by Ching Pangilinan
The SUNny side of HAPPINESS
Living with the pandemic in Tokyo, Japan may be daunting. But Kapampangan visual artist Dennis Villanueva Sun continues to share a dose of positive vibes, and spread cheer with his creative genius in an upcoming show, “HAPPINESS Art Exhibition”. The new exhibit will be taking place on February 26 to March 25, 2021 at Shinjuku’s Gallery O-Guard Miruku and it is supported by the Shinjuku Bunka Center. This is a venue at the heart of one of Tokyo’s commercial hubs, a stone’s throw away from the world’s busiest train station. The Happiness Art Exhibit will feature 15 paintings handpicked by the artist, resonating life during the pandemic, and partly a discourse on how artists remain relevant in these challenging times in our society, while the outdoor
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window display mode reflects how art shows adapt safe and healthy ways to reach out to their audience. I am quite amazed at this kind of support and value placement that is given to artists in Japan. The artworks in the Happiness exhibit were painted in various periods of Dennis’s life beginning in the 1990s, transcending time, zeitgeist, and even geographical boundaries. But the artist draws parallelisms between his early struggles as an expat in Japan and the current
January - February 2021
