Anna de Leon at Galerie Francesca Festival Mall
Anna de Leon likes to use song lyrics in naming her artworks and her exhibitions. So when she moved to her new space, in a condo unit on the seventh floor, “it seems perfect that I name my exhibition with that song,” said de Leon as she surveyed the panoramic view which spans the hills of Antipolo, the Laguna de Bai, leading to the skyline of BGC and Makati, and the distant Manila Bay. “I placed those hills in this tryptich painting, which I also named, Heaven on the Seventh Floor. It is my way of expressing my gratitude to God for giving me all this. When I wake up, I see the sunrise from my bedroom balcony. In the early evening, I pause from my painting to see the sunset from my studio. I am so grateful.”
To say that “Heaven on the Seventh Floor” marks a milestone for de Leon is apt. It marks her birthday, as well as her moving in to her permanent perch above the city. Like her recent solo exhibitions, de Leon uses birds and flowers as her visual idioms. Metal cubes, leather straps, and other material associated with her other practice, interior design, are also integrated to augment the flat picture plane, and make it somewhat like a flat sculpture, like a bas relief. All the seven pieces that comprise the exhibition take inspiration from the artist’s own experience.
“Heaven on the Seventh Floor” is Anna de Leon’s 15th solo exhibition. It opens on Dec. 10, at Galerie Francesca in Festival Mall at Unit 3319 2nd Level Festival Mall Expansion Wing Civic Drive Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang Muntinlupa City 1770. It runs until Dec. 20. For information, call 659-2667.