Jomar Delluba in three one-man shows at SM Art Center
Jomar Delluba showcases his stylistic range with three simultaneous one-man shows, “A Pinch of Mischief,” “Homage” and “Revisiting Rousseau” on view until April 25 at SM Art Center, fourth floor, SM Megamall A, Mandaluyong City. The Artist’s Reception is on April 18, 6 p.m.
Presented by Galerie Joaquin, Delluba features his trademark naïf-like doll-children set in fantastic and humorous locales.
From his roots in Pangil, Laguna, Delluba has established a steadfast collector base with his skillfully executed pop surrealist style. The artist’s ventures into the realms of realism and abstraction add to his visual vocabulary and eclectic style.
Informed by lowbrow and populist predecessors, as well as his mentor Filipino surrealist Jerry Morada, Delluba deftly juggles humor and austerity, skill and levity, canon and kitsch, to subvert the art aficionados’ demand for consistent novelty.
A timeless crowd favorite, “A Pinch of Mischief” bolsters Delluba’s “Maldita” series with even more adorable toddler characters that put a twist on mundane settings. The cheeky-yet-masterfully executed portraits speak to a nostalgic past retrofitted to adult sensibilities. Half-lidded eyes imply a self-awareness that dispels impressions of childhood’s innate veil of innocence; lending the artist’s characters an ineffable air of “knowing it all.” The shining, meticulously detailed, pudgy and rounded children appear to go about their own way, unwatched by adult eyes, yet always furtively gazing at something — often outside of their own painted realm — prompting us, the viewer, to be taken in by the sense of mystery surrounding the ostensibly familiar.
In “Homage,” Delluba casts his doll-characters in canonical Western masterpieces, feeding their inner lives with another layer of referential rebellion. His tributes to Raphael, Munch, Da Vinci, Magritte, Leighton, among others, call to the fore both the artist and the viewers’ knowledge of and complicity in the telling and retelling of particular popular art histories, while subtly subverting the standard with his not-quite-child protagonists. Unapologetically, both Delluba and his child actors relive iconic scenes with clever mischievous twists.
His Jungle series makes a reappearance in “Revisiting Rousseau” where the famed Fauvist — the quintessential naïf and depictor of dreams — is reborn in Delluba’s hand. Like Henri Rousseau, Delluba and his characters go against the grain in order to stay true to their artistic visions. Rousseau’s flora and fauna, gleaned from trips to World’s Fairs and greenhouses, are often just as foreign to the Philippine ecology, with its elephants, giraffe, tiger and gorillas. Both artists explore unreachable worlds, Rousseau the tropical rainforest, and Delluba the childhood mind.
Collected over a two-year period, Delluba’s three simultaneous solo exhibits demonstrate the diversity of his style, as well as the versatility of his concepts. More than being children or dolls, his personages carry implications of impeccability, brattiness, but also worldliness that allow faceted projections of the viewers’ self. He injects humor into our lenses, disarming the hierarchies that art has always tried to supersede. By reversing expectations with playful wit, Delluba creates relatable works of art that contain worlds of stories.
For information, call 723-9418 or email info@galeriejoaquin.com.