MANILA, Philippines - Through her investigations into urban landscapes, Camille Ver has created a distinct oeuvre that intersperses abstract cityscape motifs with tech-pen lines that have become her distinguishing feature. Ver explores pushes the boundaries of abstraction with these works on canvases — works that make extensive use of the ambivalence of a loud, boisterous city, then subtly juxtaposing it with the cool, nuanced approach of abstraction.
She revisits the abstract sensibilities invested in her consideration of urban landscapes in “URBN 2.0,†which opens on June 19 at Galerie Raphael in Serendra.
Ver is thoroughly contemporary in her approach. Though there are often anecdotal references to older structures — and Ver does consider incomplete and crumbling buildings aesthetically attractive — the intent is to reconstruct the emotional character that only exists in urban locations. To achieve this, she creates a broader composition of oil which is then layered with lines drawn in with a tech pen, bringing detail and order to an otherwise blurred form. These lines could represent the hard lines of an actual cityscape — created in part by a mixture of power cables, laundry lines, telephone poles, and the steel bars of a construction site. In Ver’s oeuvre, however, they represent a framing element, allowing viewers to contextualize the compositions as works exploring the urban perspective whilst remaining true to the sensibilities of abstraction within the realm of visual art.
The show is on view until June 28. Galerie Raphael is at Unit 2C-06, second floor, The Piazza, Serendra Mall, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City. For information, call 856-3034 or visit www.galerieraphael.com.ph.