Confluence by three artists

Friends Lanelle Abueva-Fernando, Lisa de Leon-Zayco and Suzette Bernardo-Montelibano have known one another for a long time. Somehow, they had never considered the possibility of holding a show together, which is really quite strange considering how often they met with each other.

It took Robert Montelibano, Suzette’s husband, to convince them it was about time they displayed their wares together in an exhibition. The chief creative officer and president of Designworks, Inc. advertising agency, he has been hanging around with the three friends so often that they had asked him to choose a particular skill to specialize in.

This was how the partnership was formed. One thing led to another. A common friend who was opening a building at The Fort needed to stage an event to announce its opening. This was when Robert took over and decided to call the show Confluence by Three Artists that everyone agreed was catchy enough. The dictionary describes confluence as the “coming together of two or more things or persons.”

You cannot think of Lanelle without having pottery in mind. She is one of the pioneers in the Philippines of the age-old art, her works having won in various international competitions. Perhaps, her most enduring signature on Philippine pottery is her Pinatubo series, wherein volcanic ashes from the eruption have been incorporated into her designs.

Nature’s wrath finds its unexpected beauty in the hands of a master potter. After 18 years, her exhibit is highly anticipated. What her heart believes, her hand conceives.

Lanelle is the only one of the three artists whom we have known longest. We met her when we decided to take up the art of painting on clay. Lanelle was the teacher and we were the most diligent of her students. We recall how we would stay until the place would ring its bell signaling closure.

Lisa, on the other hand, was drawn to the art of mosaic the way fish is drawn to water. Although this discovery came well into her adult years, it was as if she had been doing it all her life. She draws much inspiration from her own experiences, as she parallels her life with her work: Many broken pieces shaped and polished to recreate a much more beautiful whole. Her overflowing well of creativity has already resulted in two highly successful one-woman shows this year alone.

Lisa’s interest in mosaic started when she was only five years old. Her parents, noticing this interest, sent her to painting lessons under Lino Severino and Onib Olmeda. Inspired by Gaudi and other European artisans, Lisa soon enough developed her own style that had women with flowers and koi swimming in the water.

Suzette has the uncanny ability to see the bold graphic qualities in the ordinary through her camera lens. She uniquely specializes in “floral architecture” where flowers are viewed from a totally unexpected perspective. As an artist, she now explores glass and glass bubbles, which all together takes one to an ethereal world.

With multiple one-woman shows to her name, in Bacolod and in Manila, she veers away from the photographic tradition, instead opting for installations in light, cloth, wood and glass.

When you have three women each with their own extraordinary grasp of their art, generously giving to one another, an artistic confluence takes over. Because of that, our points of view will indomitably change.

Experience the works of Abueva-Fernando, De Leon-Zayco and Bernardo-Montelibano, together in one serendipitous exhibit on Sept. 18, 6:30 p.m. Location is The Globe Art Gallery, basement of the Globe Tower, 32nd St. cor. 7th Ave., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.

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