The Rain Men

Writing about art exhibitions, spaces for art, as well as artists’ homes, I am perpetually on the move. I flit about from one place to the next, trying to educate myself about contemporary art and life. This is the reason for deciding to give my column a name, Galá, which means constantly wandering as in a state of flux. The word is apt even for my restless soul, always in search of adventure or new knowledge. I learn a lot on my assignments for the Philippine STAR, encouraging me to be even more galá.

Sometime ago, I found myself visiting Cubao. After calling on the Liongoren Gallery to see an artists’ solo exhibit, I crossed the other side of Edsa where four young painters were showing their paintings at the Boston Gallery. Carlo Gabuco, Ivan Roxas, CJ Tañedo and Christopher Zamora focused on human figures against surreal backgrounds. These young painters, who pursued their art training from either University of Santo Tomas or Philippine Women’s University, come from a generation drenched in television and animation, particularly in Japanese anime. Their quasi-poetic title for their show, Under Bleeding Rain and Sky Crystal Clear are akin to haiku word constructions, as well as incomplete English translations of Japanese-language texts.

Seemingly ominous of things foretold, the paintings were distinguished by their allusions to traditional portraiture. The difference, however, lies in the artists’ choice of painting their subjects less formally. Theirs were human figures that are in-between pictures to hang in living room walls and movie posters. Among the images’ contrived appearances, there were elements that make them uneasy to view. For instance, many of the faces featured in the paintings look wistful and melancholy.

Instead of just focusing on the subjects, however, my interest was piqued by the artists’ skill at figurative painting. These exhibit shows one of the finest examples of traditional methods of painting with which the fine arts program of UST and PWU are renowned. Invariably entitling a painting each and working on the idea of "It’s Gonna Rain," these young men embodied the more classical approach to art making while at the same time using devices from advertisements and popular culture. This feature made their paintings unconventional.

Painting, after all, refers to both the process of making images or covering surfaces, as well as the actual object resulting from that process. It is a two-dimensional art form. Sometimes this definition is contested when paintings are done with mixed media that create volume and texture. In this exhibit, however, the paintings were conventional in form. Their attributes would fit most people’s ideas of paintings, such as the application of oil paint on canvas. Oil, which is made of linseed and pigments, possess luminous pigments that are difficult to achieve in other media, such as acrylic.

In this collection of oil paintings, the artists seemed to have used the costly medium efficiently. They applied oil with precision, resulting in clean lines and painterly surfaces. Having left their paintings unframed, they proceeded with their unconventional presentations by uniformly painting the sides of the stretchers black. Despite some similarities, there were vital differences in each artist’s approach to painting which is worth noting. They are represented individually with at least four paintings, leading me to focus on each artist’s interpretation of "It’s Gonna Rain."

UST graduate CJ Tañedo translated that title by portraying a young woman who gazes back seemingly in anticipation. She sits with her chin resting on her knees that has become nondescript on the lower part of the canvas. Like his other paintings for this show, Tañedo sharply delineated a part of his subjects’ faces and arranged to blur the rest of their body. He used downward strokes of the brush, dragging it and adding white paint in the process to wipe out lines he painted in previously. This has added to the surreal vision of figures disappearing in the haze. Bordering the margins of his canvas are thick, dark lines with handwritten texts in gold or silver. These are difficult to decipher, looking like coded messages. After a while, I had to give up trying to make sense of them and just considered them part of the enigma, as well as the design of the painting.

PWU fine arts student Carlo Gabuco also uses texts on his paintings by grafting words that resemble stenciled letters on cargo boxes. In his version of "It’s Gonna Rain," he paired the images of a woman with another painting, "Underneath the Bloody Rain." The result is a diptych of gloomy faces that seem to be obscured by the swirl of dark ochre. In his other paintings, the figures are just as poignant. He tends to fracture body parts and faces, putting incongruous forms together.

A more ironic depiction of portraits comprises full views of realistic figures next to bright backgrounds. PWU student Christopher Zamora represents "It’s Gonna Rain" with a toddler whose back is turned to us. He is standing by a window, anticipating something – like rain – to happen. Just like in a worrying dream, Zamora placed the child at a low window, implying the imminent danger of falling from its edge. In a way, it is a picture that is both hopeful and frightful, with the lonesome figure of the child standing against a perilous space.

Ivan Roxas’ "It’s Gonna Rain" has a woman who also looks optimistic despite the fear evident in her eyes. In creating photographic representations, this UST fine arts graduate appropriated images from Japanese graphic art. The female figure in his painting appears anxious, while a brooding sky looms overcast. A light shower is made obvious by a reflection of light appearing on the woman’s left side. Roxas’ other paintings are also idealized Japanese women whose pictures he probably collected from calendars or fashion magazines. These are somewhat erotic as a result of the artist’s choice of casting the women against lush, outdoor surroundings in traditional kimono or skimpy outfits. His portraits remind me of ethnographic photographs from the early 20th century where semi-naked local women were posed next to verdant spots. For a while, this implied that women represented nature, while men stood for men.

The power of the artists to make images depends on their ability to successfully represent their ideas and their imagination. In their case, they were commonly concerned with portraying the ideal beauty found usually in glossy magazines or advertisements. Conveyed in an accessible manner, it is their knack of casting new ways of seeing things through their paintings. Through their skill at handling materials, they are able to put them together in a manner that convinces us to view their art the way they perceive it. Gabuco, Roxas, Tañedo and Zamora have shown us the possibilities of painting among a generation of painters infused with high-tech reproductions.

* * *

Comments are welcome at galaphilstar@yahoo.com.