MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Silverlens Galleries shares its shows for the month of September; ‘Collectors Plus’, ‘Brighter Than Many Ever See’ by Issay Rodriguez, and ‘Domestic Abstractions’ by Jill Paz — an Online Viewing Room (OVR) presentation. These shows will be accessible both online and onsite in the gallery space, until 2 October 2021, and 25 September for the OVR.
Collectors Plus – an exhibition of Philippine Contemporary Art
Words by Isa Lorenzo
Silverlens is pleased to present the second edition of Collectors Plus, curated by the gallery’s directors, Isa Lorenzo and Rachel Rillo. For this edition, we are presenting as its core, Philippine contemporary art from the years 2005 – 2015, from four collectors based in Hong Kong and Manila.
The core collection was put together by an early patron of southeast Asian art who traveled the region extensively in the early 2000s from his base in Hong Kong. The show includes early pieces by Maya Muñoz, Elaine Navas, Nona Garcia, Winner Jumalon, and Yasmin Sison-Ching among others.
There are two works from Yayoi Kusama’s Night Flowers series, early pieces by Pow Martinez, and Norberto Roldan signature altars. Accompanying the show is an early large five-panel painting by Bernardo Pacquing, a rare pastel painting of Chati Coronel, and an impressionist piece by Mit Jai Inn.
The first edition of Collector’s Plus was in 2020, and its popularity among audiences was palpable from the moment it was announced. Artists included in the exhibition are:
- VIC BALANON
- CHATI CORONEL
- YASMIN SISON-CHING
- NONA GARCIA
- MIT JAIN INN
- WINNER JUMALON
- YAYOI KUSAMA
- POW MARTINEZ
- MAYA MUÑOZ
- ELAINE NAVAS
- BERNARDO PACQUING
- NORBERTO ROLDAN
- DON SALUBAYBA
- WIRE TUAZON
Alongside Collector’s Plus, Silverlens will be installing our Art Basel OVR pieces. We are participating at the Basel show of Art Basel with a solo booth of Pacita Abad. The presentation is three pieces from her Abstraction series and additionally includes an OVR of works that will be featured on the Art Basel website, and physically onsite in Manila. Three contemporary artists will be featured alongside the late Filipina-American artist through the Art Basel OVR. Artists who are connected to the artist, either in form or in history. Pio Abad, Patricia Perez Eustaquio, and Nicole Coson will be showing curatorially
relevant pieces, including new works.
Brighter Than Many Ever See – a solo exhibition by Issay Rodriguez
Words by Gwen Bautista
Continuing her investigation on the links between ecology and humanism, Issay Rodriguez’s “Brighter Than Many Ever See” probes narratives and meanings found in the cultivation and domestication of ornamental plants. Rodriguez’s inquiry begins from her family’s small garden and extends to the halls of the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI). Working in collaboration with scientists from the institution, Rodriguez has learned about plant breeding methods, which include unconventional approaches that use gamma irradiation where ionizing radiation causes random changes in the DNA and
induces mutations. In understanding the transformation of plants, Rodriguez associates the process to the renewal of memories and experiences as we continue to co-exist with these life forms, particularly in a time of a global pandemic when we are forced to stay inside our respective dwellings.
Hence, Rodriguez extends this contemplation by documenting these plants through photograms while considering these groundings and pledging to keep the living samples intact, healthy, and undamaged. Part of the exhibition is a series of photographs showing mutant plants rendered in monochromatic prints. These images emphasize the beauty of plant forms while the void in its surroundings is emitting a sense of opulence captured amid light. These images reveal the elaborate and intimate workings of plant breeding, leading us to think about these interventions; what we make of these findings becomes shared participation in visual culture and meaning-making entrenched in the curiosities of human-centric activities, economies, cultures, and the sciences.
Domestic Abstractions – a solo exhibition by Jill Paz
Jill Paz, a Filipino-Canadian artist continues her ongoing investigation of how objects fall apart, its subsequent need for repair, and how these structures of preservation connect to values of interdependence and interconnectedness.
In this show, the artist will present a new body of work, which consists of over 20 intimately scaled panel paintings. Each painting has an intricately detailed surface, made by the digital optical tool of a laser machine and then layered with acrylic washes on top of a gesso ground. This rigorous consistency of the framework appears to be a conceptual process, but within these systematic conditions opens up the possibilities of exploring a pictorial world.
In Domestic Abstractions, Paz continues her ongoing investigation of how objects fall apart, its subsequent need for repair, and how these structures of preservation connect to values of interdependence and interconnectedness. The formal and conceptual start of this project began with a desire to excavate the uncanny history of our family home of her mother’s lineage. Still standing on a corner of Broadway in the old neighborhood of New Manila, Paz’s grandfather’s century-old home being a family home for 4 generations, was a radio headquarters during the Second World War. The home’s foundational structure was altered to include a bunker and tunnel during those years of Japanese occupation.
The subjects of these new paintings by Paz are small, damaged, and repaired objects: things you can hold in your hand, albeit seen as if darkly through digitalization. Or fabrics, dematerialized by the scanner then reconstituted in gesso. This is an archaeology of everyday life. This is a discourse on the humility and complexity of small things and tender surfaces.
Like so many people today Jill Paz is both and between. Born in the Philippines but leaving as a one-year-old for Canada, educated there and in the USA, married to a US citizen, she returned to the Philippines four years ago. The works by which she as an artist became known took both as material and imagery that emblem of the Filipino diaspore or migration, the balikbayan box, and the paintings of the renowned Filipino painter Félix Resurrecíon Hidalgo, her great grand uncle.
To use such subject matter was a way of musing on her own situation: in some ways perhaps both Canadian and Filipino, but also perhaps between these different identities.
Access the OVR for Domestic Abstractions here.
These exhibitions will be on view from September 4 until 2 October 2021. These
are also ready for online viewing. While our physical space is open, gallery visits are strictly by appointment only. Schedule your visit through this link.
