Joselito Jandayan: "Snippets"

"Snippets"
May 17 to June 4, 2009
Gray Wall, Kaida Gallery
2nd Floor, GFO Building, 122 Kamuning Road,
Diliman, Quezon City
tel. 414-4777


Seeing Joselito Jandayan's works up close for the first time at the opening of "Snippets," I couldn't help but be disturbed at once by its overall melancholic mood, made palpable by the distortion of the figures (one that vividly recalls for the viewers the works of Elmer Borlongan executed in the same manner: e.g "Bay Side," 1991, oil on canvas). For a moment, I was even afraid that both the male and female figures by the railroad would drip slowly out of the canvas and onto the floor. I took longer looking at a painting of a boy, and a girl standing side by side, with the girl's left eye hollowed out, and through which viewers could see a blue sky. The boy's left arm had seemed to be grossly dislocated, and the boy seemingly oblivious to the situation. This being the fourth solo exhibit of Jandayan, I went home that night and search through google for Jandayan's past works. I came upon half-faced figures that were giraffe-like in form, and billowed half-heartedly over the canvas, glassy one-eyed figures that seemed to have consciously put their faces too close to the glass frame ("Mr. Dimakabenta," "The Farthest I've Been," "After the First Time," etc.), wary like deers sensing troubles that they could not see, yet willfully staying put, almost desperately wishing for someone or something from the other side to crash through.



Joselito Jandayan (born in Zamora Paco, Manila in 1973) is also a graduate of the Technological University of the Philippines with a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts, majoring in Advertising in 1997.

Before being swallowed up completely by the corporate world (working as a Graphic designer and a freelance digital illustrator for a website company), he stopped working and devoted his time painting full time.

Exhibit history (solo):
“Solo Plight”- 1st solo exhibit held at Nineveh Artspace in Sta Cruz, Laguna Philippines - November 25, 2007
“Kinarir” -2nd solo exhibit held at Kaida gallery in Kamuning, Quezon City Philippines - May 11, 2008
“Awakened Allegory” - 3rd solo exhibit held at Niniveh Art Space in Sta. Cruz, Laguna – October 26 to November 19, 2008

Jerson Samson: "Tawid Gutom" @ Kaida Gallery

May 2009

Viewing Jerson Samson's work is a delight to see with its slices of Filipinos lives.



In his latest exhibit title "Tawid Gutom" at Kaida Gallery, having opened on May 17 and on view until June 4, 2009, viewers are bound to be amused anew by his portrayals of Filipinos families confined within small spaces, including his triptych on streetfood, the faces of the men eating it ballooning out of the canvas. And all are rendered either in his somber blue or in his signature fiery colors. Colored in this manner, his largest work on the cross-bearing Christ with its impasto treatment, make itself seem to burst out of the canvas as confetti-ed madness and shapeshifting energy at once. This then viewing of Samson's current works has turned out to be, not mere morsels to ease away hunger pangs for a bit of art, but a delectable selection, and an easy feast for the eyes.




This is Samson's 9th exhibit and is a young (born in 1976) but multi-awarded painter. He majored in painting at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. He is among the top five winners in the 1999 Phillip Morris Philippine Art Awards. His previous exhibit titled "Tayo" was also mounted at Kaida Gallery in 2008.

Kaida Gallery is at the 2nd Floor GFO Bldg., Kamuning Rd.,Quezon City
Tel. No. 414.4777 or email info@kaidagallery.com

18 x 24 @ Metro Gallery

By the exhibit's title alone, one need not wonder about the sizes of the works, but what to see on those canvases made the pulse run quicker, especially with this viewer having just come from another great exhibit opening (Jarque's & Valdezco's).

Metro Gallery mounts “18x24,” opened on May 16 (and on view until May 26), at Metro Gallery, 455 P. Gueverra St., San Juan (right beside Cafe Ysabel).




The show featured the works by Jason Montinola, Tyago Almario, Vincent De Pio, Aileen Lanuza, Wesley Valenzuela, CJ Tanedo, Randalf Dilla, Alrashdi Mohammad, Kris Jan Gavino, Clint Catalan, Marlon See, Parker Encisa, Jigger Cruz, Keka (Becca Rodriguez), Carlo Ongchangco, Gino Tioseco, Joselito Jandayan, Kadin Tiu, Raffy Napay, Rovi Salegumba, Averil Paras, Marcial Pontillas, Heraldo Corpuz, Epil Franklyn, Mike Velasco, Ronald Caringal, Cesar Delgado, Egg Fiasco, JJ Zamoranos, Scott Garceau, Benjie Bermudez, Robert Shook, Julmard Vicente, Rianne Salvarita, Bjorn Calleja, Lawrence Borsoto, John Suter Pongongan, Demosthenes Campos, Henry Royales, Bernardo Del Mundo, Mitch Valera, Nemo Aguila, Ferdinand Cacnio, Delf Campos, Rizaldy Garra, Jojo Lofranco, Adonai Artificio, and Mark Salvatus.

Cesar Delgado's work (uppermost right) highlighting the face of a baby, and below it the work of Corpuz and Mohammad.

Artist Marlon Magbanua admires a work.

Campos' signature abstraction work in the middle.

It is a great feeling to have bumped into Dumaguete-based artist and once co-officemate Rian Salvarita, who eagerly told me that his work had been sold. I checked out all the works and signature pieces of Cacnio, Dilla, Campos, Mohammad, Corpuz, Jandayan, and Delgado, among others. Delgado has returned to painting after a brief absence, having found work abroad, but tells us that he has gone back into his first love, this time on a full time basis.

Artist Salvarita and his Dali-inspired work above us.

For information on the exhibit, call or SMS Chitty Cometa at 0917-8115399.

"Everything is Temporary" by Mac Valdezco & Eugene Jarque

May 2009

Mac Valdezco and Eugene Jarque hold their second two-man show “Everything is Temporary,” opening on May 16 and on view until June 6 at Blanc Compound, 359 Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City.



Valdezco’s latest works of pliant biomorphic forms stand shoulder to shoulder with Jarque’s sharp aluminum geometric creations, each's impressive large works yielding to the beauty of the other.





Jarque is a part-time instructor at the Technological Institute of the Philippines and is the 2nd prize winner for his work "Artificial Light Sources" in the 2000 Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE)under the watercolor media on paper category. Valdezco is a fellow graduate from T.U.P and has exhibited in the National Museum, Vargas Museum, and Ateneo Art Gallery, among a list of many galleries and museums. Most importantly, both Jarque and Valdezco have been named in 2006 as two of Cultural Center of the Philippines' "13 Artists" along with Ronald Anading, Jeho Bitancor, Mariano Ching, Lena Cobang­bang, Daniel Coquilla, Luisito Cordero, Lyra Garcellano, Jayson Oliveria, Gary-Ross Pastrana, Yasmin Sison-Ching, and Jevijoe Vitug.





Valdezco’s ingenious clingwrap shoes and Jarque's "Color Handbook of Garden Insects" are also in "Dioramas," a group show from 6 May to 1 June at Mag:net at The Columns in Ayala Avenue.

It is quite impressive to see the creative output of Valdezco considering that she has just finished an equally laudable exhibit titled "Cut Out Atma" a month ago at 20Square Gallery.

My hats off to these two artists!

See both their works, too, with fellow artists from T.U.P in a group exhibit titled "File Under: No Certain Concept” on May 20 at The Crucible Gallery, fourth floor, SM Megamall A, Mandaluyong City.

"Evince" by Demosthenes Campos

"Evince" Exhibit- May 1-16, 2009, @ Whitebox Studio, Cubao, Quezon City

Demosthenes Campos' 4th solo exhibition features thirty-three (33) 3.5 sq. ft. works using acrylic with elastomeric paint on paper. Looking at the first 12 abstract works hanging on one side of the wall could easily give the audience an impression that he is looking through the window of a building that had a view of all the roofs of the shanties within its horizons, or that each square foot of work has become like suspended creatures just morphing into yet other forms right before one's eyes. The dominant yellow paint in all works even hints at Klimt's golds, all magnetically drawing in its audience further to closely investigate each stroke and line.



Demosthenes Campos, a 36 years old graduate Fine Arts graduate (major in advertising) of Technological University of the Philippines, is open about his admiration of the works of Rothko and Rauschenberg, and even of fellow TUP artist Eugene Jarque. Growing up as the eldest of four boys in Paco, Manila, Campos remembers being drawn to the art of painting by a cousin whose penmanship and drawing he admired as a child.

Demosthenes Campos relates that his very first serious foray into art was when he joined the PYLOX Spray Art contest in 2000 where he won first prize for a sculpture titled "Aligasin", a piece which he fashioned out of an old toilet bowl. He won his first big money in the said contest worth P50 thousand along with a PC computer. Most notably, Demosthenes Campos won 3rd prize during the 59th AAP Annual Art Competition under the mixed-media category.

Demosthenes Campos' very first solo exhibit was in 2007 with "Influence" at the Big & Small Art Co. (SM Megamall), followed in 2008 by "Unfinished" at The Crucible Gallery (SM Megamall), and "Decoloration" at Galeria Astra in Makati City.

For more of his works, visit http://pototoylaki.multiply.com/photos