Richie Lerma, Ateneo Art Gallery curator, sees modern art as a force that aspires to transform and change.
"It certainly points to certain directions for society, allowing viewers to see hope in transformation and change," says Lerma. "(There are young Filipino artists) who are actually dealing with reality, trying to confront it, looking at it in different perspectives. I think at the end of the day, that’s what the Ateneo Art Awards is all about."
Established last year to honor the memory of the university museum’s founding benefactor Fernando Zóbel, the Ateneo Art Awards "recognize innovative, enlightened and committed young Filipino visionaries who, through their exemplary practice of the visual arts today, symbolize the hope and promise of a nation."
Twelve artists were short-listed for the awards: Annie Cabigting, Mariano Ching, Luisito Cordero, Norman Dreo, Rodel Tapaya Garcia, Isa Lorenzo, Jayson Oliveria, Elmer Roslin, Carlo Saavedra, Mac Valdezco, Ronald Ventura and Eric Zamuco. Among them, three will be chosen on Aug. 2, which will coincide with the opening of Cross Encounters: The 2005 Ateneo Art Awards Exhibit at the South Court of the Power Plant Mall.
The idea behind the Ateneo Art Awards is that it is a celebration of the innovation, creativity and talent of young Filipino visual artists. "I think it is about time that we take a good look at the works of what we would consider to be the future of visual arts in the country, as borne out by the exhibitions in commercial art galleries."
So this year, Lerma says they asked for nominations directly from the galleries, since these establishments are the main forum where the general public gets to encounter works of art, which "has a role to play in shaping the definition and development of modern Filipino art."
Another change in this year’s enterprise is that the panel of judges includes an architect and an interior designer – aside from the usual suspects of art critics and members of the academe.
"Contemporary art engages the public, and there are in fact different audiences," explains Lerma. "There is a whole interdisciplinary approach to the appreciation of art. But at the very end, there seemed to be a general agreement as to what can be considered an outstanding work of art."
What is an outstanding work of art, anyway? The 12 short-listed nominees for the Ateneo Art Awards attempt to define it for us.
Mac Valdezco created cotton yarn sculptures in an exhibit at the Avellana Art Gallery titled 100% Cotton. In a past exhibit, Valdezco used rags. She will explore different materials in the future such as fine synthetic threads. She calls herself a "spontaneous worker."
For Elmer Roslin, the concept behind Lust in Print at Boston Gallery was to explore the process of painting itself. A piece titled "Dogfyt" was inspired by seeing pitbulls sparring against each other.
Annie Cabigting "reconstructed a deconstruction." Her 100 pcs. installation exhibit at Finale Art Gallery took off from a single photograph, which Cabigting made 99 copies of. The main image deals with Roberto Chabet’s "Tearing to Pieces" in 1973, wherein the artist ripped apart a book by Manuel Duldulao titled Contemporary Philippine Art. She explains, "I made multiples of the image – which is like layering of history or pages and pages of documents. My last piece, the hundredth, was the book itself, so parang umikot."
Norman Dreo was chosen among the nominees for his paintings in the Unang Hakbang Patungo sa Europa exhibit. Dreo explores every day life. He credits that to his father, a carpenter. "Malapit sa materials na ginagamit niya ’yung pinipinta ko. Still life lang pero gusto kong magbigay ng message," shares Dreo.
Mariano Ching presents a bat sandwich wax sculpture called "Pan de Unan" in his UFO Gallery exhibit. When he made those works, Ching was into fragmented images that he would juxtapose. "My sculptures are all about ordinary objects which I combined with toys to produce images that are (extraordinary)." Like an ice cream cone with teeth.
Carlo Saavedra dealt with edgy postcards in his exhibit at Mag:net Gallery. "I wanted to treat the paintings as reminders of certain things about me, my life. Each of my works has a single figure in it. I don’t put a narrative in there. Paintings are objects, not windows."
Rodel Tapaya Garcia made use of grids in his works in his Balangkas exhibit. His idea was to put a sort of framework on a particular subject such as a cow. "Grid, para sa akin, represents technology."
Isa Lorenzo’s Healing Spaces at the Silver Lens Gallery was a collaboration between the artist and women suffering from cancer. "I asked them to write an essay about what and where their ‘healing spaces’ are," says Lorenzo.
Ronald Ventura’s "Human Study" is a mammoth mural (8 feet x 12 feet), which is one of Ventura’s most impressive works so far. The work shows images such as two horses in one body pulling each other in separate directions, a man with plastic wings, a figure in a plastic bubble, a woman reclining on a bed, as well as bottles and fruits arranged as if by "a salesman and not a still life painter."
From the works short-listed in the Ateneo Art Awards, can Lerma detect an emerging trend in terms of contemporary Filipino art?
"(I see) outstanding work coupled with the need to share one’s unique vision of reality – indeed, ‘to leave a mark’ – is certainly a key motivation for young Filipino artists, although I see this diverging somewhat in terms of how this is executed," he says.
These young artists are staking their positions in the definition and development of art today with their grand statements voiced in visual, conceptual and attitudinal terms. Which naturally varies from artist to artist. But one thing is certain.
"All of them speak of a certain ambitiousness, which is very exciting. I see an even greater confidence in young Philippine art in the years to come," concludes Lerma.