Isaac Sion journeys to 'Astro City'

In “Astro City” — a solo exhibition featuring the works of Isaac Sion on view until April 23 at Arte Bettina, 3F Greenbelt 5,  Makati City — the artist portrays the impending collapse of an imagined living world (whether terrestrial or celestial) while still giving value to the inhabited and the natural  sequence of a balanced ecosystem.

Sion’s landscapes and skyscapes are composed of randomly positioned geometric shapes and vibrant colors such as blue, red, and yellow — not simply to contrast with the murky background, but also to indicate the element of a refined human culture on a decaying surface. The approach the artist takes in his paintings presents a contrast of the precise and the random which he correlates to an environmental event of collapse and standstill, a way of elaborating on the importance of conflict in all natural entities in order to evolve.

Aside from the vibrant colors and geometric shapes, Sion favors images of cats as his primary subject matter. Although known for their independence and high adaptability as pets, cats are imagined by the artist as traveling through space and time. Sion would like to see these animals as tenants of an imagined territory capable of contributing to the natural balance. Cats are presented in scenes as upright animals — dressed, dancing, and in flight — suggesting an adapted culture and physical evolution.

Sion’s “Astro City” is a contemplation on how a habitat sustains itself in pursuit of an ecological balance; the absence of an entity is the presence of another. Cats, shapes, colors in Sion’s paintings become the imagined portrait of a living city and its extinction.

Isaac Sion is a Quezon City-based artist. He grew up watching his father paint portraits, which inspired the young Sion to pursue art academically. He studied in UP Diliman and earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts with painting as his major.