"Distortus"

CEBU, Philippines - What do you get when you have a master of portraiture and representational themes play with the elements of various modernist movements and thematic contrast?

You get the works that are part of the exhibit "Distortus" - the eighth solo show of visual artist Adeste Deguilmo.

Ongoing until today, December 10, at Qube Gallery at The Crossroads in Banilad, those who are familiar with Deguilmo's detail-rich style will find this new collection engaging, as the artist veers away from framing scenes "as they are seen" in this show - a creative slant which Deguilmo, as evindenced by "Distortus," is evolving from.

A master of various mediums and creative processes, the artist renders neo-classical-themed imagery with saturated hues and undertones in this particular collection, exaggerating his subjects' physical proportions to finely structured mannerist themes.

Complementing his subjects' exaggerated movements with parallel color blocks and skylines as backgrounds, the pieces that complete "Distortus" bear ethereal qualities that identify the different ways individuals interact and define themselves.

More than a celebration of the human form and human interaction, "Distortus" is also an allusion to the utilization of visual art as a storytelling medium - a show that somewhat defies creative labels and categorizations as its pieces are consistently shifting when one tries to do so.

Either surrealist or linear paintings, mannerist or neo-classical, representational or a merger of different styles, this aspect of the exhibit gives it a temporal flair that speaks of the constant fluidity in the visual art world - that art is constantly evolving, plying in cycles but always moving forward.