Exhibitions

Energetic, variable, and masterful, Edwin Wilwayco’s Wave Cadenza, is another poetic chapter within his formidable series of abstracted images inspired by and evoking musical structure. In this suite of dynamic paintings Wilwayco engages the viewer in the compositions of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).

In Wave Cadenza, Wilwayco achieves the visual physicality of Mozart’s grand and luscious musical theatrics, flourishes, and diversity of sound architecture: the wavelike movements, layering of curves, counter-curves, dissymmetry, and repetition of high and low expressions; and, as is natural for Wilwayco - the strong play of bold, vibrant, and powerful color arrangements to deliver profound emotive viewer satisfaction. The various applications of paint mannerism provide a visual representation of the many instruments of the Ancien Regime, Classical and Rococo period: harpsichord, violins, violas, cello, flute, and the newly developing fortepiano, which allowed the loud-soft tones.

While Mozart is today, by contemporary standards, appreciated as a traditionalist within the Classical period of music, and iconically old-fashioned to many ears, he was in his own contemporary period loved as a revolutionary and fanciful super star, creating a wide-range of compositions from entertaining intimate joyful divertimento pieces to monumental operatic stage epics that continue to influence the musical and visual arts today. During his short and highly creative and productive life - admired for his rapid, easy, and manic pace of compositions of amazing diversity of genre - he gained a reputation as a rebellious young modern, who added to, assimilated, and rejected the previous generations of serious-minded and heavy Baroque musical masters of his time, to welcome-in the innovations of the Romantic era. To some critics, his music falls as superficial joy, but to others it exemplifies a gleeful seriousness.

The exhibition will run from October 11-22, 2022 at Galerie Joaquin Rockwell with an Artist Reception on October 14 at 5 p.m. The gallery is located at R3 Level, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center, Makati. For inquiries, contact Galerie Joaquin at +63 915 414 5502 or email galeriejoaquinrockwell@gmail.com Wilwayco’s goal in this group of paintings is to contain within the painted composition an allusion to Mozart’s overall high-drama and lively and clear style, the visual sound of dance-like, and childlike, simple to sublime manner, and the style galant / the elegant style of the period with a contemporary twist. The suite of paintings that form Wave Cadenza are a beautiful blend of lush and dense arrangements with soft surface in some areas, light elegance in others, and walls of authoritative operatic sounds in other paintings, always allowing for personalized viewer interpretation. With hundreds of compositions to his name, Mozart leaves us an abundance of musical possibilities to unite with Wilwayco’s vast number of abstracted visuals. Wave Cadenza is a challenging and intriguing suite of paintings because of the high diversity in form, many combinations within one composition, offering the viewer endless visual stimulation and engagement. Born in Guimba, Nueva Ecija, he has earned his way into local and international success, elevating the respect from many artists and art-savants then and now. Wilwayco experienced his maiden brushstrokes at Continental School of Design Studies in Los Angeles, USA. He then continued to sharpen his skills at the University of the Philippines’ College of Fine Arts, majoring in Advertising Arts with a minor in Painting. There, he was under an exceptional faculty, among which he names Jose Joya and Constancio Bernardo as his influential mentors. Being under their prime tutelage has immersed him into the beauty of abstractions colors. Wilwayco’s fervent artistic effort then qualified him to be a scholar for the British Council in England in 1982, training under the curriculum of West Surrey College of Art and Design. In that same year, Wilwayco was also granted by the Italian government another scholarship for painting. Even in his career-building years, the way opportunities opened for Wilwayco was reflective of how skilled an artist he is. From his first Merit Award Shell on-the-spot painting contest in 1970, to being one the Thirteen Artists Awardees of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, to having prominent art laureates make books about his works, Wilwayco has produced a career of continuous artistic vigor.

Now with more than 30 solo exhibitions (since 1973) and copious group exhibitions held in the Philippines, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, USA, France, Belgium, and Germany, Wilwayco’s talent has built abstract prefectures of rich and vibrant dribble and stunning compositions.