INTO THE INNER SANCTUM OF MAXINE SYJUCO
She is the kind of girl men write songs about, artists paint portraits of, and poets immortalize in verses filled with yearning. In fact, her father named her after a song — Maxine — written by Donald Fagen of Steely Dan.
And yet, here’s the twist: it is she who writes the poetry, she who paints the canvases, and she who lyricizes the songs.
“Some women are delicate things/ Some women are delicious and wondrous,” wrote the poet Charles Bukowski. Artist, poet, musician and model Maxine Syjuco manages to be all that and more.
Maxine is the fourth of five children and the youngest daughter of the Syjucos, a preternaturally talented and attractive family of multi-hyphenates who call Alabang home. Her dad, visual artist and poet Cesare AX Syjuco, and mom, visual and performance artist Jean Marie Syjuco, established Art Lab in 2013 — a gallery to house and exhibit the family’s considerable creative output. Eldest daughter Michelline is a jewelry designer and visual artist. Older brother AG is a composer and musician. Sister Beatrix is an abstract painter and performance artist. Youngest brother Julian is an athlete and musician.
Maxine’s personal studio is in the family compound behind Art Lab. To get there, you have to wend your way around a number of cats (“We have 38!” declares Maxine), make a left at the pool, and go past an Igan D’Bayan skulled spider sculpture before you enter the ultimate cool-girl space.
“It’s usually dim here because this is my den/studio,” says Maxine. “I prefer it dim.”
As described, the studio is dark and comforting as a womb, if a womb were ever decked out with art, photography, books, records, and modern furniture. On the walls are the gilt-framed paintings for Maxine’s current show “My Inner Sanctum,” which opened Aug. 12 and will run till Sept. 15.
“So this is my gimmick thing, taking art out of the usual gallery space and then making it more intimate, more personal,” she says. “Having it in your actual studio, and then the guests get to meet the artist and discuss the art. We rushed hanging them yesterday because I knew you were coming.”
Maxine has divided the space into a living room-cum-library, a dining area with a well-stocked bar, and a workspace in the back of the house where her art materials and paint-flecked aprons are. Artworks and awards from various shows and times in her life stand out against the studio’s chiaroscuro of dark-gray walls and lamp-fueled mood lighting. Portishead issues from the speakers near a Musitrend turntable, playing on a loop along with Massive Attack and St. Germain. You could be in a loft in Manhattan or an atelier in Paris (incidentally two of her favorite cities), depending on your perspective.
“It began as an entirely white space with very minimal décor,” Maxine says. “Since then it has transformed into a ‘chameleon’ based on what I’m currently working on, as well as my mood at the time. In the summer, it becomes a workshop for children to whom I teach art. In the evenings, it becomes a very dimly lit bar/gallery where I entertain friends, gallerists and collectors. When I’m working on a show, it’s a gigantic mess strewn with canvas rolls, found objects and art materials.”
When she’s teaching kids, sometimes she has to take her art down because they find it disturbing. “They’re like, ‘Why are your artworks so creepy?’” Maxine laughs.
Which leads me to ask where the darkness comes from when, indeed, she seems to be such a brightly dispositioned young lady. “That’s what I keep locked up inside,” she admits, then laughs. “I think a lot of artists, what you see on the outside is totally different from what’s going on inside.” A feline beauty with catlike eyes who moves languidly and curls her legs up underneath her in repose, Maxine is the perfect mistress for 38 cats. “The problem with the cats is they poop everywhere, so my mom’s trying to convince me to lessen them,” she says. “But