use aside from canvas? I also apply transfers to wood, stone and cement. I took photographs of a demolished house and transferred the images onto wood. I then sawed the wood and reconstructed the pieces using glue and acrylics. There are plenty of stones from construction sites around UP. I use them to make maquettes. Stones are like small landscapes. With them I can make little cities. I recently started taking photographs of potholes on the road (“lubak”). Potholes are a big concern for me because I’ve been a cyclist for 8 years and ride my bike almost everyday. It’s frustrating that many potholes haven’t been repaired for years, even if they are so easy to repair. I will be making new work applying these images of potholes onto cement surfaces.
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COSTAN TIN O Z I CAR E L LI
What materials do you use? The studio Nice and I use is so small. We don’t have much storage space. So, I find my materials at home: older sculptures that didn’t work. I try to make something new out of them. It’s like a repair job. I always have a plan B. If I can’t sell something, what else can I make out of it. Another time I had some nice wood – what could I do with it? My works are also now inspired by domestic things. My show in Vargas was about the experience of caring for our family house: I took elements from it to the gallery and covered them in synthetic dust. I used to paint but I wasn’t getting anywhere with it. The paintings were photo based and there wasn’t much going on. So, I stepped back and started all over again with pencil. Drawing gave me a stepping stone to my identity. I was never so confident when I was painting. What I draw with matters a lot. Recently I found a 12B pencil but I haven’t used it yet. I am a bit scared of it. How important is the paper? It’s really important. The thicker it is the better it is for me. Thin paper warps in the humidity of the Philippines. Actually, drawing is more stressful than painting because the paper is so dominating – you can’t cover it up with paint as you can with canvas. Black gesso is a great material for the Philippines – even acrylic can get mouldy. And organic materials ou have to accept will change. When I use resin I try and mix with it powdered charcoal so it has a more organic approach.
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CHA R L E S BUE N CO N S EJ O
Spectra (detail), 26.5 x 40 in / 67.3 x 101.6 cm, lambda metallic print, edition of 3, 2012
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JC JAC I N TO
You have been exhibiting pieces of your own homemade artificially petrified wood together with your paintings. Why? I am fascinated with petrified wood found in nature. I discovered some while walking by a river. All the wood fibers were already gone because of the constant water pressure. They were beautiful, like gemstones with an inner glow. It takes millions of years for wood to naturally petrify, so I started researching on how I could speed up the petrification process. The pieces of wood on exhibit are results of my ongoing experiments. How do these objects relate to the paintings? The paintings are like a time lapse condensed into a single frame of the mineralization that occurs during petrification. They are representations of what occurs with pressure and heat. I am contemplating man’s interruption with the evolution of nature, how to fast forward petrification to fit into man’s limited time on earth. My inquiry into the processes in nature led me to an inquiry of self: why am I doing this and how does it represent me as an artist and humans in general? The paintings and the petrified pieces balance each other. I started making these experiments about five years ago as a break between paintings, but now it is the other way around. Painting became the break between experiments as a way to loosen up because the experiments require following very specific rules.
Can you share with us some of the methods you have used and what you have observed from the results? For some of the pieces I use chemicals such as borax. For others I use bacteria harvested from soybeans. Most of these experiments are trial and error, but I also put in a lot of research. The pieces of wood that I find around my farm or around my neighborhood are usually very fragile because they are riddled with termite tunnels. I impregnate these pores and tunnels with chemicals or through a microbially induced process. The resulting pieces become harder than the original wood but also lose their flexibility and become more brittle and breakable. Alloys are what give them color—blue tones are formed by copper, purple is from chromium, red is from lead, and green is from nickel. What can we expect from your material experimentation in the future? I would like to collaborate with chemists and scientists, but for the purpose of making art. My intention is to show and contemplate on the act of breaking natural rhythms so that we can make tangible forms of this idea with objects that are safe to keep and store. I hope to be able to eventually use the wood fibers as the armature with the rest of the body predominantly made of metal. I want to go deeper in examining these complex networks that occur even if we don’t see them.
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LU I ME DI NA
Materials, I assume, have always been where you begin. OK, well even with painting I have approached it through materials, less so through an image. Did you begin as a figure painter? Yes. But when I got to my MA in the Slade, London I did a U-turn. I decided to leave painting for a while for video, performance, new media. Bruce Mclean, Estelle Thompson and all the other tutors always encouraged us to experiment. It re-informed how I approached painting. Once you leave the white painting square how can you approach painting> You asked whether I call myself an “artist” or a “painter.” I call myself an artist, but I respect painting as a discipline. Currently you are working on paper with graphite. Is this painting to you? Once again, I made a conscious intention to stop making painting and see where other media took me. But I always see my paintings as like sculpture, lumpy, about materials. I certainly approach these drawings like painting. That’s the nice thing about drawing. It is so malleable; it gives you so much space to move. The way I deal with images is as in painting: I approach that via video or photography. My subject is landscape and I started that interest because of the landscape painting tradition. I am sitting in your studio and I can see behind your head a big drawing of sky and mountains and lots of photos of landscape, especially of mountains, stone buildings and sky. Earth and sky or sometimes earth and cloud. Actually, it is a photograph, not a drawing. I have exhibited photographs already once and will exhibit four more
in March at Artinformal. It is a big thing to do, a jump away from a form I naturally feel comfortable with. They are digital photos with lots of small post-production edits. I am not really interested in photos per se. That is not my discipline. They are painter’s photographs. They are one-offs not editions. Why do you make such large paper works? It is more to do with the orientation of it. I very rarely make vertical works. The horizon is important. I am experimenting with making smaller works but always with the same format. Are you fussy about the paper you use? I am particular about materials but you can’t be so choosy in Manila. Sometimes I have gotten so frustrated that I have shipped stuff back from London by Parcel-force. But the paper I used to get in the UK is available here now: a strong paper, about 250300 gram per square metre but not too thick. A soft smooth paper, not grainy – so I can slide the graphite about easily. Water soluble graphite when wet feels like paint. I started these works specifically with liquid graphite and then used dry graphite as well. Do you make a composition sketch for these large drawings? No, it is like creating a map. I lay in the main continents and then add islands and shallows between them. Any splashes, I work round them. I am very interested in archipelagan thought – thinking the world as islands not nations. The sea becomes different if you think that way.
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E LLA M E N DO ZA
How did you begin working with ceramics? I enrolled at Rita Gudiño’s class for one semester and became intrigued. I stopped drawing and painting for three years and focused on making functional ceramic objects during that time. I was hooked on the wheel but eventually also wanted to make more sculptural work on the wheel. That is when I came up with the idea of forming ceramic versions of the tin can, conveying that tin cans are the artefacts of our time. Why did you decide to specialize in ceramics? The material is very addicting to work with and has unexpected outcomes. I also like our local ceramics community. My fellow ceramics artists, especially the elders, generously share their knowledge about clay, making the process an endless pit of learning. I am most interested in the material’s history and how it was originally used to serve as vessels for food and drink. I always contemplate on the history of clay when considering concepts for my work. Please describe some of these concepts. We have replaced the use of ceramic vessels for food with disposable packaging. So I wanted to play with the irony of shaping clay into the forms of disposable packaging. I like how the material contrasts with these forms; that viewers would not expect these objects to be ceramic until they touch them. Do you have a preferred type of clay? I like using stoneware, a high firing type of clay, because I can play more with the colors and the finish to realizemy ideas.
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PAB LO CAPATI I II You are a very committed ceramicist – or should I call you a potter? Is that how you began making – with clay? As for the label ceramicists or potter, I don’t really have any qualms what I’m called or titled. From experience the traditionalists consider themselves “Potters” and the educated intellects will always introduce themselves as “Ceramicist”. I really couldn’t care less. As regards to “making” during my early teens I always had a knack for building/making/putting together things. I was an avid RC car enthusiast, assembling 5 different sets of cars to be exact. When I got bored with that I got into assembling my own road bike and mountain bike. I guess it was something to do with my hands getting busy and dirty while some science was involved. I have always found pleasure in putting things together and making them work/run. The fascination of having materials and tinkering with it and achieving an end goal, sometimes succeeding or failing and doing it all over again, continuously tweaking the process/methods. Clay came into my world when I was thirteen years old. When I saw a senior high student effortlessly shaping a decent size platter on the wheel, in my thoughts that was what I wanted to do. That visual pleasure – which is still vivid to this day—is how I started with pottery. I wouldn’t say that everything clicked right away. In fact after my first year with clay I gave it up. Stopping for a year during my Sophomore year in high school. On my junior year i gave it another go in which my real connection with clay occurred. I was finally able to control that stubborn mound of clay on the wheel. I finally learnt and felt what being centered meant.
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LE C C R UZ What is your primary material? Oil paint is the medium I am most comfortable with. Unlike acrylics whose luster and tactility change drastically upon drying, oil paints retain their rawness even when you leave the painting for a while. I always aim for rawness and truthfulness. The work must have a soul that leaves a lasting impression. How does this medium aect your process? The painting evolves while I am making it. I select colors intuitively, depending on how I react to them at the moment. Constant thinking and reacting between hands and canvas is an exhausting process rather than a relaxing one. Painting for long periods has manifested in a nerve injury, proof that thoughts extend to the brush and palette with the strokes. Painting is a slow burn; there is no climax compared to my work as a musician where the live performance is the climax. Thoughts of the painting are immersed in my head even long after the physical activity is over. I have observed that you have also ventured into other materials and art forms. How is this related to painting with oil? I like trying dierent ways of exploring art. I realized that working on something new makes me miss my original material. This applies to my music making as well. By trying other kinds of music, I eventually miss my favorite genre and go back to it with renewed vigor. Even if the material I am trying is still unfamiliar, my artistic sensibility transfers to it. For example, my attraction to striking colors is reflected in my use of neon lights for sculpture.
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MO NI CA D E LGAD O
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W IN NI E G O
How did you start working with clay? I did not choose the clay; the clay chose me. When in graduate school, I would walk by the pottery class each day and pause to watch students work, always so spellbound and yearning to create my own clay objects. Watching the potter’s wheel move in that circular motion as the potter’s hands dug into that beautiful earth which I wished was mine, thus began my fascination with clay. What do you like most about working with clay and glazes? Clay is a material that is so tactile. The hand building technique makes me feel so close to the earth, as I sculpt it intuitively with no design prepared beforehand, letting ideas shift and flow. I chose raku clay for this body of work “Flower Market” because the sand in it allows me flexibility of form as I work to make something hard look soft, and to have the appearance of movement within each petal. Underglazes are my favourite medium as I paint each piece uniquely, none like the other. To add contrast, I sometimes tie rope and string—materials that are found in markets. As a trained Italian chef, markets inspire much of my artmaking. Why is your latest series about flowers? This new series of imaginary flowers springs from my love for visiting markets, which I believe is the heart of a country’s culture. Just as the market captures the pulse of the city, these flowers represent the pulse of where every individual comes from. Flowers come from all over the world and are a universal gift—offered to make someone happy, sometimes to ask for forgiveness, and often to comfort the sick or grieving, always connecting us to an emotion. How does this new series relate to your body of work? Intimate and personal experiences have led me to make work that brings joy, centering on themes of nature’s abundance, growth, reinvention and transformation. Flower Market symbolizes the treasures of the earth: the simplicity of that which brings to us all emotional connections. I approach my material and my subject by taking the route of positivity with the hope that this optimism is conveyed to others. Why did you install the flowers with vintage glass vases? I collected these vintage glass vases through many years of travel. I like how the hardness of glass contributes to the illusion of the softness of flowers, and the interesting contrast between materials. Some of these vases are extremely rare and are no longer being produced. Among the pieces are milk glass, pressed glass, hobnail glass, Depression glass, and combinations of these styles. I want to give them a renewed spirit through art, by bringing together the old and the new to create contemporary 3-dimensional still lifes.
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NE IL PAS I LA N What are your materials? I use industrial paints and found objects because they are inexpensive and readily available. When I began working as an artist, I was using terracotta clay because it is abundant in Bacolod where I am from. I would make craft sculptures to sell at town fiestas. When I moved to Manila, I brought heavy bags of clay with me, not realizing that clay is also available here. Eventually, I taught myself how to paint. How does painting and being a self-taught artist aect your process? I like painting about life in the province. But when I start a painting, I have no image in mind and work by using my instinct. Art is like magic. I have no plan, and no initial studies or sketches; my feelings pour out onto the canvas faster than any plan, my mind not hindered by sticking to a specific subject. I like using earth colors, or whatever colors are available to me. I do not mix my own color or think of color palettes. I paint quickly and unafraid because I am not copying from anything. The proportions are my own. I have no limits; I believe that perfection and mistakes do not exist in art making. I intuitively decide when a painting is finished. Do you paint everyday? I make art daily, whether or not I have an upcoming show. I like to enjoy my work and feel good about it. All my paintings are personal; I never consider the commercial aspect of it. I also treat daily painting as a form of regular practice, just as in karate, one needs to practice every single day to become a master. I strive to be better each day. I think that art is related to spiritual practice; I am like a pastor who uses images instead of words because it is a big responsibility to communicate ideas with the public.
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E LA IN E RO B E RTO - N AVAS
Someone once described painting as flat but lumpy. That seems very appropriate for you! Why are your paintings so lumpy and how do you make them so? Would you prefer that I called them sensuous, not lumpy? I prefer that you’d call my paintings sensually lumpy. They become this way because it’s a byproduct of my attempt to jot down all the information on to the canvas. When you see that some parts of my paintings are thicker than the rest, that means that there was a struggle. I like how Lucian Freud described the struggle; he said something like, the subject you are painting refuses to be painted. And that the canvas is a battleground. If the surface is smoother than the rest it means I got it right in the first attempt. A technical question: what paints do you use? Make, medium, etc. I assume this is important to you. I use Daler Rowney, Windsor & Newton, Pebeo, and Gamblin. How do you apply it? I apply my paint while it is still wet. This is because I rely on the next layer to blend in with the existing one. For example, if I’m making a forest, I paint a dark green on the surface first. So that when I make a leaf, I load 1-2 other shades of green that will mix in to the base color. That’s why I have to make the paint thick,
so that it can blend and maintain its color even if it’s mixed with a pre-existing one . I have to make sure that the load of paint on the brush is be able create the desired color when mixed in, but at the same time it’s able to maintain its integrity. Then I work on the molding, layering on the highlights and then the shadows. If the highlight, for example titanium white, gets lost when applied to a color, I have to add a thicker dab on top. You have always painted in a very small room in your Singapore flat. Recently you have acquired a flat in Manila with a much larger room to work in. How has that changed the way you work? Working in a bigger studio makes me feel like there’s too much space! I’d like to think that my strokes are more fluid with the bigger space, but I’m able to do this in a cramped one too. For me, the execution depends on the subject matter, not the space, really. The funny thing with the bigger space is that I find myself planning on making sculptures and drawings too. That really excites me. What I appreciate the most is that I don’t need to take photos of the work in progress to be able to see it from afar. So my camera had become another set of eyes for me, to see the work objectively. The real test afterwards is to look at the reflection of the painting in the mirror when it was all done.
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BR I SA A M I R What is your material and how do you use it? I often use paper because I am fascinated with the idea that “the paper remembers.” Paper is used a recording device for memories, like when graphite rubbings on paper reveal the form beneath it. I first allow a place to paint on the paper: rainwater, coffee spills, street dust and household materials, and then add my own hand to these markings. Your recent exhibition at Artinformal shows an expansion to fabric. Please explain why. Both paper and canvas are from trees, so I thought of asking; what if I transfer my philosophy on paper to textile? My work for that show is about the threat of demolition to the homes of informal settlers. While observing their makeshift homes, I realized that the structural covers actually serve as their blankets. I decided to recreate this temporariness by using the large wooden canvas stretcher from a previous show as the base for presenting the works. Sewing the pieces turned out to be a meditative activity that helped me internalize what I always attempt try to express in my work: that place between violence and rest, an inquiry into the definition of home as a place where we seek comfort in the everyday.
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ARTINF ORMA L / M AT ER IALS OF T HE A RT IST, ALT P HIL IP P INE S 20 20
RO D E L TA PAYA
Sit A Spell (detail), 7 x 5 ft / 84 x 60 in / 213.63 x 152.4 cm, acrylic on burlap, 2020
A R TINFOR M A L / MATER IA L S OF THE A R TIST, ALT P HI LIP P INE S 20 20
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MA RK VA LE N ZUE L A
Is clay enough? You are a ceramicist but you often use other materials, or use clay as a base for drawing or present things as installations. To answer your question, for me clay is never enough. I approach clay like I do any other material; I always ask myself why am I using this material and how does it relate to or communicate the ideas I’m exploring? It therefore often makes sense to bring in other materials. And of course, clay has its limitations, so there are also practical considerations. But ceramics, like drawing, is always an integral part of my practice. There are so many possibilities with clay, which is why I keep returning to it. There is an element of spontaneity when working with clay that keeps things interesting, sometimes the material will dictate what it wants and I have to adjust. Ceramics has also enabled me to explore certain themes central in my practice, such as fragility, resilience, and resistance. Commodification is another one. There is such a strong tradition of craft attached to the discipline of ceramics, which has historically positioned ceramic works as commodified objects. This historical context has provided me with the opportunity to explore ideas of commodification in my work. I enjoy challenging perceptions of ceramics by experimenting with what clay can do and how it can be presented within an installation based practice.
I find what you say about commodification very interesting. Can you give an example of how you “explore ideas of commodification in your work”? The most recent example would be my solo exhibition “Cheap Tricks.” This exhibition presented large steel structures that referenced paipitan (a contraption used for transporting livestock in Batangas), inside which ceramic forms hung from butcher’s hooks like lumps of meat. Circling around these structures were ceramic shark fins. Part slaughterhouse and part feeding frenzy, this installation explored the violence of consumption and commodification. For me at the time, these concerns related to the state of the Philippines and the treatment of people within an unchecked capitalist system. But my work usually has a few layers, and it was also a bit of a reaction to the highly commodified nature of the art scene. By hanging the ceramic works from butcher’s hooks like cuts of meat, I sought to highlight the commodification of ceramics (or art objects more generally). But I also made the show quite grotesque, a sort of anti-aesthetic approach to ceramics, to simultaneously undermine the ability for these works to be commodified. I don’t have any issue with selling my works, but I think I was resisting a pressure that I felt to make a certain kind of work. A few found the works crude, but I enjoyed the mixed reactions from audiences. It was liberating for me to resist the temptation to make pretty, methodical, and saleable objects.
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OCA V IL L AM I EL You have used materials from nature (feathers, coconut shells, charcoal) and materials that are man-made (dolls, nails). How do you decide on what kind of material to accumulate for your work? The materials I use come from unique accidental reasons - no particular place. I used to participate in bird shows, and ended up collecting feathers in bottles. I then thought, what if there were more? In my province of Quezon, I would notice mounds and mounds of copra—those are what I used for the coconut work presented at AFP 2019. When I visited Payatas, I saw dolls and doll heads. I find my inspiration wherever I happen to be at the moment. Some works are happy accidents. I observed that you collect a massive volume of each material that interests you, even if it takes many years. Why are you interested in amassing large quantities? There is power in repetition. When I visited the Jewish Museum in Berlin, I came across the work of Menache Kadisman entitled “Shalekhet” or “Fallen Leaves.” It is made up of more than 10,000 faces cut out from heavy iron plates. I have traveled to Japan numerous times, and have visited many temples. The Sanjusangendo Temple in Kyoto houses 1,001 statues of Kannon; the Buddhist goddess of mercy. Also in Kyoto, Otagi Nenbutsu-ji Temple has around 1,200 Buddhist statues while Adashino Nenbutsu-ji Temple has approximately 8,000 statues along its paths. Thousands of statues can be found on Mount Koya in Osaka. Many times I would be working on a sculpture that would end up becoming installations, like my work with carabao horns. Like Pollock’s large canvasses to Klee’s small works, scale comes naturally. Most of these materials are discards, yet you are able to create work from them that are very well made and cleanly finished. Does your background as a set designer have an influence on this? Other artists also use found objects but they have very raw aesthetics, different from yours. My background in set design only gave me work experience, being under pressure. I studied art, and learned under FB Concepcion and Lao Lianben. I visit museums and draw. That is how and where I learn. Every artist has his own load and feel. My art comes from my experience. We don’t get influenced; we get inspired. Going to museums opened up my mind, seeing modern masters like Cezanne or Rothko, and especially Van Gogh. We cannot compare artists. Like I said, we don’t get influenced; we get inspired. I have visited war museums, and it inspires me to express my desire to end war, to have peace.
A R TINFOR M A L / MATER IA L S OF THE A R TIST, ALT P HI LIP P INE S 20 20
LV SHA NC H UA N Kongming Lanterns No 2 (detail), 35.43 x 47.24 in / 90 x 120 cm, mixed media on canvas, 2019
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K R ISTA NO GU E RA S
How did you start working with ceramics? About five years ago, I suffered from a severe panic attack brought about by sudden tragic personal events. That led to prolonged chronic anxiety and symptoms beyond my control and understanding. I started therapy, and my doctor suggested that I try pursuing one my biggest frustrations. So I decided to sign up for a ceramic workshop at UP. Since then, my ceramic work and my continued investigation into psychology has become invariably linked. How did working with ceramics help you? It has been scientifically proven that going barefoot on the beach or in the garden is calming because one’s skin is touching the earth. Working with clay is mentally grounding. I love that clay is visceral—I enjoy the push and pull, tearing and molding. I welcome the solitude. I do most of my sculpting at home. While working, I get lost in time and converse with myself as well as with the material. My journey of working with clay has been like a long retreat. I am always looking forward to what will come next in the endless learning curve. What are some of the things you have learned while working with clay? Clay has been a teacher of both the technicalities of the material and also the philosophical aspect of being human. It has many polarities. Its malleability makes it seems like it is easy to work with but I realized that clay is not tamed right away. The clay is the master until you know it very well. You must take time to know it. Firing is a humbling experience because sometimes upon opening the kiln, the ceramic object explodes. It has taught me the art of letting go. It constantly challenges the ego. Glazing is a scientific way of coloring clay. When you apply pink, it could change to gray after firing. Therefore while using a color, I must train my mind to convert a color that I see to the color it is meant to change into. This applies to life in that you can’t always plan what you would like to happen. How do you use clay to realize your concepts? My concepts tackle our battle with our mental state, which can be especially misunderstood when one is a woman. For my serpent work Lake Predicament, I explored ideas on the primal reflexes of humans and animals towards fear and danger. While researching on fear and anxiety, I stumbled upon the term “desensitization” which is the process of gradually exposing oneself to triggers, beginning with a photo of it, then perhaps to its sounds, and then finally to the trigger itself. One of the most fascinating facts I discovered during my research is that the heart beats the same way when one is facing danger and when one is experiencing love at first sight. I became interested in the psychology of the different selves and how I can fully translate theories into a tangible object. Life experiences are the material of an artist, interwoven in different contexts and with a tangible output. What type of clay do you use? I often use Thai clay mixed with terracotta because that is what is usually available. I also experiment by mixing my own clay. The ceramic community here always shares recipes and make test tiles together. It is necessary to collaborate to learn techniques that can’t be found in books. One of my favorite community efforts was when our ceramics group went to Mindoro where we went hunting for different kinds of rocks in the mountains. We manually pulverized the rocks and turned them into glazes. Will you be delving into other concepts going forward? I am fascinated with exoskeletal forms, such as what crabs have. Along the same theme of the different selves, I would like to try to examine the phrase “a shell of your former self” by using x-ray images in making sculptural forms. I would also like to try infusing metal with clay. I was originally a metal sculptor and am now ready to bring together the two materials I am familiar with. I no longer view my anxiety as a negative thing. It has heightened my sensitivity in a good way. I am always looking forward to more realizations that working with clay will bring me.