House your art

The setting was not at all what I had imagined. Some of my friends who have been there mentioned that it is unlike any of the galleries we see around the country. The Avellana Art Gallery (AAG) is a converted old Pasay home near F.B. Harrison St., right at the center of art institutions, De La Salle Art Gallery, the GSIS Museum, the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. Albert Avellana, director of Art and Associates (A&A), claims that this is a new, more permanent home of the gallery. A&A will "continue its consultancies and its exhibit projects elsewhere," he clarifies, "but the AAG will be its headquarters and main site."

Upon entering the gate with a light box sign, it seemed I was transported to another space and time. A medium-sized papaya tree stands at the front of the house, contributing to the homely atmosphere. This feature reminded me of growing up in a leafy suburb shaded by fruit trees and endemic shrubs such as santan and San Francisco. Avellana says the owner is a renowned fashion designer who insisted on having pocket gardens all over the place. It has softened up what is otherwise a predominantly concrete exterior. But it is quiet here with none of the bustle heard from the streets of Pasay.

A tall, white trellis held up by several white Ionic columns leads us to the gallery. Formerly this was the main bedroom, which explains the wonderful lavatory now available for the use of visitors. Avellana converted this into a basic cube of a space, with white walls, double glass doors and little architectural detail. This is where the programmed changing exhibition of contemporary art takes place.

When I dropped by, Avellana was in the process of taking down Eugene Jarque’s mixed media wall panels, replacing them with young abstract painter Cristine Amador’s oils. The duration of the gallery exhibits is a month each, allowing the works to be viewed by as many people as possible. Unifying the gallery with the other indoor spaces within the house compound is the well-polished, hard wood floors. They bring warmth to the gallery and set off the art on display rather than distract viewers from it. For instance, Amador’s jagged fine strokes of contrasting colors appeared as rough mosaic patches. The setting has helped focus on the artist’s brilliant and diligent application of oil paint.

Having trained as an artist, Avellana has empathy with the artists and considers the length of time most of them spend to complete a collection of art works. A longer than usual gallery show is an avowal of the difficulty of being an artist. Avellana was a product of a scholarship from Children’s Museums and Library, Inc. and was tutored by painter Fernando Sena. After completing high school at Don Bosco Makati, Avellana pursued further art courses at the Philippine Women’s University until he had to quit to earn a living. With a setting such as his gallery, artists can be confident that they will be represented well.

The main house is actually the showroom that connects to the gallery with a small, side door. Glass doors, framed by the same wood as the floor, open to the side of the house. These comprise bay doors, revealing the trellised columns and an Impy Pilapil-painted metal sculpture in the middle of a pocket garden. This showroom contains some of the most interesting collection of artworks for sale I have ever seen put together. Sculptures by Bobby Castillo, Pablo Mahinay, Honrado Fernandez and Sandra Torrijos, among others, provide critical points by which to look at other works.

Two dimensional art works are also the highlight of the showroom, including those by Eugene Jarque, Lex Calip, Lilia Lao, and Ivi and Allan Cosio, which are given focus by Avellana through his design-conscious approach to displaying works and constantly changing their arrangements within the room. But the art in the main room is enhanced by some of the original household furnishings left behind by its former resident. A chandelier provides much of the lighting, while an antique mirror on a precise corner creates an illusion of more space. An old upright piano, as well as an Art Deco lamp, establishes the period when this house was built. In this atmosphere, potential collectors may imagine just how an artwork would fit in their residences.

An office is discreetly tucked next to the dramatic stairwell. More artworks are on display in the area where Avellana conducts serious and sometimes not-so-serious business. After all, he tends to be more interested in getting attention from a different sort of gallery-goer. Unlike those who go to mall galleries, Avellana believes his audience are those who actually make the trip to go over there. Once there, he allows them time to relax and walk around the artworks. He also believes it makes more sense, even business-wise in the long term, to allow the viewers to learn what to like. "The more interesting approach, " according to Avellana, "is to appropriately match the art with the client. It must always fit."

Other areas of the main house where art abounds are at the foyer or terrace, the kitchen and the top floor whose only room is an open storage. It is a wonderland of sorts that offers visitors a slice of Philippine contemporary art with none of that messy drip about identity and self-consciousness. For the most part, Avellana’s selection of the type of art on display is in his taste. But it also told me that those that I had seen there are his ideas of what others may like to see. The interesting spaces with which to view them reminded me of those historic houses in North America that reveal the material culture of an age. Avellana, however, does not bear any of that pretense. It is, after all, a gallery and its arrangement has a lot to do with selling art.

The main point of AAG is to popularize contemporary art. Avellana sees his work at A&A, such as his art direction for the lifestyle section of another daily newspaper, are actually able to approach things in an integral way. It also complements the work of AAG since those pictorials allow him the pleasure of having creative opportunities to fix homes. The challenge is to make visitors come and see art that is rather unusual and provide a conducive space where artists, art and visitors can mingle and talk to one another. AAG is located at 220 Fresno Rd., Pasay City, with tel no. 522-97-93. It is open from 2 to 10 p.m. So if ever you find yourselves in downtown Manila, Malate perhaps, why not nip over Avellana’s gallery and soak in some art.

* * *

Comments are welcome at aplabrador@philstar.com.