Cuevas.Montera.Villacin

CEBU, Philippines - The works of three generations of abstract artists are now on display at the 856-G (Gabriella) Gallery on A.S. Fortuna Street, Mandaue City.

Recent abstractions of Cebuano artists take a month-long exhibition featuring the individual works of Javy Villacin, Tito Cuevas, and the 2010 GSIS Art Competition (non-representational category) first placer Dennis Montera.

Villacin, a student of Martino Abellana, works in the modernist direction completely in contrast to the Abellana style. His work entitled “Cross Fading,” for example, depicts the “less is more concept” (minimalist).

“This is what I tell my students nga never to adopt the style of the teacher per se. They have to develop their own techniques, para there will always be something new nga ma-develop,” Montera, an art professor at the UP Visayas Cebu College, said in a brief interview.

As for Montera, he takes cue from influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement Paul Jackson Pollock (1912-56) in refining abstract expressionism as he makes use of gestures in expressing emotions. Contrary to Cuevas’ color field painting which exploits colors to evoke emotions, Montera focuses more on the movement of so-called “Pollock-esque” strokes, though Pollock is best remembered for his action painting via drip and splash style to reveal the unconscious mood of the painter.

As for Cuevas, it has already been known that his expressionist and abstract works are a rarity in the local art scene. In his webpage, it was learned that he is the profoundly articulate, “bad guy” of Cebuano art. The description is said to be a metaphor of his “uncompromising, unwavering and relentless aggression against convention.”

After the exhibit, the three are contemplating on more art festivals and conferences to both introduce and reintroduce this higher form of art for public appreciation.

The exhibit, which runs until the end of this month, is open to the public and is the idea of fellow artists Annie Chen and Jing Ramos for top modern abstractionists here in Cebu to make a statement. In the field of abstract art, the recent back-to-back win of Cebuanos in the 7th GSIS Annual Art Competition (which received 700 entries) is a validation that Cebu has already matured in a way and that its modernist take on abstractionism has already been noticed in the capital.

It was learned that another Cebuano, Felix Catarata grabbed the first prize for the representational category. After the hush-hush that the two Cebuanos gained favor simply because the head of the GSIS is a Cebuano, Montera stressed that entries, in the first place, bore no names of the entrants and that the judges were all Tagalog artists: Bencab, Cora Alvina, Angel Cacnio, and Fr. Mario Sobrejuanite (for the representational category); Sylvana Diaz, Eric Zerrudo, Virgilio Almario/Al Valenciano, and National Historical Institute chair Ambeth Ocampo for the non-rep category. ?