The Life and Art of Lee Aguinaldo: Winner at the National Book Awards!

The Life and Art of Lee Aguinaldo, written by Victoria (Boots) Herrera, myself, Cid Reyes and Rod Paras-Perez, was awarded the National Book Award, Alfonso Ongpin Prize (art category), at the awarding ceremonies at the National Museum yesterday, 17 November 2012.

The book was published by Vibal Foundation and the Ateneo Art Gallery in 2011. Many thanks goes to the staff of Vibal Foundation, the Ateneo Art Gallery (Richie Lerma, Yael Buencamino, Joel de Leon, Ian Carlo Jaucian and Thea Garing), photographer Cocoy Lumbao, those whom we interviewed and helped contribute to the book, particularly Pandy Aviado, Wig Tysmans, Roberto Chabet, Eric Torres and most especially, the family of Lee Aguinaldo: Melba Arribas (Lee's partner) and his sons Leo and Danny.

OTHER, exhibition at Picasso Hotel

Dina Gadia, Observations on Tropical Disorders, 2012, collage

Altro Mondo Gallery and Picasso Boutique Serviced Residences present the group exhibition, OTHER. Featuring books, artworks, a film, Mabini art and other tourist items, the show opens on 12 November 2012, Monday, at 6 pm at the lobby, 2nd and 4th floor of Picasso Residences.

A site-specific exhibition, “Other” examines ideas of stereotypes, exoticization and authenticity. It looks into foreign consumption, perception, and the willing fulfillment of this demand. Artists whose works are included in the exhibition are Dina Gadia, Jevijoe Vitug, Kawayan de Guia, Mark Salvatus, Manny Montelibano, and Yee I-Lann.

“Other” is curated by Clarissa Chikiamco and is supported by Pablo, The Drawing Room, Silverlens and Valentine Willie Fine Art Galleries. The show runs until December 22, 2012 with opening hours from 10 am to 7 pm for the 4th floor gallery and film on the 2nd floor. 

The Picasso Boutique Serviced Residences is at 119 L.P. Leviste St., Salcedo Village Makati City, Philippines 1227. For inquiries, please call the gallery at +632-828-4774, 501-3270, or email altromondo.info@yahoo.com. 

Tad Ermitano, Twinning Machine, Ed. 1 of 25, at the Ateneo Art Gallery

Do check out the documentation of Tad Ermitano's performance with dancer Tolo Maravillas, music by Caliph8, in a computer augmented dance performance, using Tad's work Twinning Machine, an interactive video installation, recently acquired by the Ateneo Art Gallery as part of their inaugural collection of video art. The performance was held at the Ateneo Art Gallery last 5 October, Friday evening. The exhibition of the inaugural collection runs until 10 November 2012 and, asides from Tad's Twinning Machine, features the works of Martha Atienza, Yason Banal, Kiri Dalena, Manny Montelibano, Kaloy Olavides, Mark Salvatus, Gerry Tan and Maria Taniguchi. I was curator of the acquisition and exhibition for Ateneo and flew in to give a talk last weekend. Kaloy Olavides' works will be only available for viewing at certain dates and times. Please call Ateneo Art Gallery at (632) 426.6488 for more information.

Modes of Impact: The Inaugural Collection of Video Art at the Ateneo Art Gallery

Moved to Singapore

I'm working on getting documentation of my past projects up but it will have to follow over the next few months. I have moved to Singapore to take a job as a curator with a new institution that will open in 2015. I am very delighted and excited over this opportunity and I am looking forward to having new dimensions in my curatorial practice.

I am also happy to announce that two of the exhibitions I have curated, Gilubong ang Akon Pusod sa Dagat (My Navel is Buried in the Sea), the solo show of Martha Atienza, (shown first in the Office of Culture and Design, Bantayan Island; then Gallery Orange, Bacolod, as part of Cinema Rehiyon; and in Pablo X Gallery, Makati), and Untitled (Celestial Motors), the solo show of Maria Taniguchi (as part of Visual Pond's End Frame Video Art Project 3: Philippine video art festival), have won two of the three 2012 Ateneo Art Awards. Martha Atienza was also awarded the residencies in Singapore, Liverpool and Australia.

Washed Out, a solo show of Kiri Dalena, opens 7 June 2012

Washed Out, a solo exhibition of artist Kiri Dalena, opens at Finale Art File’s Tall Gallery on June 7, 2012, Thursday, at 6 pm. Running until the 30^th of June with an artist talk on June 16, Saturday, at 5.30 pm, the exhibition presents a video installation which focuses on the effect of typhoon Sendong in Iligan.

The videos in the exhibition consist of documentation taken by Dalena during the aftermath of Sendong. An installation of logs, three of thousands which had been washed out during the typhoon, provides a certain tangible presence of the event within the space.

The exhibition is curated by Clarissa Chikiamco and presented with the support of Canon Philippines. Finale Art File is at Warehouse 17, La Fuerza Compound, 2241 Chino Roces Avenue, Makati Metro Manila. It is open Mondays to Saturdays, 10 am-7 pm, and may be reached atfinaleartfileinc@gmail.com or at (632) 813.2310. Visit http://www.finaleartfile.com. 

End Frame 3: Maria Taniguchi's Untitled (Celestial Motors)

END FRAME VIDEO ART PROJECT 3, the Philippine Video Art Festival,

together with Silverlens 20Square, presents

UNTITLED (CELESTIAL MOTORS)

a solo exhibition of Maria Taniguchi

Opening on Thurs, 15 March 2012, 6 pm.

Exhibition runs until 14 April 2012.

End Frame Video Art Project 3: Present, the 2011-2012 Philippine video art festival, together with Silverlens 20Square, presents MariaTaniguchi’s solo exhibition, Untitled (Celestial Motors). The show opens at Silverlens 20Square on 15 March 2012, Thursday, at 6 pm and runs until14 April.

Untitled (Celestial Motors) features Taniguchi’s video of the Philippine jeepney, using one from the Celestial Motors factory in San Pablo. Focusing on an unadorned unpainted jeepney of stainless steel shot against a white backdrop, the video bares the jeepney as an object of study. Through simple, crisp and startling takes showing the jeepney stripped into its basic form, the video distances from any specific context and instead acts as framework in accommodating the full weight of this iconic vehicle.

Maria Taniguchi studied sculpture at the University of the Philippines and graduated with an MFA in Art Practice from Goldsmiths, London. She took part in the LUX Associate Artists Program and recently won the 2011 Ateneo Art Awards. Her practice considers information, juxtaposition and relationships of her subjects of study. She lives and works between London and Manila and will soon do a residency at Artspace Auckland in New Zealand.

Taniguchi’s Untitled (Celestial Motors) is also the sixth offering of End Frame Video Art Project 3, a project of the non-profit organization Visual Pond. Throughout the Philippine video art festival, artists stage a solo show presenting new video work in various venues from 2011 to 2012. Curated by Clarissa Chikiamco, the theme of the third edition, Present, refers to the project’s focus on the current video art practices of selected Philippine contemporary artists. Taniguchi’s exhibition follows the End Frame 3 shows of Tad Ermitaño, Manny Montelibano, Chitz Ramirez, Kiri Dalena and Kaloy Olavides. End Frame 3 caps with an exhibition by Yason Banal later this year.

Untitled (Celestial Motors) is made possible through the support of the LUX Associate Artists Program/Leverhulme Fund, London, UK.The show will be viewable throughout its run between Monday to Friday, 10 am to 7 pm, and Saturday, 1 to 6 pm (Closed Holy Week from 5 to 9 April).Silverlens 20Square is located on 2320 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati. Call (632) 816.0044 or visit http://slab.silverlensphoto.com. For inquiries onVisual Pond projects and End Frame 3, visit http://www.visualpond.org or email visualpond@gmail.com.

Invitation to End Frame 3: The Image of Sound, a solo exhibition of Kaloy Olavides

Visual Pond’s End Frame Video Art Project 3: Present, the 2011-2012 Philippine video art festival, together with West Gallery, presents The Image of Sound, the solo exhibition of Kaloy Olavides. The show opens at Gallery 2 of West Gallery on 16 February 2012, Thursday, at 6 pm and runs until 5 March. An artist talk will be held at 2 pm on 3 March, Saturday.

The Image of Sound focuses on the significance of sound to video and television, which, as moving images, have been more dominantly associated with visuals and the act of looking, seeing and watching. Yet, examining another sensory quality, Olavides’ exhibition centers on the medium’s aural experience, done through documentation of simple performative techniques. While forcing the audience to concentrate on sound, the show seemingly negates the importance of images. Yet, in its austerity, The Image of Sound points to the vitality and potency of both these elements in the recognition of how one informs the other.

A year 2000 fine arts graduate from the University of the Philippines, Kaloy Olavides practices with painting, collage, performance and sound and video installation. His works’ themes are inclined to absurdity, irony, anxiety, deception and redirection. His artistic practice is informed by his work in production and sound design for films, music videos, commercials and audiovisual presentations. Olavides is also currently a member of the experimental sound collective Elemento.

Olavides’s The Image of Sound is also the fifth offering of End Frame Video Art Project 3, a project of the non-profit organization Visual Pond. Throughout the Philippine video art festival, artists stage a solo show presenting new video work in various venues from 2011 to 2012. Curated by Clarissa Chikiamco, the theme of the third edition, Present, refers to the current project’s focus on the video art practices of selected Philippine contemporary artists. Last year’s End Frame 3 shows included presentations by Tad Ermitaño, Manny Montelibano, Chitz Ramirez and Kiri Dalena. End Frame 3 continues into 2012 with exhibitions by Olavides, Maria Taniguchi and Yason Banal. Visit http://www.visualpond.org.

Video Art Exhibitions in the Fourth Cinema Rehiyon in Bacolod this February

Video Art Exhibitions in the Fourth Cinema Rehiyon in Bacolod this February

The fourth edition of Cinema Rehiyon, the annual Philippine regional film festival of the National Commission of Culture and the Arts, presents a special project on video art, an art form which crosses the fields of both the visual arts and cinema. Curated by Clarissa Chikiamco, the video art contribution to Cinema Rehiyon 2012 includes two exhibitions, Killing Time and Gilubong ang Akong Pusod sa Dagat, which open during the festival's run in Bacolod from 8 to 11 February 2012.

Killing Time, a group exhibition which opens at Negros Museum on 8 February at 6 pm, features a selection of videos of Philippine artists which directly transact with time, as either the subject of the video itself or as method. Through featuring, extending, repeating, rupturing or reversing time, the artworks of this exhibition, ranging from 1994 to 2011/2012, focus on this essential element of video art practice. The exhibition attempts to show how artists implement time in their video work through different means and objectives. It also aims to concentrate on time as one of the most important topics of contemporary art, relevant particularly due to the unfolding of cinematic culture and the increasing technological progression which has reshaped the thoughts and experience of time in the past century. Artists whose works are included in Killing Time include Tad Ermitaño, Yason Banal, Bea Camacho, Kiri Dalena, Kaloy Olavides, Gerry Tan and Maria Taniguchi. The exhibit runs until 26 February.

Gilubong ang Akong Pusod sa Dagat (My Navel is Buried in the Sea) opens in Gallery Orange’s Gallery B, on 9 February at 8 pm with a Cine de Barrio screening the following evening with shorts from Mindanao at 6 pm in Barangay Punta Taytay. The solo exhibition is a video installation by artist Martha Atienza which focuses on fishermen and seafarers from Madridejos, Cebu. It explores the relevance of the sea and its relationship and impact on those who use it as a source of livelihood. First shown in August 2011, its showing in Cinema Rehiyon 4 in Bacolod marks its first exhibition and screening in the Philippines outside of Madridejos. The artist will also be giving a talk at Gallery Orange on 10 February at 2 pm and the show runs until 29 February.

Negros Museum is located at the Former Agricultural Building, Gastulao Street, and Gallery Orange is at Art District, Lopue's Mandalagan Annex Building, Mandalagan, both located in Bacolod City. The schedule for Cinema Rehiyon 4, which includes free admission to all films, may be found in the Cinema Rehiyon website: http://www.cinemarehiyon.com.