Demi Padua wonders, AR Manalo wanders in joint showcase
ONE artist ruminates about the essentiality of exploration in personal growth, the other about what the future holds for his young daughter. Apart from the variance in concept, everything ties up together in an ongoing joint gallery presentation, reflecting its exhibition title wherein a single letter spells a subtle yet vast difference.
Dubbed Wonder Wander, the two-man exhibit features the works of noted visual artists Demi Padua and AR Manalo. The show runs until July 30 at Art Underground in San Juan City as a collaboration exhibition with Village Art Gallery.
“Both artists coincide in terms of their artworks, intricate and multi-layered,” said Art Underground gallery manager Deseree Mapandi. “It’s also nice that they go way back, so they have this particular flow and understanding of each other. We didn’t intervene much to allow them to develop their own concept for the show.”
Depth defines the artistic approach and aesthetic of Padua and Manalo. Their artworks run as deep as their contemplations about social issues and personal experiences, accentuated by engaging symbolism and geometric forms.
Padua is recognized in the Philippine art scene for his brand of trompe l’oeil, a painting technique that creates a three-dimensional illusion of hyper-realistic painted objects. Informed by his background in theatrical production and design, the Calapan-born artist knows his way with lighting, allowing his subjects to bathe in dramatic shadows and convey emotions with mere gazes.
In Wonder Wander, those eyes are out to explore.
Around them orbits a gamut of shapes, patterns and colors that simultaneously feel random and measured. An inverted triangle frames one eye in In Between, while an opaque half-circle caresses the other, as the subject peers from an eggshell. Another woman darts a piercing look in Layers of Success, herself an image of triumph, ornamented with a makeshift crown and half an eyeglass. The narrative of layers extends into the artworks’ frames as well with different material cutouts composing the corners in a staggered sequence.
“My life has passed through many stages, like layers that give substance to my image as a person.
It is like a collage of experiences,” Padua said. “From failure to success, the layer grows.”
Meanwhile, Manalo presents a conceptual shift from inquisitive to transportive in his side of this twoman presentation. The mixed-media artist carries over from Art Fair Philippines his series of adapting Victorian era-inspired characters, saying they look “dignified,” and “proud of their work,” whatever it entailed. In Wonder Wander, Manalo incorporates indigenous Filipino elements in scenic cutouts, saying he’s “always been proud of his roots. Wherever my heart leads me, I’d always give a nod to being a Filipino.”
A woman standing on a rhinoceros looks away in The Road Less Traveled, while housed in her balloon skirt are flowers and a bronze female donning a Filipiniana. In the diptych To the Endless Waltz, the woman still refuses to reveal herself and is locked in on the distance, yearning for what’s out there. Her back remains turned against the viewer, as her skirt flows outside the frame, within its confines a group of pre-colonial Filipinos works on pottery.
Tucked in these busy period scenes, according to Manuel, is a love letter to his two-year-old daughter. All the traveling signified in his featured artworks in this show represent his daughter’s own as she goes about her life—from the people she will meet to the experiences she will form.
“It’s a dad hoping the best for his daughter,” the artist said. “I hope that someday, she will understand that her dad, who’s always working late, was always thinking of her.” According to Mapandi, the gallery manager, Art Underground will continue collaborating with other art spaces.
“It’s nice for camaraderie to work with other galleries, artists and institutions, and to grow the art community as a whole. If we could be part that, pushing the contemporary art scene, we’d love to be there.”