Rene Cuvos opens ‘Cuvos Fairyland’ at Art Gallery Asia

MANILA, Philippines - The art of Rene Cuvos fits in what we expect from fairy tales, but there are subtle hints of a thoroughly modern form of aggression and hostility that, while somewhat muted, still leaves one with a lingering sense that beneath his pristine and innocent figures and their cutesy appearance is perhaps a mirror of our own world.

In his latest one-man exhibition, “Cuvos Fairyland,” which runs from July 31 to Aug. 20 at the newly-opened Art Gallery Asia, Rene Cuvos visits this dream-like world and presents his audience with thought-provoking canvas works that shows the immense development of his increasingly complex oeuvre.

The immediate idea when examining works at this exhibition is that the artist took some obvious inspiration from illustrated children’s books — even perhaps some animated films. The palette contributes to this idea, often glowing with soft and muted tints of pinks, violets and more graduated levels of orange and blue. Of course, the figures that inhabit these landscapes are themselves reminiscent of the strange creatures Alice encounters in Lewis Carroll’s stories: rabbits and jester motifs recur throughout the exhibition. Indeed, it is a fantasy world that is almost instantly familiar.

However, the exhibition is rife with symbolisms that somehow don’t quite belong. “Heart Braker” is a good example: we have a child-jester riding a toy car pulled by a dog-snail with the mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb in the distant horizon. We can say then “Cuvos Fairyland” fully takes part in the alarms, premonitions and heartbreaks of the adult world. Even the progressive ideas like preserving the environment are tackled, through the example of “The Guardian,” where a pink totem with rabbit ears and multiple eyes stands between a man wielding an axe and a field of tree stumps where once stood a forest.

In many ways, this exhibition can be seen as a departure from the surreal practice of Rene Cuvos’ earlier works. The aesthetics are certainly different. However, it can also be viewed as an extension of his surface-level surrealism of the past. It’s an evolution of sorts, managing to portray intricate ideas in an approachable form.

Art Gallery Asia is at the 3rd Level of Patriarch Bldg., 2224 Pasong Tamo, Makati City. For information, call (0917) 894-3888.