Vincent de Pio at Art Underground

MANILA, Philippines -  Vincent de Pio uses his own surreal interactions with Japanese culture and history as a springboard for his latest exhibition, “The Art of Making Sushi,” which opens on May 24, 6 p.m., at the country’s newest contemporary art space, Art Underground on Shaw Boulevard in Mandaluyong City. The show is on view until June 4.

In this exhibit, De Pio is explorer, discoverer, and insightful observer of a culture he is enamoured with. He is imbued with an outsider’s sense of wonder, skilfully satirizing his own personal observations and experiences. 

The artist was originally captivated with painting classical women cellists in the pursuit of their craft. However, he soon branched out and pioneered the usage of Japanese historical and pop imagery — starting with an exploration of the role of the Japanese geisha. From this initial push, De Pio dug deeper and became interested in other aspects of Japanese culture such as Japanese noblemen and ladies and inevitably the world of the samurai.

In the latest show, De Pio goes deeper into the conceptual aspects of this approach, which ties in with the vision of Art Underground to showcase the best of Philippine contemporary visual art.

The titular piece, “The Art of Making Sushi,” is a fitting example of this. Here, we see a chef wrestling with an octopus in a style very similar to yakuza tattoos. This mighty struggle is flanked by various pieces of sushi against a sky-blue background, indicating the eventual fate of raw materials like the octopus. The artwork exhibits De Pio’s shokunin-like grasp of the subject matter and the conceptual underpinnings of his examination.  As if to underscore the notion of transience, there is a small anime-style Philippine tarsier in a kimono waiting on the horizon, anticipating the coming meal. It is a playful work on the outset but is nonetheless layered in deeper meanings of a Filipino’s exposure to aspects of Japanese culture including its cuisine.

Art Underground is at 814 Balagtas Street off Shaw Boulevard, Addition Hills, Mandaluyong City. For information, call 721-0745.