There is beauty in Debris.
Denotatively, there is wreckage and rubbles when debris is mentioned. Connotatively though, sans these fragments in the lucid thoughts of Raymond Legaspi, the magnificence and natural attraction of his works would have not been evident. Raymond Legaspi is clever and astute in his keen environmental surveillance and documentation of experiences. His brooding introspection of what he sees around is transformative; his works are attractively fetching and magnanimously appealing.
His fascination with water and global warming are evinced in the fourteen acrylic works on canvas in this Debris exhibit. Metaphorically, the works speak so much of a tranquil torpor when seemingly everything comes to a halt. The notion of what a natural calamity can effectuate to certain individuals and spaces is transposed to the inadvertently satirical pieces of artworks. Case in point would possibly be the aftermath of a typhoon, like Super Yolanda. Adversely affected environs and hinterlands of such catastrophe put a stop to what may have been a daily routine of activities. The raging and rising water bunged and immobilized the individuals.
Think of an orchestra conductor signaling to the ensemble of instrumentalists to hit the last note of an aria. This is Debris. This is what is seen in the whimsical and quirky figures of the recent works of Legaspi. Looking closely, such is a social and environmental commentary that evokes a solid unrequited perspective of underwater images, stagnating every subject and punctuated with the picturesque ruins. Debris is all over. It is deep and so figurative.
His two decades of advertising practice prior to his account to the new art of painting in 2006 definitely enriched and predisposed the mode and process of his visual creations. Raymond Legaspi loves ideas and loves to play with ideas. A Negrense, specifically a Silaynon, Legaspi was shortlisted for the Philippine Art Awards and landed in the Top 10 for the Visayas in 2007 and succeeding to that in 2008, he won the Jurors’ Choice. In 2009, he was recognized as one of the country’s 10 Most Exciting Artists by Nokia and the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Debris is open to the public starting September 6, 2018 at the High Space of Qube Gallery, Crossroads, Banilad, Cebu Cty. Exhibit runs until September 30, 2018.
]]>Alcy Salazar
Together with his parter, Andrea, Alcy produced a zine with both of their artworks in it.
Growing up in a family of artists, Alcy Salazar began picking up the skill in drawing at a young age.
“I never really took it seriously until I went to art school and discovered I had way much to learn. I can never really define what my style is, as long as it is appealing to me then I’ll go for it,” Alcy shares.
Partnering his art with his girlfriend, Andrea, they produced a zine inspired by Luigi Serafini’s Codex Seraphinianus entitled Seraphinianus Paradox.
This codex was originally published in 1981 which was an illustrated encyclopedia for an imaginary world.
“I try my best to show how this book opened my mind on how surreal your ideas can become, through my drawings,” he adds.
Jodie Ferrer
Jodie’s zine ignites the basics of art and attached feelings and emotions of love and a lot more.
Jodie ventured into art at a young age when she realized it was only the best thing she could do.
“Even by the slightest bit and so I decided to stick with it, everyone else thought I was delusional,” Jodie says.
She started wanting to draw in a more Japanese anime style. “But that just got frustrating a young age, I moved on to practicing fundamentals instead,” she shares. Among her inspirations are Alessandro Barbucci and Loish, making her create more feminine cartoon-like pieces.
Jodie’s interest in art grew into working on with portraits and focusing on the overall emotion and symbolism.
“Coming from the composition of my works, I used elements from nature like plants, animals, and people,” Jodie says.
This year, she focused on the fundamentals. “I don’t think there can be enough studies done on the basics especially when it comes to art,” she adds. Her zine covers on what she learned about the basics like perspective, facial expressions, colors, and values.
To mix it all up, her zine’s fundamentals are combined with the emotions she experienced over the year. “This makes the zine a very personal project,” she says.
Jodie claims she lacks knowledge when it comes to art fundamentals and since she never underwent professional training into the art form she is in today, this made her create a zine touched with constructive criticism coming from the artists she personally admires and, of course, her feelings.
Bastinuod
Bringing familiar streets into art, Basti shares some of his daily observations in the city.
Coming from the grassroots of comic-inspired art, Basti Penayes III, or more commonly known as Bastinuod, has gained fame and respect in the digital world and local art scene.
His works, from creating art series to random national situational criticism by the use of art, Basti has always been inspired by comics.
This year, his zine titled Dalan Sugbo takes us back to the streets of Cebu. By seeing his own perspective, Basti was inspired by this into making his own zine.
Basti studied painting in the University of the Philippines Cebu and has recently published his series online called Indiogram that tackles the peculiarity of the modern world.
Convening at 856 G Gallery on July 14, 2018, Cebu Zine Fest brings together different artists with different specialties in art expression.
Stories come through every day but through art, we experience different backgrounds that we can learn from and be inspired with. Just like Alcy, Jodie and Basti, their zine’s a peeks of their imagination, inspiration, stories, and perceptions.
]]>In an effort to be more visible to the Cebuanos, artists have begun movements that all echo the same call: support local art.
One place in Cebu that has been an avenue for local artists to show their talents is at The Crossroads, a lifestyle district where things come alive through community and collaboration. Here, there is a showcase of some of the best local brands alongside art, design, and craft showroom-gallery spaces in a work-play community.
Just last July, the CEVOLUTIÓN was launched at the Crossroads. It is a public art series made up of murals done by six artists, namely: Golda King, DAOT, Lean Reboja, KIDLAT, Ronyel Compra and Ivan Zaldarriaga.
Take a walk around the Crossroads and admire the murals scattered around the vicinity, almost blatantly in your face to remind you that they’re there, just like the local artists striving to create a collective consciousness of their existence.
Also located at The Crossroads is the Qube Gallery, a premier art space in southern Philippines that initiates, creates, and showcases contemporary arts and ideas. Many artists have poured out their hearts (that is, their art) at this gallery.
Qube Gallery’s director, Dennis Montera, has an ongoing exhibit. Witness his twentieth solo exhibition, A State of Introspection. Based in Taiwan to finish his Doctorate in Creative Industries Design in the National Cheng Kung University, Dennis has been supported by the University of the Philippines’ Doctoral Studies Fund, as a tenured faculty of the Fine Arts Program of the University of the Philippines Cebu.
Never Would Have Guessed It Would Turn Out This Way by Dennis Montera
The year 2016 recorded the coldest winter in Taiwan. In this worst of circumstances, Dennis Montera created his gentlest paintings—the Winter Itch and Pinyin series. These featured muted color fragments layered translucently one upon another, all in stark contrast to his previous color-laden, highly-texturised body of works. This newfound aesthetic of sparsity, borne in a strange country, follows through in a collection of oeuvres for A State of Introspection.
Method to My Madness by Dennis Montera
The multitude of discourses he has been amassing as an artist, educator, art advocate, gallery director, among others, correlate to the density of layers piling on his abstractions on canvasses through the years that have defined his art practice.
Dennis continuously explores the definition of the painterly through experimentation of new processes introduced by new materials. Informed by an institution steeped in traditional representational art, his gesturals are arguably acts of aggression. He translates defiance as tactility of differences, integrating bitumen and texturizers with acrylic paints in his works.
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