Finding the Local Cebu Visual Art Scene in the Philippines

The University of the Philippines Visayas Cebu is a breeding ground of visual artists.Every year, young artists put up their first solo exhibits as thesis requirements before they get their diploma in the Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Painting program. Many parents have been dismayed when their children insist to take up this profession. With the image of starving, visual artists in their minds, concerned parents try to compel their children to take other courses. So it is with a tinge of surprise that I view this undergraduate course, which survived through the years.

Jenno Gacasan is born into humble circumstance but his gift for drawing propelled him into art school under the wing of the UPVCC Fine Arts Program. His father is a factory technician and his mother is a housewife. And it is quite admirable that they have obviously supported his sojourn into the art world instead of urging him to take a course like nursing for example, in this era dominated by the lure of working overseas. Or perhaps he just stood his ground?

The artist is gay so it is not surprising that his paintings are more or less portraits and dresses of European looking women in subdued but playful pastel colors. This shows his penchant for collective melodrama. The atmosphere of the gallery is eclectic, like the way the models pranced the ramp in Japanese inspired clothes, unusual headdresses and wooden clogs.

In his first solo exhibit, the viewers were first treated to a mini fashion show where models were garbed in clothes that he designed and sewed himself, made from paint canvases. These outfits were first primed and then textured with calcimine and talcum powder. Each of the clothes was hand painted and then sealed with enamel paint. The model's attires matched each of the dozen or so 4feet by 8 feet art works, hanging on the walls of CAP Art Gallery.

I should say it was an excellent performance. After feasting on the beautifully made up and interestingly dressed models, the curtains were opened and the lights turned on. The respective models then posed beside the paintings that matched their outfits and the audience followed eagerly to devour the huge paintings. They were painted in a similar process like the dresses except for the primed plywood used instead of canvas.

The painting entitled "Fuschia Catastrophre" doesn't crack open its medium the way Gustave Klimt's "Adele Bloch-Bauer " does, but it effectively juggles naturalism, high artifice and abstraction. The pale skin, limpid eyes and long, delicately clasped, manicured hands are isolated by the blazing patterns that define her gown. The painting is dotted with gold flecks punctuated with a few squares of fuchsia patterns.

"The Silver Love and the Azure," like the rest of the paintings, is purely aesthetic and is centered on the doctrine that art exists for the sake of its
beauty alone. This is pleasing if one can separate the aesthetic standards from morality, utility or pleasure. Perhaps in reaction to the political awareness and social sensibility that is expected of a student of the University of the Philippines, Jenno stressed his art's subjective, symbolic and decorative functions. He even turned to the mystical in an attempt to evoke personal states of mind by visual means hence the title, Clairvoyance.

Here, the exhibit succeeded in being original. Jenno Gacasan is an innovative visual artist; make up artist, fashion designer and choreographer rolled into one. Instead of putting up the usual student exhibit characterized by an opening prayer, speeches and a prepared honored guest who usually cuts the ribbon, trailed by everyone going around looking at the art works followed by cocktails. He staged something completely different. He was able to tickle the viewer's artistic juices by opening with a fashion show thus giving us a glimpse of what is to come. Furthermore, one can talk to the models making it interactive. The relatively short stature of his models did not take the attention away from the huge art works but instead complemented them. I came out of the exhibit feeling stunned. His is an exciting innovation and surely a promising one.

Almost a year after his first solo exhibit, I am still anticipating the next one that this young artist should stage. The image of a starving artist certainly does not cross my mind. Simply because there is no lack of creativity and talent from this budding visual artist.

It is difficult to expect a radical artist to have an old-fashioned idea but Jose "Jayvy" Villacin firmly believes in drawing. He keeps telling his students in the Fine Arts program at the University of the Philippines Visayas Cebu how much technique matters. He keeps struggling with it himself. Just picking up a pencil leads him to new themes and, sometimes, a new style or two. In reviewing his works, I wanted my thoughts to travel from theory to practice, and in practice, I found an entirely different narrative. This artist is unique because he travels between his conscious and subconscious mind, between early Modernism and Cebu's future art movements.

I have problems to think of other Cebuano Abstract Expressionist artists whose style comes through so fully in drawings. Abstract Expressionism, after all, takes spontaneity and disorder for granted so that drawing can easily seem redundant. This term was first used in Germany in 1919 referring to German Expressionism. Russian Artist Wassily Kandinsky's art works in 1929 were also labeled as such by US art critic Alfred Barr. It later became an American art movement that achieved worldwide influence and placed New York City in the middle of the art world that was always occupied by Paris. Although it is true that spontaneity or the impression of spontaneity characterized many of the abstract expressionist's works, most of this artist's paintings involved careful planning, especially since their large size demanded it.

In Resonating Earth, a 4ft. by 4 ft, mixed media painting, he places a human form in the center of a red globe. Blood seems to flow out of the figure and there are embellishments everywhere. In Cross Fading No. 5 (which is part of his Cross Fading painting series), one can faintly recognize a white cross on a white canvas. Both paintings bring us to the artist's dream world and we have to snatch ourselves back again to reality.

As a young radical boy, he used to draw in the toilets of his elementary school in Roxas City. In high school he had his first formal drawing lessons with an American Peace Corps volunteer. He went on to study Bachelor of Fine Arts major in Painting at the University of the Philippines. While studying at UP Diliman, Jayvy came under the mentorship of his namesake, foremost Filipino Expressionist Jose Joya. He won the Joya award in 1977and was a recipient of the British Council Fellowship Grant to attend the Byam Shaw School of Art. Between lunches of fish and chips, he learned print making in London in 1988. He taught at UP Visayas Cebu since 1980 and has mentored countless Fine Arts students who set sail in the world of figures and forms.

Jayvy's solo exhibits are few and far between. It is as if he has to achieve first an advanced state of awareness before he tackles his canvases. He is also an active member of the Executive Committee of the Visayan Islands Visual Artists Association in Cebu that is organizing the VIVA Festival 2008. One of his paintings will be in the six selections of six sets of paintings from noted Visayan artists, to be raffled in the Mugnang Halad Exhibit and Raffle Draw, which will open on October 24 at SM Art Center.

Together with artist Palmy Pe- Tudtud, he is one of the Visayas regional winners of the Philip Morris Art Competition this year. Jayvy believes that an artist should be the first one who appreciates his art. Commitment and honesty to his art has never been lacking in this artist. The intensity of his self denial as an expressionist combined with the anti-figurative aesthetic of European abstract schools of art gives his paintings a rebellious, anarchaic and nihilistic look. Like the works of American Northwest artist Mark Tobey, Villacin's white writing
canvases anticipate the over all look of Jackson Pollock's drip paintings. This is one Abstract Expressionist painter whose expressions of infatuations glimmer from his artworks.

Born, raised and educated in Cebu, Ivan Zaldarraiga finally stages his first-ever one-man show here in Manila titled, Payter. What is notable about this exhibit is that he brings the so-called street art into an indoor setting. His graffiti art will be housed at Tomato Bomb HQ! at 63- B Xavierville Avenue, Loyala Heights in Quezon City (which is along Ride & Roll and Meatshop).

Back in high school, he was already dubbed as a rebellious artist with the graffiti he did. It was the time when he was already doing tagging. In fact, he was already a known graffiti artist at a young age.

"The more tags you have, but remains anonymous-the more popular you are," this street smart artist essays his early beginnings with a smile.

This fascination on graffiti art even made him pursue a degree in Fine Arts at University of the Philippines in Cebu. In fact, Zaldarriaga has made a name for himself via his graffiti art that it even earned him to take part in creating a Graffiti Centennial Art display when UP celebrated its centennial year in 2008.

Today when one visits Cebu, Ivan Zaldarriaga's notoriety is felt as he has gifted his fellow Cebuanos with his brand of art-the graffiti. Cebu's Gorordo Avenue displays the colorful, meaningful and soulful graffiti art. Here in Manila, Zaldarriaga has his share of dominating the scene in Intramuros with his graffiti as well. Actually, Payter is his second one-man show. His first was back in Cebu via his oil paintings when he opened his own art gallery. The exhibit will open on October 3, 7 o'clock in the evening and will close on the next day, October 4 about the same time.

Ivan, as his friends fondly call him, admires painters like Vincent Van Gogh and the first African-American artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat. He attaches his art style to Dadaism. When asked about his purpose as a graffiti artist, he utters in much profundity, "It is my way of touching people's lives with my street attitude-fused works."