Roby Dwi Antono and Maxine Syjuco team up in ‘Criminal Lullabies’
Indonesian pop surrealist Roby Dwi Antono collaborates with Philippine neosurrealist painter, poet, and performance artist Maxine Syjuco to explore their individual strains of style that find parallelisms in subverting expectations, finding light in darkness, and using children to depict truths of the world in “Criminal Lullabies.” The show will have its opening reception on Sept. 26, 6 p.m., at Galerie Stephanie, 4/F Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Mandaluyong.
The exhibition title “Criminal Lullabies” calls attention to the dichotomies along which Roby and Maxine swing to and fro; Roby with his portraits of deceptively naïve children, and Maxine with her quest for the immortal soul in the gleaming interstice between emptiness and love.
Largely set against a flat backdrop of flushed, dusty pinks and siennas, Roby Dwi Antono’s new series of works confronts the viewer with an unapologetic singularity of subject. Childcreatures armed with Godzilla, a crawfish claw, a toothy liver, take up the entirety of the picture plane, leaving little comfort from the girls’ bizarre, grotesque, yet strangely beautiful baggage.
Maxine’s mixed media artworks on the other hand, fits vast emotional space into the intimacy of a stately living room, bedroom, hallway, and study. In composing the work, she layers together collages of photographs taken on her travels, of her niece as a child, and objects that strike an emotional chord. The daughter of avant-garde artists Cesare and Jean Marie Syjuco, Maxine is an Internationally awarded artist known for her poetry, photography, performance, and installation art.
The exhibit is on view until Oct. 10. For inquiries, call 9405726 or email inquiry.galeriestephanie@gmail.com.