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  "FESTIVALE" Showcases 52 Works of Exuberance and Jubilation

As part of the festivities during the Yuletide Season, Galerie Joaquin in cooperation with Galerie Francesca have put together "Festivale", an exhibit that showcases the spirit, the optimism and the exuberant energy of the Filipino. The show opens Tuesday, December 28, at 6:30 pm at The Art Center, 4th Floor, Bldg. A of SM Megamall and runs until January 8, 2011. For inquiries, call (02) 7239418, 7239253 or 5709495 or visit www.galeriejoaquin.com.

Indeed there is much room for celebration. The economy is registering positive growth rates, the stock market is at an all time high, exports are up, dollar remittances are likewise at unprecedented levels. There is a boom in many sectors such as in real estate and automotive sales. Domestic and foreign investments continue to grow at an upward trend.

It is for this reason that the curators have chosen 52 artworks, a representation for the 52 weeks in a year where there is always one sort of celebration or festival occurring in the country. All the artworks depict certain customs, traditions or way of life of our people with one common denominator: they all exude a feeling of jubilation and happiness.

Among the major works for this exhibition are Jovan Benito's "Fruit Festival", the artist's own creative interpretation of a regular day at the market and "The Palay Harvest", her signature piece for the exhibition "Prosperity" and her naïf like paintings of farm animals: "Rooster, Hen and Chick", "Hen and Chick", "Pig and Piglet" and "Oxen". Benito, 28, draws much of her paintings' characters from scenes from her own impressionable childhood. A particular favorite are the lively market scenes from her hometown in Sta. Cruz, Laguna. Freshly painted on her canvases is rural life simplified. Her women folk are the unhurried lasses of the province gaily pursuing their chores from which unfold multiple stories about them and their way of life. Benito's works are joined in this exhibit by those of Amador Barquilla, Allan Rapsing, Aljo Pingol, Roel Obemio, Crisanto Lodronio, Nell Campos.

Barquilla's artistic lodestone is his love for the native environment, with its brightly colourful and tropical brilliance that shines a sympathetic light on the daily quirks and special days of the countryside and cities of this archipelago, rendered in a minutely-detailed and yet highly stylized manner that reminds us of both Northern Renaissance paintings of simple folk life, as well as the brilliance of the Philippine Modern Expressionist idiom. Barquilla was inspired to work on his art through the influence of his cousin, artist Jerry Morada, a mainstay at the Guevarra Group of artists. Utilizing a highly abstracted pattern of flat primary and secondary color tones outlined in black, Barquilla renders human figures and landscape in a highly linear and planar manner that vaguely reminds one of the pattern designs of the late New York-based graffiti artist Keith Haring. And yet, the sensibility of Barquilla's approach is based on a sensitive appropriation of folk art motifs and children's art, combining these with an ambitious scope that seeks to document and celebrate the life of the Filipino people in ways that are culturally unique. Among Barquilla's works featured in the exhibit are "Bayanihan", "Lechon Festival", "Violin Concert", and "La Musique".

Allan Rapsing in works such as "Idyllic Afternoon" and "Alaga" exhibit strong influences from German expressionist artists but interpreting what the artist sees as a magical rural Philippines while Aljo Pingol's Marc Chagall inspired works see floating figures in a dreamlike idyllic world such as man and his favorite beast of burden the carabao in "Perfect Tandem" and a love struck couple in "Serenade". Roel Obemio's robust figures in "Father and Son" and "Maestro" inspire a world of abundance and plenty set in a happy setting. Crisanto Lodronio presents works of myriad figures done in the patient and detailed manner of a true artist in works such as "Old Manila" and Fiesta". Nell Campos' masterly cubist rendition of a rural scenery that is fast disappearing can only inspire the viewer to look back with nostalgia and fervent longing such as in his "Fish Harvest" and "Balikatan".		  
     
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