I hit Manila with my skates on and headed straight to silverlens gallery for back-to-back openings last night. Who’s showing? Three of Manila’s hottest 30-something boys: Poklong Anading + Gary-Ross Pastrana at silverlens and Mariano Ching across the bridge at SLab.

2011 marks my 10th anniversary with Manila. I first set foot in this city in January 2001 and didn’t think I would survive my first 24 hours! Well here I am 10 years on and grateful for the experiences this city has given me. What is even more special is the people I’ve gotten to know along the way, friends and collaborators in the art community who make Manila feel very much like my second home.

Over the past 10 years, Poklong, Gary and Mariano have emerged from the black hole that is DIY territory and have become stars in their own right. As their art practice continue to mature, each artist has stayed true to his own path of interests and concerns and consistently challenged audience with works that are thought-provoking, witty and often humourous. Between Signs is a two-man show for Poklong and Gary, two old friends who have exhibited together in group shows across Manila and beyond. Sparse, minimal and slightly off-kilter – particularly in the Pinoy context where more is always more, this show may come across as “nothing much is happening” to those who are unaccustomed to the artists’ unique brand of aesthetics. Works in this exhibition feel as though “they just happen to be there”, featuring objects such as clear tape, breadcrumbs, a folio of dust, a ball of chocolate and a green tea and ube (purple yam) cake and a slab of concrete, literally, among others. The point of the exhibition is to blur the distinction between “who made what” and highlight the dialogue between works made by two friends who share similar concerns or “maps” but are moving along different journeys.

Fallen Map (by Poklong Anading) in the picture below is the kindred spirit of the First Attempt at Social Sculpture or Breaking the Fourth Wall (by Gary-Ross Pastrana) in that they both represent fragments from the urban landscape. For Fallen Map, Poklong went around the Metro and collected pieces of broken pavement and painted the flat side with colorful patterns derived from rags. Meanwhile, Gary’s edible concrete cake is made to look like a part of the gallery floor.

Image below :The concrete cake is actually a green tea ube cake, delicious despite its unappetizing appearance.

Across the bridge at SLab, Mariano Ching’s  Even Bad Days Are Good tells us that beauty can be found in the grotesque, the ugly and the details. The show presents a series of portraits of Chewbacca-meets-Elephant Man type characters on canvas and a set of miniature landscapes etched and carved onto shaped wooden blocks. Mariano’s touch on wood is exquisite, combining intricately detailed rendering of fantastical seascapes and junkyard scenes with carved textures on the wood’s surface. This series of work shows off the artist’s fine draftsmanship and keen understanding and appreciation for wood gained from his Japanese training in printmaking during his year in Kyoto in 2004.

Opening night at SLab. The happy couple, Yasmin Sison (left) and Mariano Ching (right) with Isa Lorenzo (centre),  co-owner of silverlens gallery.

For more information and images of Poklong, Gary and Mariano’s work, please visit silverlens gallery’s website here and SLab’s website here (AO)

RogueArt has officially signed on as a fan of Bea Valdes. One of the most sought-after luxury fashion designers from the Philippines, Ms. Valdes is renowned for her intricately crafted feather and bejeweled bags and necklaces. While her accessories and bags may have been the toast of Vogue, W and Harpers, it is Bea Valdes, the artist, and her work in “Bedtime Stories”, from her recent solo exhibition at SLab in Manila that had completely won us over.

Please bear with me while I gush.

A staunch support of local artisans and their craft, Ms. Valdes worked with her atelier of beaders to create a series of breathtaking depictions of animal figures inspired by fables and folk stories, intricately embellished with sequins, Swarovzki crystals and semi-precious stones. Combining her interest in fairy tales, the artist’s “first exposure to the idea of anything sinister, wicked, or dark,” and a fascination with taxidermy, her cast of lovingly created characters -a baby bear, fawn, squirrel, rat, bunnies, snakes and skulls- have been designed to charm our aesthetic sensibilities through their beauty, fine craftsmanship and immaculate finishing.

“Bedtime Stories” stands on the threshold between old and new, light and dark, the romantic and the macabre. Framed within each bijou-like animal is an amalgamation of sensibilities and style; we witness traces of Gothic and Victorian influences, Art Deco decorative style and echoes of Grimm Brothers and Disney.

She writes in her artist statement:

‘The term taxidermy is derived from two Greek words: taxis, meaning “arrangement” and derma, “skin”. I am continually intrigued by the concept of skin and applied surfaces. Being an agent of transformation, skin has the ability to either conceal or expose by validating or mystifying identity. Layers, grafted on or draped, serve to alter the self/essence associated with the form. One bead at a time, one minute at a time, and thousands of hours later,  we have woven stories on skin. As the object is re-surfaced, it evokes an atmosphere saturated with skewed nostalgia. In this liminal state, objects encased in decorated hides or cloaked in metal membranes straddle the threshold between ambiguity and certainty.’

For further information about the show and artist, do check out SLab’s website here.

Photos courtesy of SLab.

Psychogenic Fugue belongs to Patricia Eustaquio’s latest body of work, inspired by JS Bach’s piano exercise, The Well Tempered Clavier. This haunting crochet sculpture, cast from an existing piano, is part of a series of 12 works, silent odes to the sublimity of Bach’s music, recently unveiled at Patty’s highly anticipated solo exhibition Death to the Major, Viva Minor at SLab (Silverlens Lab) on October 16th.

Quick trivia: the existing piano belongs to Nona Garcia’s grandmother.

Our other favourite work from this show is Untitled (Piano), made of tooled leather and ceramic keys. Patty worked with leather craftsmen in Marikina to create the body and the piano keys are shaped from delicate ceramic.

SLab is the latest (and sexiest) addition to Manila’s new contemporary art spaces opening along Pasong Tamo Extension in Makati -Finale Art File and Manila Contemporary are in the vicinity. Those of you who have seen and experienced the bridge will know what we mean by sexy. It’s very Diego and Frida! SLab is dedicated to presenting contemporary Filipino art and is a part of the Silverlens Group, helmed by the formidable Isa Lorenzo and Rachel Rillo. To find out more check out http://slab.silverlensphoto.com

SLab interior