“When I look at Egay Lising’s paintings, I am immediately drawn into the physical nature of the works at his exhibition opening at KULAY-DIWA GALLERY OF CONTEMPORARY ART on July 14 and on exhibit until August 14.” Gord Snyder/Guest Curator
An exhibition of mixed media works on canvas by EGAY LISING opens at Kulay-Diwa Gallery of Contemporary Art on July 1 and continues until Augst 14, 2019.
Lising’s fast and furious drawing onto wet/writing onto wet/scribbling on canvas and into oils to achieve that overall and compelling Line vs. Paint vs. Colour that is so a part of today’s culture of fast-moving thoughts. The work is gestural abstract expressionism filled with childlike imagery disguising the complex process of the artist.
In the tradition of ART BRUT, as associated with the French painter Jean Dubuffet, Lising’s work is drawn and painted into a sometimes heavy impasto base. The complex compositions contrast line, colour, and shapes in his works. Lising also creates the illusion of perspective by overlapping objects within his picture plane. The artist also uses text to draw the viewer’s attention to his intention.
Perhaps the painting ‘Liberty’ best illustrates this beautiful calculated contrasts of colours, lines, shapes, and images. In the centre, we find bold black, red and brown shapes – with black dripping over the red down and out of the painting. On the right are crude white drawings on black and grey complemented by the circular bottom-left. imagery……Lising scratches into his wet paint to catch our eye and compliment further by contrast.
This exhibit brings the work of three artists from Calbayog City, Samar together. Willy Labana and Aris Ventures are senior Samar artists living and working in the city and Rommel Tingzon is a young artist currently attending the Fine Arts and Architecture Program at FEU in Manila. While varied in style, all three are using their images to portray the everyday life of Samar’s peoples – fishing, studying, working or exploring education.
Aristole Ventures (Aris) is a teacher at CADSEV, the Calbayog Arts and Design School of Eastern Visayas, the only school in the region that majors in Arts and Design Programs. His style is unique and his series of cubist-like figures at work is thought-provoking and finely executed.
Labana is a graduate of Northwest Samar State University and a leading artist in the region who has consistently won awards in Filipino competitions since 1996 including First Prize in the 2018 Tarlac Painting Competition. The paintings in this online exhibition show his signature style of fluid, magical paintings that speak to the viewer about relevant social issues in and around Samar.
Both Lanana and Ventures are leaders in Samar in developing arts programs and workshops as well as setting by example as major artists of the region.
Rommel Tingzon is 21 years old from the island of Western Samar. Through his detailed oil paintings, Tingzon explores the history of portraiture, realism, and symbolism. This exhibition is meant to share a very intimate and personal view of Tingzon’s own life experiences as he grows as an artist.
Tingzon’s work can be classed as realism but the symbolism speaks beyond representation to his culture and the way of life in the Philippines. He placed among the top 30 in the Philippines in both the 51st annual Shell Painting and the PLDT Competitions. Holometabolism of Life in this online exhibition was his winning entry in this competition.
Pinipinta ko ang kuwento ng aking karanasan sa buhay.
This suite of small works by Jonathan Benitez is titled his ‘Coral Reef Series’ and were done in 2012 during his stay as Artist in Residence in Dos Palmas Resort in Honda Bay, Palawan. The twelve works are all either 5”x8” or “8”x5” and are oil pastel, acrylic, and graphite on paper.
Benitez does non-figurative works as a respite from very tight portraits and this series was done after sea excursions are spontaneous and free later allowing him to return to portraiture.
Jonathan Benitez is one of the most respected and accomplished Palawan artists. He was born from a musician family in 1971. The second child of seven, he was first introduced to watercolor and charcoal portraiture in his uncle’s studio at the age of 10. Benitez progressed from there as he began winning art competitions.
In 1995, his work brought exposed him to Palawan writers, artists, and intellects. He founded the Manunggul Group- a group of local artists in 1996 and they held exhibitions and conducted lectures and workshops and thus the group become instrumental in molding awareness of the arts in Palawan.
Benitez works well in different mediums. He is known for his collage and abstract works as well as his hyperrealist paintings and portraits. His main themes are of social commentary or stories that could shed emphasis on the harsh realities in life. He believes painting as a visual storytelling piece, an object that communicates. In his works, he is always asserting his position as a contemporary Filipino artist.
Born in 1985 in Manila, Mike Garcia attended school and grew up in Palawan.
He graduated in the University of Santo Tomas College of Fine Arts and Design, Majoring in Painting, in 2006. His style reflects the careful study that goes into the rendering of every principle (and its internal structure).
Garcia works with graphite and oil on paper and paints in acrylic on canvas.
Garcia has exhibited since 2007 in a group and one person exhibitions in Manila, Quezon City, Cebu City, Philippine Embassy, Berlin and Zurich, Switzerland. He was also the representative of Palawan to the NCCA Philippine Visual Arts Festival 2013 in Pagadian City, Zamboanga Del Sur; a first place winner at the Palawan Artist Juried Exhibition (2015) and one of the regional winners for Luzon Philippine Art Awards (2015-16).
