OF THE SALINGPUSA group of artists, Erwin Leaño’s art appears to stand apart.

First, of course, is the looks of the respective paintings, specifically the high contrast between their works’ nervous visual energy and his serene imagery. While they deploy vigorous brushwork of violent strokes and vitriolic hues, Leaño employs clean lines and muted color tones.

Their expressionistic tendency is diametrically opposed to his classical sense of form. While their image-making does not aspire to a photographic realism, his images look real but pushed just a bit farther to the borderline of realism it verges on the surreal.

Second is their choice of subjects. While the Antipolo-based, University of the Philippines-educated Salingpusa is generally associated with Social Realist concerns, Leaño would stand out among his colleagues as chiefly a formalist.

Zen is what one would immediately associate with his spare monochromatic imagery, but there’s still another that’s vaguely even suspected—that early-20th century Italian art movement called Pittura Metafisica.

Leaño’s still lifes of bowls and plates, jars and vases, cups and mugs wouldn’t look incongruous if mixed with the bottles and pitchers of Giorgio Morandi. His paintings have an eccentric classicism that holds some mysterious power, akin to the works of the scuola metafisica.

It now appears he is approaching closer to that school with his latest show “Familiar Territories,” six pieces in oil on canvas, recently in West Gallery at the Artwalk, L/4, Bldg. A, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City.

Hidden meanings

Ostensibly, these untitled pieces are just banal images—of buildings’ façades, their exteriors of doors, windows, walls, steps, and the street’s sidewalk and pavement—revealing the artist’s fascination with architecture. But the rendering is something else.

With just starkly rendered architectural details, empty spaces, earth color, deep perspective, the artist has produced highly evocative pieces that seem to seek hidden meanings beyond surface appearances.

This, of course, points to the art of Giorgio de Chirico. Think of the mysterious streets and empty squares, buildings and arcades in “The Enigma of a Day,” “The Anxious Journey,” “The Uncertainty of the Poet,” or, most famously, “The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street.”

De Chirico and Carlo Carrà’s stated aim in founding Metaphysical Painting was “to depict an alternative reality which engages most immediately with the unconscious mind.” Though short-lived, the movement is thought to provide “significant impetus for the development of Dada and Surrealism.”

Leaño may not have the same intention, and an alternative logic or illogical reality may be far from his mind while painting—but these pieces produce a similar cryptic atmosphere and disquieting effect on the viewer as those of De Chirico’s.

Concentrating on quiet structures, with no hint of living things, the artist has created a ghost town. That certainly goes beyond mere formalism.

Fresh treatment

If there’s a Metaphysical painting, there’s also such a thing as a Conceptual one. The paintings integrated into the esoteric installations of Roberto Chabet immediately come to mind, but we’re talking of a painting that is itself the concept.

This is finely illustrated by Sandra Fabie-Gfeller’s “Learn to Float,” a 4 ft x 8 ft piece in oil on canvas, recently displayed in Ar.I.A.s. (Artists-Run Independent Art Space), 3/F, Suite 318-A, LRI Business Plaza, Nicanor Garcia Street (formerly Reposo), Bel Air II, Makati City.

The huge image of a boy floating on water didn’t fail to grab the attention of visitors the moment they stepped on the third floor of the building. With eyes closed, the beatific boy looks as if asleep on the cool, crystal-clear, undulating water, so lost to the summer heat outside.

Bobby Nuestro, director of A.r.I.A.s. and himself an accomplished artist, enthuses about the large-scale painting: “The compositional treatment is very new and fresh. The handling of the medium is very delicate, and yet you can feel a sense of rawness in uncontrolled strokes, as if it were an out-of-focus digital shot—the water so blue yet so soft and supple.

“Looking beyond the elements and medium, it does not reflect the old painting process or execution or the normal choosing of subject. Rather, it suggests, more than anything, painting with conceptual underpinnings.”

Getting inspiration from Parisian salons, Nuestro has launched a one-work, one-artist exhibition project for his art space (which he hesitates to call an art gallery). Gfeller’s piece was the second in a series of six.

Value of space

Nuestro warms up to the novel idea of only one artwork being exhibited for two weeks. For one, the piece gets the undivided attention of gallery-goers and the full concentration of art lovers that a work of art deserves.

For another, the impetus to exhibit would encourage artists to come up with the best they can, something that can stand alone and hold viewers’ interest through two weeks. Then there is the value of space.

Gfeller’s painting, rendered in brilliant primary and secondary colors, occupies the central wall and dominates the room yet paradoxically expands one’s sense of space. Being alone, although large, it lends an illusion of spaciousness to the small room.

On the other hand, mounting innumerable small paintings on the wall would look cluttered, would cut and subdivide space, further cramping the room. This is what Nuestro means when he speaks of the value of space.

Gfeller started painting in watercolor, acrylic and oil by copying photographs in books and magazines. She trained under leading figurative expressionist Onib Olmedo, and later, in San Francisco, CA, attended classes of portraitist Bob Gerbracht.

Says Nuestro: “For an artist who taught herself to paint the traditional way, and as a mother training her young son to survive, ‘learn to float’ means something else. It may not directly communicate what is going on but it signals a message about acquiring the basic lessons of life and the dream of continuity—a cycle, endurance, or hope for the future. It is a powerful image that somehow attracts and penetrates, winning your heart and mind.”

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I quote John Haber on Gerard Richter’s Paintings when I see the works of Sandra Fabie Gfeller: “Learn to Float" – a one-work, one person exhibition project.

The compositional treatment is new and fresh,the handling of the medium is very delicate; and yet, you can feel a sense of rawness in uncontrolled strokes, as if it is an out of focus digital shot, the water so blue yet so soft and supple. Looking beyond the elements and medium, it does not reflect the old painting process and execution or the normal choosing of subject; rather, it suggests more than anything than painting with conceptual underpinnings.

For an artist who taught herself to paint the traditional way and as a mother training her young son to survive, “learn to float” means something else. It may not directly communicate to you what is going on but it signals a message about acquiring the basic lessons of life and the dream of continuity : a cycle, endurance and hope for the future or a narrative subject that has so many meanings. It is a powerful image that somehow attracts and penetrates, winning your heart and mind. The work created becomes the source of inspiration and generates excitement and awe. The experiences in rearing her child has been romanticized, delivered so simply and effectively, that it becomes a successful presentation of expression.

Painting is still alive. The lifesavers are again those who persist in expressing themselves through it. I might as well say that I still believe in the ever changing mood and magic of painting as it is today.

Thank you Sandra!

- by Bobby Nuestro

Related Article: Metaphysical Painting and Conceptual Painting

Because of her subject-focused concept AlterImages can be easily taken as a veritable gallery of portraits, mostly of acquaintances. "La Primavera" for example is a painting of musician Jay Cayuca in the vigorous act of playing a violin. With its reference to the music, the blurred paint around the subject becomes, ironically the metaphor of sound, and not the musician.

"Angel Wings" is a humorous "snapshot" of surprise of the artist’s son, Martin, who appears wearing a pair of false wings. The lightness of the work extends to the obvious cross references to saccharine cherub paintings of Raphael or Murillo – and the nuances of the antics of her son.

Looking closely however one finds off-tangent cues especially other works such as "Far Away" and "At the Wedding", where paintings do not tell about somebody but rather represent ambiences, actions and gestures that are implied. "Far Away" seems to describe the act of a blank gaze – an episode with a reverie – and the subject’s face is obscured from us, let alone the pupils of her eyes. (Irony?) "At the Wedding" has the pictorial evanescence of a passing glance, not far from the atmosphere of a wedding where acquaintances sink and surface in consciousness at intervals of our attention.

Fabie – Gfeller’s true emphasis lies in her painterly technique, and the use of persuasive visual language of mid-range tonalities in suggesting charged emotions with well-chosen imagery. It is the background, its blue-grey, ash and steel seemingly non-presence, that dominates, engulfs the scenes as if the subjects emerge from far away mists, from opaque distances that introduce into the foreground these people, these instances. It is the grey, middle tone wash that defines the action, sets the ambience, and dictates the quiet and oftentimes solemn tone of these works. The mastery of the middle tone, then, is Fabie Gfeller’s achievement.

* Exhibition Notes by Riel Hilario

See Alter Images Gallery

Although the exhibit started out with eight paintings of Onib, collectors have come out to offer their collections for the tribute. At present, there are now 18 never-before exhibited artworks from the master and available for viewing at the gallery. One of the works submitted for the exhibit is "Ballerina in Red," a 36" x 24" oil on canvas. Interestingly, Olmedo’s distortions were done at the torso of the ballerina. Another unique piece is a 1970 "Nude," a 30" x 30" acrylic on canvas. It already shows the creative capability of Olmedo very early on. Also on display is "Young Man with Violin," a 26" x 20" watercolor work.

The exhibit also features the works of current artists who are renowned for their figurative expressionism such as: Yasmin Almonte, Marcel Antonio, Vincent de Pio, Manuel Garibay, Sandra Gfeller, Riel Hilario, Mark Justiniani, Jason Moss, Vincent Padilla, Bayani Rayacala, Elmer Roslin, Carlo Saavedra, Jerson Samson, Federico Sievert, Gino Tioseco and Lydia Velasco.

The exhibit shows the dexterity of Olmedo in various media: from acrylic on canvas, ink on board, pen-and-ink, oil pastel on velour, and watercolor among others. Such a retrospective of unique and diverse works has not been done before, and art collectors are invited to view the exhibit.

Galerie Joaquin is at the second floor of 371 P. Guevarra st., Montessori Lane,Addition Hills, San Juan, Metro Manila. For information, call 723 9253 or log on to www.galeriejoaquin.com.

Source: Malaya Living

“THE COURTSHIP,” by Bayani Ray Acala
Editor’s Note: Published on page D2 of the August 15, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE ARTIST died nine years ago, but judging from the outpouring of affection and respect from fellow artists, his memory lives on. Indeed, Onib Olmedo, born Luis Velozeo Olmedo in 1937, has cast his influence on a new generation of artists.

The exhibit, “Of Honoring, Remembering, and Giving Tribute: the Legacy of Onib Olmedo,” is curated by Riel Hilario, who invited some 15 artists to participate in the show (Galerie Joaquin, extended until Aug. 20).

The works ostensibly bear Olmedo’s lasting influence, both in subject and mode of treatment. Olmedo, of course, was known for his figurative expressionism, a movement which had hordes of followers and detractors alike in its halcyon years.

The show’s pièce de résistance, however, are the 14 rediscovered pieces lent for the exhibit by Olmedo’s private collectors. These consist mainly of portraitures, nudes, still lifes and the so-called vanitas, works that he finished during his last year on earth. These pieces are not to be regarded as ordinary portraits done in the usual mode but, rather, soul portraits, of “humans warped and distorted by anguish and suffering,” as Alice Guillermo aptly describes them. “They are victims of social injustice as well as of their own tortured psyches.”

Olmedo was one man who showed empathy for society’s underdog. Witness his gallery of the poor and the dispossessed. He painted even the sakada workers from Negros and waitresses in the cheap girlie joints.

It is interesting to note that, after an extended period of anguish and suffering (aggravated by poor sales), he shifted toward the brighter side of life, painting lively still lifes. These pieces, however, came toward the end of his life, when, suffering from diabetes and other complications, he expressed the wish to be at peace with himself and the world.

Paying him tribute in the show are Manny Garibay and Yasmin Almonte, Mark Justiniani and Lydia Velasco, Marcel Antonio and Sandra Gfeller. Even the younger ones, who emerged in the scene only after Olmedo’s death in 1996, such as Vincent de Pio, Gino Tioseco, Carlo Angelo Saavedra and Elmer Roslin, bear his trademark figure and color, indeed, the soul-wrenching delineation of figures that seem engaged in a gripping drama in an inner universe.

Of these artists, it is Garibay who has become Olmedo’s most worthy disciple, though Elmer Borlongan, who is regrettably not represented here, comes quite close, particularly in his rendering of distorted figures.

The younger Antonio has faithfully subscribed to Olmedo’s palette sense, and the stark if foreboding images of angst and anxiety.

I dare say, however, that it is José Ibay, a portraitist of the most disturbing faces and body language I have witnessed, who has assimilated Olmedo’s storehouse of visual contortions.

The curator’s notes by Hilario say that Olmedo is a “unique individual” and “influential artist.” But the curator does not really render Olmedo up close and personal, having been born a generation later than the master. Perhaps the introduction could have carried greater weight if it has reported the testimony of all who have been touched and enriched by Olmedo’s art.

In this work, the painted subject – a dancer – is caught in the midst of action. We descry suggestions of faltering grace, a bit of apprehension and awkwardness. Yet, all things considered, we can also perceive an unmistakably representation of confidence in her gait, calmness in her face which the artist has rendered in thin almost opaque glazes. Behind her image lies a curtain of washed hues, the liquidity of which permeates to the surface, giving the whole work a spontaneous painterly atmosphere.

The artist’s use of white spreads out like a fine gauze. In some portions the colors ignite, nevertheless dampened, enclosed by the somber, cooler grays that arise from her palette’s mixtures. Thus in this series the subject becomes the avatar of Fabie-Gfeller’s painting mannerism -not the other way around (as most painters would do). It was her brush that danced.

Luis “Onib” Olmedo was born on July 7, 1937. He finished architecture at the Mapua Institute of Technology in 1959. He started paintings in the 60′s and held his first one-man show at the Solidaridad Galleries in 1971. In 1979 his entry won the Gold Medal in the annual Art Association of the Philippines competition and his work “Faces of Torment” placed him as a Finalist in the 1980 Mobil Art Awards. Olmedo achieved note also abroad, through exhibitions and competitions in Cagnes-sur-mer in France (1979) and in Baghdad, Iraq in 1988. For his meritorious standing and contribution to Philippine Art he was given the Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan Award in 1991 and was chosen as one of the winners of the 1992 Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artist Awards. He passed away in 1996.

Critics have described Olmedo’s work as “figurative expressionist”, with a body of works devoted to “soul portraits” that are represented as distorted, in anguish and in pain. His Singkong Suka series in the 60′s were to become the artist’s trademark work, which he developed in later exhibitions as well. He described his work as “imploding” in the sense of revelations of the inner universe where “bidoes glow phosphorescent” in deep blues and greens. The late critic Leonides Benesa thought of Olmedo as a “modern-day shaman or medicine man” whose “cures may be seem like shock therapy through his paintings”. He further said that Olmedo’s work may “not be beautiful in the usual sense but they are always powerful.”

However apart from his work, Olmedo is well known for his “Chaplinesque” humor and jokes. A strong supporter and mentor of young artists, Olmedo is fondly remembered as a man who imparted the down-to-earth wisdom on art and the artist’s life. He was also a natural poet and he invented limericks and humorous poems. He also served as racing judge of the Manila Jockey Club.

Of Honoring, Remembering and Giving Tribute: The Legacy of Onib Olmedo
Curator’s Notes on the Exhibition
by Riel Hilario, Guest Exhibition Curator

I first met Mang Onib around ten years ago in one afternoon gathering of artists in a Manila gallery mezzanine. I vividly remember him cracking a joke in Tagalog – which my poor memory cannot recall -but I remember the smell of coffee and the cigarettes of the other artists who were laughing with him. He then glanced at the bunch of young artists (that included me) huddling in one corner and gave soundest advice: “Ang art, ‘di yan sa magagaling lang – madaming magaling pero nawawala rin. Ang art ay para sa masisipag at matiyaga.”

Olmedo was underscoring the necessity of persistence in the practice of art. Perhaps one can even say that such a value lends the artist’s body of works more depth and a sense of progression. When I heard of his passing a year later, I was full of regret for not being able to know more of the man behind the paintings that have disturbed the complacency of my – and other’s – artistic perception. For indeed, Onib Olmedo’s work still retains its power to provoke, to disturb, and to stir the artistic imagination that needlessly succumbs to the saccharine at the threshold of beauty. This, I surmise, is Olmedo’s own persistence – that his works not only retain his presence but also carry forward the strength of his ideas, despite the years, despite the generations of artists that have gone after him.

While working for this tribute exhibition the question of persistence became a primary question: How did Onib Olmedo, through his works, contribute to development of imagery, the temperament and the form of latter-day artworks? How did the artist, as a mentor, influence the direction of younger artists, especially those whom he supported? How did Olmedo’s own presence, nay, legacy, as a noted Filipino artist broaden our visual horizons, our visions and the inner worlds? Surely these questions may never be answered by one exhibition alone. But still one can attempt to plumb the answers.

This exhibition gathers a number of artists whose lives and works Onib has touched in one way or another. All of them bear witness to the man’s significance in their lives and their art. For some, like Mark Justiniani, Frederico Sievert and Yasmin Almonte, Onib was a key figure who helped them build their individual faith in art, especially in their early years. Ditto with Sandra Fabie-Gfeller, whom the senior artist also painted as a subject in his works. Olmedo’s lighter temperament and imagery are brought to different paths and forms by artists such as Lydia Velasco, Marcel Antonio, Jason moss, Emmanual Garibay and Bayani Alcala. Finally, the vigorous power of his work, his expressionist style and his down-to-earth subjects still persist to inspire the works of young artists such as Vincent De Pio, Gino Tioseco, Carlo Saavedra, Jerson Samson, Vincent Padilla and Elmer Roslin.

Thus a tribute, in the form of an exhibition, to Olmedo is not simply an occasion for thanksgiving, but also of remembering and honoring the memory of one such unique individual and influential artist. For, despite his absence, Mang Onib’s presence still persists, his jokes still reverberate, and his creative life is perpetuated by those whom his art has touched and nourished.

Related Articles:
• Show Displays Unique Legacy of Onib Olmedo
• Tribute to Onib Olmedo Extended

*Fabie-Gfeller acknowledges dancer Katherine Sanchez and the Philippine Ballet Theater, whose production Madame Butterfly, served as the artist’s references for this series in oils.

What draw interest to her body of work are their cunning simplicity and their power to elicit questions from its viewer. Fabie-Gfeller’s subject, the paper bag, is banal – a ubiquitous packaging object with a very short half-life that exists only at the periphery of mass culture. The humble brown paper bag in the Filipino experience is at once the ever-reliable container of baon, pasalubong and take-home meals – of pandesal, pancit and puto, and everything else worth munching. But after its use (due to its inherent fragility), it immediately becomes rubbish and consigned to our waste bin and to limbo. Nobody sympathizes with a paper bag; it is as inutile and pointless as saving burnt matchsticks, dry ballpens, and shoe boxes.

Hence, the unexpected foregrounding of such a subject in painting immediately disrupts the hierarchy of value assigned to objects in contemporary life. According to one art historian, the practice of painting objects in tableaux (still life genre) presumably traces its beginnings to the classes who wanted to show off their collections, their stock and other objects that symbolize their wealth. The paper bag is neither a sign of wealth or want: it exists in that narrow alleyway of purgatory. At one point, it is something but at the end it is nothing. In short, it belongs nowhere.

Furthermore, the paintings are oriented to highlight frontality – with one face against a null background, akin to an ID photo. In this manner, the paper bags confront our gaze head-on, challenging us to regard it with utmost attention.

Another point on Fabie-Gfeller’s series accounts the manner of the rendering. While her subject is meticulously painted, almost hyper realistic, to every last crease or fold – the effect they produce straddle the line of minimalist painting. Like the "nowhere" of the paper bag’s existence, Fabie-Gfeller’s paintings cross the frontiers of representational painting and abstraction, but they never leave the border. This gives us a hint that the clean lines of modernist aesthetics need not lend itself only to the abstract genre.

Fabie-Gfeller’s Paper Bag has indeed given us a unique cerebral and aesthetic challenge. One hopes this exhibit merely marks the beginning of a long and promising career.

Entitled New Artists + Now Works = New York, this PLDT Global exhibit runs until August 3 at the Renaissance Art Gallery in SM Megamall, featuring the works of Addie Cukingnan, Sandra Fabie-Gfeller, Azor Pazcoguin, Doltz Pilar and Wally Sy.

After the Manila preview, the exhibit will open in New York on August 25 at the Philippine Center Gallery located at 556 Fifth Avenue, New York City, and will run until September 5.

Produced by J. Tolentino Communication Consultancy, the group exhibit gathered creative personalities with different professional backgrounds, but with a passion deeply rooted in the arts–representing a wide spectrum of genres and emblems of the crossbreeding of styles, materials and processes that constitute postmodern art.

The five exhibitors are not full-time artists. Cukingnan and Pazcoguin are graduates of occupational and physical therapy. Fabie-Gfeller is a financial management consultant. Pilar is a freelance design consultant, while Sy is a practicing doctor in dental medicine.

Cukingnan began as an artist in 1988 and focused on still life, landscapes and portraits. At present, she is the president of a group composed mainly of self-taught artists like her, called Arte Pintura (which includes her daughter Tisha, an architecture student). Her past solo shows were How Great Thou Art (2002) and Floral Splendor (May 2003). She also established the Arte Pintura Gallery located at Kitaro Bldg. located at Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong.

Fabie-Gfeller was introduced into the arts by her father, whom she precociously watched and observed while painting during her youth. Because of the exposure, she initially did her own paintings by copying photographs from books and magazines in watercolor, acrylic, and oil.

Eventually, she decided to train under Onib Olmedo and with artist-friends on weekends, allowing her to hone her craft and learn more about portraiture and figure painting. In 1994 and 1997, she attended the classes of Bob Gerbracht, a famous teacher of portrait and figure painting in San Francisco, California. As a part-time artist, she participated in Alay, a group show at Boston Gallery, and has done portraits and landscapes for clients. Sandra’s abstract works have taken a more audacious turn, and ostensibly more imaginative in their appeal.

A physical therapist by training (from the University of the East), Pazcoquin was exposed to art by virtue of his family’s thriving framing and art business, which he helps manage. His traditional genre painting is in the tradition of Fernando Amorsolo, Carlos V. Francisco and Diosdado Lorenzo and the Lakeshore Artists.

A member of Arte Pintura, Pazcoquin also trained under painter-mentor Araceli Dans, who became his patient in therapy. For the past five years, he paints various subjects in oil on canvas, mostly of the ordinary folk such as farmers, fishermen and workers as they go about their workaday lives. With his gallery of fully delineated characters, he has honed his touch for juxtaposing the rural folk and the world they inhabit, as he chooses to detach from cramped urban centers and oppressive city dwellings.

In the past three years, Pilar has devoted more time to a serious career in art focusing on abstract modes, basking in the sheer joy of pure physical painting. He has embraced multiple careers–as a visual merchandiser, floral stylist, landscape and interior designer and, of late, as a painter.

Working in both oil and acrylic, Pilar combines them on canvas to achieve artworks that capture a mélange of colors, and with a contemplative sense of composition that conjures varied emotional and spiritual responses on the viewer.

Dentist Sy, meanwhile, considers painting as his hobby. He constantly experiments with new techniques to his abstract modes. His subjects predominantly consist of celestial bodies and nature’s imaginary light-and-shadow shows, and his choice of colors is bold and vigorous.

Through their New York show, these five Filipino artists hope to show that art can overcome barriers, bridge boundaries and cross cultures, especially in a multicultural perspective that is New York.

Source: The Manila Times Internet Edition