MANILA, PHILIPPINES – To top off the year, SILVERLENS Galleries will be hosting three year-ender shows by Hanna Pettyjohn, Dina Gadia, and Gregory Halili.
Through its artist representation, institutional collaborations, art consultancy and exhibition programming, including art fairs and gallery partnerships, SILVERLENS aims to place its artists within the broader framework of the contemporary art dialogue. Its continuing efforts to transcend borders across art communities in Asia have earned it recognition from both artists and collectors as one of the leading contemporary art galleries in Southeast Asia.
Pettyjohn will be hosting her seventh solo exhibit titled In Medias Res, while Gadia will present a series of pop-inflected conceptual artworks in Navigating the Abstract, and Halili exhibits his fourth solo show titled Glass Horizon.
In Medias Res by Hanna Pettyjohn
Words by Karla García
For her seventh solo show with the gallery, Hanna Pettyjohn will host her exhibition In Medias Res, with new paintings from Anastomosis, a series she exhibited earlier this year at Art Fair Philippines. She will also feature sculptures that were completed only very recently. These new pieces heavily reference her past works, and are replete with familiar memories and experiences. These recollections, visually represented by natural elements and man-made objects, ultimately reveal a personal narrative that Pettyjohn has reshaped with the passage of time.
Our life journeys are mapped like branches of memory and information coming together, as depicted in a beautiful new series of artworks by Hanna Pettyjohn. Her new exhibition In Medias Res at Silverlens Gallery references the retelling of her own history, creative process, and the passage of time through a collection of paintings, each titled “Anastomosis.” In this exhibition, Pettyjohn reticulates the past and present in each painting through the representation of a universal landscape.
In Medias Res captures a visual expression of Pettyjohn’s quest to be in the midst of things by merging her creative process as a metaphor to reveal hidden truths. She begins her process by selecting elements from Photoshop layers from what she calls the mother painting, previously seen in her 2019 exhibition Concurrencies. These exposed past layers are then translated for each of her Anastomosis paintings which refer to the point of origin of a memory. This concept is used to reference her past works as the departure point for this new series of works. The paintings feature abstracted landscapes consisting of a lake shoreline, debris covering the shore, and hints of the human presence. The muted color palette produces a feeling of sentimentality for this place which contains evidence of lived experiences. The landscape features various elements of nature and man-made objects, such as fabrics, tarps, and construction rubble.
Wandering through this shoreline, one finds a recollection of past journeys through objects observed in the debris. In this case, it is the natural landscape filled with representations of fabric materials to symbolize the idea of home, the migration experience, and memory. The references of fabrics depicted in these artworks seem to be recurring characters in her story, encapsulating this idea of “anastomosis.” In other words, finding the connections between these objects and our personal history can show the continuing journey of self-discovery. More importantly, it becomes the consequence of our human condition to search for our own truth.
Altogether, the application of a previously used digital process to create the meticulously painted artworks presented in this exhibition invokes a metaphor for self-reflection. In Medias Res, thus, becomes the process of deconstructing an image and reshaping it in different ways to depict the memory of Pettyjohn’s homeland in the Philippines and the passage of time. This abstraction of the environment and the leftover rubble of objects left behind serves as a testament to our existence.
Navigating the Abstract with Dina Gadia
Words by Arvin Flores
Dina Gadia proudly presents her solo exhibit entitled “Navigating the Abstract”, featuring a range of Pop-inflected paintings and conceptual texts that explore the ambiguity of representation through image and language, and where, applying her signature style of appropriation along with a sharp sense of wit unlocks the unconscious complex of drives and desires that pervade the social imaginary.
Familiarity accompanies Dina Gadia’s paintings with the ease of images from popular media, drawn mostly from pulp magazines and graphic novels, where vintage illustration provides for a masterful visual language and immediate classic design. We enjoy the crafty juxtapositions where the unusual sets up many ironic situations, and the disparity between the ideal and the actual is stretched towards awkwardness sliding naturally to slapstick tendencies. It would then be simple to skirt the tension and conflict hiding behind Gadia’s wit as entertained by the innocuous pop sensibility. But a slip into the psychological meaning behind the irony leads to a critical awareness of the work’s sociological content. Thus, the collage aesthetic in Gadia’s hands is not just an adventure into formal invention, but also turns into a tool for exploring the body, and its myriad representations, for the construction of gender and identity in the realm of the imaginary, if not, about its own vulnerability. Apparent anxieties and complexes notwithstanding, Gadia’s imaginative juxtapositions jolt with deadpan non sequiturs to surreal ends. This relates to the other component in the exhibit, which is the use of instructional signage designed by Gadia, applying language as a representation of the indeterminate that explores unknown destinations. The textual messages on the signs appear open-ended and free, untethered from direct external signification; however, they do represent a fluctuating state of conditions, mirroring an endless chain of associations internal to itself – intertextual of meaning, an abstraction by other means. The pictures thereby complement the words in their deconstruction of the familiar. And, with the chance pairing of Gadia’s images and texts, the artist seems to point to current social anxieties that affect the imaginary, navigating the abstract, uncertain moment.
Gregory Halili’s Glass Horizon
Silverlens is pleased to present Gregory Halili’s fourth solo exhibition in the gallery. Entitled Glass Horizon, the exhibition includes eleven new oil on capiz shell paintings. Known for his meticulously crafted paintings in miniature scale, this new collection shines a brighter light on the delicate nature of Halili’s work, as he employs a reverse painting method (more commonly seen in cell animation) onto capiz shells that were thinned down to near breaking point. Completed during the recent months of community quarantine, the new works are the artist’s meditations on fragility; be that of nature, human existence and even social order.
In Halili’s words: “Through this fragile material, the paintings resonate glass-like surfaces, reminiscent of old daguerreotype photographs, which captures an ethereal memory and delicate state of fragility. These paintings offer hope about nature and our existence, a portrait of the possibility of creation and restoration.
These shows will be viewed alongside each other until December 23, 2020 in Silverlens Galleries. These exhibitions will likewise be accessible online on 5 December 2020 at 9 AM (Manila time, GMT+8).
SILVERLENS prioritizes the health and safety of its staff and guests. To ensure this, the gallery is taking strict measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In line with the city’s guidelines for social distancing, the establishment will not be accepting any walk-ins. Gallery visits are limited and by appointment only, from Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Upon entering the compound, security guards will take the visitors’ temperature and will request them to fill out a health inspection form. Hand sanitizer will be provided, and high-touch surfaces will be cleaned following each visit. All visitors are required to wear masks. Schedule a visit through https://bit.ly/VisitSilverlens. For more information, please contact info@silverlensgalleries.com or via mobile at +63 917 587 4011.
About the artists
A Filipino-American with a transnational narrative, Hanna Pettyjohn possesses firsthand knowledge of the global diaspora. Autobiographical details and “fragments of memory” inform her work, which is tinged with both nostalgia and an acute awareness of life’s transience. Through her large-scale portraits and personal photographs-turned-tactile landscapes, she conveys the vague anxiety, loneliness, and alienation that afflict the uprooted.
Pettyjohn graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting. The daughter of pioneering contemporary Filipino ceramicists Jon and Tessy Pettyjohn, she combines sculptural installations with paintings in her explorations of identity. Pettyjohn has exhibited in Manila, Miami, Taipei, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and her work forms part of private collections in Southeast Asia. In 2004, Pettyjohn won first prize at the 37th Shell National Students Art Competition. She received the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Award in 2015.
Dina Gadia is an artist recognised for her visually arresting and playfully representational style. In most of Gadia’s works, ambiguous text and other quotidian expressions are combined with appropriated images from pulp magazines. Her selected visuals evoke large localised contexts and people, reflecting relevant issues, such as postcolonial attitudes, disparate economic realities, and female inequity. Despite being known for jarring juxtapositions, Gadia imbues her paintings with a sense of humour, often portraying deadpan narrations through ironic visual puns. The artist thereby eliminates traces of sentimentality or self-righteous judgment in her creations. Gadia’s recent mediums include collages, acrylic paintings, and flags embroidered on satin.
Gadia received a Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Arts in Advertising and Design from Far Eastern University. The artist’s body of work has been the subject of numerous publications, having exhibited extensively since 2005. She has led solo exhibitions both locally and internationally in New York, Miami, Taipei, Singapore, and Tokyo. She was a member of the Bastards of Misrepresentation, a group of ambitious, avant garde individuals gathered by the acclaimed contemporary artist, Manuel Ocampo; Gadia exhibited with the group in New York back in 2012, in a survey show that demonstrated Manila’s dynamic art scene. She was a finalist for the Ateneo Art Awards, a respected award for emerging artists, in 2012 and 2018. In 2018, she was awarded the prestigious national Thirteen Artists Awards by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. In 2019, Gadia participated in City Prince/sses at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
Gregory Halili carves and paints mother—of—pearl shells, creating memento moris. Halili received his B.FA. from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He returned to the Philippines in 2013 after twenty-five years in the United States. Halili’s work focuses on the art of miniatures with interest in the notion and idea of memory, life, death, and cycle. His work has appeared in numerous exhibitions and shows, including the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin; The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; The Hammond Museum and Sculpture Garden in Salem, New York; Ayala Museum in Makati City; Jorge B. Vargas Museum at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City; West Gallery in Quezon City; Silverlens in Makati City and Nancy Hoffman gallery in New York City. In 2016, Halili was one of the Filipino artists who presented in the Singapore Biennale.
About the writers
Karla García is a Mexican born, American-based artist that creates installations and sculptures with clay, found objects, and other materials symbolic to her Mexican heritage and migration. García is a Professor of Art and ceramics assistant at the Dallas College – Mountain View Campus. She completed an MFA degree in Ceramics and a Museum Education Certificate from the University of North Texas in May of 2019. García has participated in numerous local, regional and international exhibitions in Texas and New York. She has exhibited her work as a visiting artist at the Dallas Museum of Art, and recently created an installation for the Nasher Sculpture Center: Window Series for her ongoing work Home and Land Project.
Arvin Flores has an MFA graduate degree from The School of the Arts, Columbia University, New York NY, and a BFA from the College of Creative Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara. He has shown at The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Hampden Gallery, Columbia University’s LeRoy Neiman and Wallach Art Galleries, Aljira Contemporary Art Center NJ, and Southern Exposure Gallery CA. He has also exhibited at Artery Art Space, Mono8 Gallery, and at West Gallery.
