Arts & Culture calendar (July 5, 2017)
Manga exhibit
THE international traveling exhibition Manga Hokusai Manga: Approaching the Master’s Compendium from the Perspective of Contemporary Comics is on view until July 28 at the Ateneo Art Gallery (AAG). The exhibition introduces the similarities and differences between modern Japanese manga, which now enjoys global popularity, and Katsushika Hokusai’s manga. The education program in line with this exhibition includes lectures, workshops and animated film screenings. AAG will also be screening animated films by Makoto Shinkai from the collection of The Japan Foundation, Manila. Voices of a Distant Star (2002) and The Garden of Words (2013) will be shown on all Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays until July 26, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The AAG is at the Rizal Library Special Collections Bldg., Ateneo de Manila University, Katipunan Ave., Loyola Heights, Quezon City.
B&W photographs
THE Goethe-Institut Philippinen and Yuchengco Museum present a special collection of timeless black-and-white photographs by German photographer and Berghain club doorman Sven Marquardt. Entitled Future’s Past, the exhibit examines the humanity of Berlin locals. Marquardt’s dark and industrial images spans 30 years of photography. The exhibition is also an extensive documentation of the German Democratic Republic’s subcultures at the time. The exhibit is on view until Aug. 11. The Yuchengco Museum is at the RCBC Plaza, corner Ayala and Senator Gil J. Puyat Aves., Makati City.
Interconnectedness
1335MABINI presents Cumulus Blimp: A Transnational Platform of Discourse, a series of exhibitions and residencies that aims to induce diverse perspectives on the agenda of cultural engagement. From June 2017 to March 2018, the gallery will host seven exhibitions involving 15 artists from the Philippines Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Austria, America, and Israel. The current exhibit features works by Rinne Abrugena and Iabadiou Piko and is ongoing until July 25. In this exhibition, Abrugena and Piko explore the possibility of interconnectedness of human experience regardless of country of origin through their paintings. The series of works create a link to the familiar and the intimate, to private musings and man’s affinity to the universal. Their distinct styles provide the viewer a multidimensional vantage point but at the same time form a comprehensive portrait of human nature and self-realization. The gallery is located at 1335 A. Mabini St., Ermita, Manila.
Painterly abstraction
HYPNOTIC SYNTHESIS, an exhibit of works by Art Tavera, Gail Vicente, Wipo, and Eva Yu is ongoing until July 22 at the Artery Art Space. Their paintings explore states of process and transmutation using line, gesture, pattern, and color, as new approaches to painterly abstraction in depicting psychological conditions into physiological form. Artery Art Space is a contemporary art gallery plus a store and a snack bar providing progressive art. It is located at 102 P. Tuazon Blvd., Cubao, Quezon City.
Chabet at Mo_Space
ONGOING until July 31 at Mo_Space, this exhibition revisits Roberto Chabet’s historical plywood installation, Waves, which was last presented in the survey show Art in the CCP: 1970 — 1975 at the Main Gallery of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1975. It provides a glimpse into one of the earliest manifestations of Chabet’s aporetic use of everyday objects, turning it into both material and metaphor for the vagrancies of contemporary life. Waves is part of MO_Space X, a series of shows that celebrates the gallery’s 10 years of activities since its opening in 2007. MO_Space is at the 3rd level, MOs Design, B2 Bonifacio High Street, 9th Ave., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.
Provincial artists
THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is known for its comprehensive collection of paintings from the provinces. These artworks intimate the peculiarities in various part of the country, and the tendencies that prevail in the places where the artists hail and practice. In the effort to give recognition to these artists, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila is holding an exhibition titled Distinct Refinements: Painting from the Provinces featuring selected artworks from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas collection, complemented with paintings from the MET Collection, the Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center — University of the Philippines Collection and private collectors. The exhibition highlights the idiosyncratic character of each work that reflects much of the place where it originated. Despite the lack of formal academic training, the featured artists thrived in the field and gained accomplishments through their works. The roster of painters in the exhibit includes Pedro Ardeña from Capiz who exhibited in the St. Louis Universal Exposition in 1904, Pedro Salazar of Batangas, Tomas Diores of Cebu, and Pedro Respall of Iloilo, among others. In conjunction with the exhibit, the MET relaunches its CineMET Program with a showcase of award-winning short films featured in Cinema Rehiyon, a project organized by the Cinema Committee of the National Commission for Culture and Arts. The CineMET x Cinema Rehiyon Program coincides with the centenary of Philippine cinema celebrated this year. Distinct Refinements: Painting from the Provinces is on view at the MET Tall Galleries until Oct. 28. The Metropolitan Museum of Manila is located at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, Roxas Blvd., Manila.
