Artist Feature: Froilan Calayag

I have no words

Guest-starring Nonoy Marcelo's Ikabod

"Chase the Candy" ..One of my favorite Froilan Calayag paintings.. I don't know where it is now.

mmmmm... secretions..

The Artist's Renaissance Influence shows in this painting. I love the presence of water.

"Love Me! Heart Eater"

This is the world I see behind my eyelids.. Where odd creatures exist, and live off each other, and evil is rigid and angular.

Chaos+Color = Fun

I enjoy staring at the transparent, gel-like bear hat on the boy's head.

There's an amphibian called the Surinam Toad that deposits its eggs on the skin of its back. these slowly sink into the skin, creating large holes. In these holes, the eggs hatch and the tadpoles metamorphose inside these holes, emerging as miniature versions of their parents.

Another creature with Surinam Toad features..

Froilan's Prizewinning rendition of Jose Rizal's Terra Cotta Sculpture

Makes me want to run, too..

This is an Allusion to something i forgot. sorry.. But isn't it great? "Everything Turns Impressionism When You're Hungry"

The very first Froilan Calayag work i saw online. That moment, he became my favorite Filipino Contemporary artist. Even more so now having seen more of his work and having learned the experiences and emotions behind the layers of paint.

Bosch brews some Angel's Trumpet Tea with the Chapman Brothers

A take on the old fable

Characters come to life and become not just believable but familiar.

Very Deja-Vu for me.. I had one of those magnetic fishing games when I was smaller. I loved how the little fishes would open their mouths then you'd try to get them to latch onto the magnetic "lure". It's a very close simulation of what you feel when fishing for real fish.

Froilan Calayag is Awesome

Photos from: Artist's own Facebook Page, Gallery Bohemia, Tala Gallery, ClicktheCity, Sensico.edu.pe,Flickr, WhenInManila.com, VinylonVinyl and other very forgiving and generous sources.

Filipino Artists (in no particular order) Part 6

I've been sketching lately, mostly studies for larger scale work when I find the time (yeah right.) and I notice some changes in my style. Do our styles of expression:

• naturally change as we mature and age?
• change because of what we experience?
• change because of changes in the way we perceive things?
• change because of changing influences?

And because i said the word "change" so many times, I present you with Lyrics from David Bowie..

"
I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
So the days float through my eyes
But stil the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They’re quite aware of what they’re going through"

On with the Artists.

51. Kiko Escora- Trivia: if you search google images for "Kiko Escora" you get more pictures of the artist than his art. credit: Worldseriesattitude

52. Antipas Delotavo- A true master of capturing human emotion and sometimes the absence of it. credit: bjanepr files

53. Napoleon Abueva

54. Leslie de Chavez- Great non-cheesy socio-political commentary and they all look like Zombie Andres Bonifacios. credit: ArteFilipinas

55. Mideo Cruz- There's more to this dude than controversial Phalluses.. He's a pretty good painter and an immensely talented and creative performance artist. credit: manilaartblogger

56. Banji Bisaya- From 20 meters away or so, youd look at his works and be like, Yep, it's wood.., But move closer and you'll see the craftsmanship and masterful carpentry this guy possesses. Everything is perfectly "squalado" and the parts that are meant to move, do so precisely. Made from odds and ends the artist gathers on long journeys northward, the works have a sense of perfection about them. Galing! credit: Jillaine Lanuza's Tumblr

57. Federico Sievert- The artist hails from USTe, like my wife, who is a work of art :) credit: KulayDiwa

58. Abdulmari Imao- One of our National Artists, Dr. Imao depicts his happy, smiling sarimanok in vivid hues on canvas, as well as in bronze. credit: postcolonial.web

59. Jun Caingat credit: eccagallery

60. Nick Pongan- I loved staring at his Tuna Workers paintings at the Megamall. Not acquiring one from that series is one of my biggest regrets, and I hardly regret. Bwiset. credit: Satoshikyo's Picasa

Moar to come..

Filipino Artists (in no particular order) Part Voltes V

I met Manuel Ocampo and Romeo Lee the other day at d.a.g.c.. Cool guys.. No "art-snob" airs whatsoever. Romeo even made me take a picture of his mural for posterity. Earlier that day, I dropped by the CCP main gallery to check out the "Kulo" exhibit. Lots of nice work there, The big lola, the flaming guy, the guy sleeping with his dick hanging out, the pale guy, and more. You can see the post on my facebook. It was around ten in the morning so there weren't many people and it was great. the substitute curator for saturdays, Ate Supladita, wasn't very happy about me taking blog photos. She wasn't any help too, when i asked about what the CCP had planned to stop the vandalism (the poor Lindslee painting!). In fact, she wasn't any help at all. And when some high school students arrived and asked her about Mideo Cruz's installation, she brushed them aside with her proud ignorance. I felt I had to step in and the kids were eager listeners anyway. I explained what polytheism is, and told the kids to look at the installation and see if they could spot how polytheism was represented there. They also asked about the mickey mouse ears and clown nose on the poon, I asked them in return.. "what could mickey mouse symbolize that could be related to religious images?" Some said "TV" some said "Disneyland" and many agreed with the one who said "USA". Also they asked me if the hand was real and I said maybe it's silicon latex. (I hope..) Anyway, here we go..

41. Julie Lluch - She made a bust of my mom. No, it's not this one. Credit: Ateneo Gallery

42. Galo Ocampo- really epic looking scenes.. reminds me of that american painter who did storms, volcanoes, canyons etc. but i forgot his name.. i know his work was similar to Tavernier..  credit: Arcadja

43. Max Balatbat- the first painting I ever bought for the house was by Max.. The story: I've seen the paintings before, without knowing the Artist's name. It's like a visual version of LSS (last song syndrome). Lucky me, I chanced upon his solo exhibit in Megamall. Imagine this, big and small Max Balatbat paintings on exhibit, with installations of ladies underwear and "used" condoms supported by piped in "Romansa" music by James Ingram and other seksi singers. I realized the genius of this man there and I made it a point to have a piece for my house. Noli from Renaissance gallery didn't know the title, so I took a chance and wrote Max on Facebook to ask. What a champ, this guy.. he drafted a certificate of authenticity for my painting, and noted the title "Ilaya".. One of my favorite streets in Divisoria. End of story. Max continues to evolve, and happily, his work is well documented online, so you can really see how his style came to be and maybe where it's going. I can't wait for the next solo exhibit. Astig. .credit: Manilart

44. Mariano Ching- Beautiful, absurd. credit: presidents.tumblr

45. Gabby Barredo- This shoulda been an animated GIF, since most of his work is motorized to give a kinetic clockwork effect. credit: KulayDiwa

46. Poklong Anading- From Finale Art Gallery: "During the opening of Poklong Anading's "Light suffers if there is no place to fall from" at the Finale Art Gallery, the audience was confronted with an empty space save for a ribbon of neon light shaped like a mouse trap. While the viewers were crowding around the rather curious object, the artist surreptitiously took a photograph of them, their backs turned to the camera. All anonymous but bound by the same eagerness to make sense of the occurrence, the viewers didn't know days later that they, themselves, would be the subjects of a work in the exhibit they attended: a lifesize photograph that forever captures their gesture of looking inward." BIGAAAAT! credit: Finale

47. Charlie Co credit: clickthecity

48. Jose Tence Ruiz- Another of my favorite Artists.. This multimedia genius is a master at detail, structure and form, both in 2d and 3d. You've probably driven past his work, the large-scale "Ganap" on EDSA. The creatures seem very Haeckel-Influenced (see my background) and I love that..  Check out his gothic sorbetero and his Sagrada Familia-looking Oil Rig thing.. Genius. credit: AngelFloresJr.

49. Lydia Velasco- Another artist with a very interesting evolution in her work. Compared to the women in her earlier paintings, the most recent works feature women with even more slender, almost serpentine features. Mother dear gave me one from the nineties, I hope to acquire a current one to hang beside it.  credit: Artsentralasia

50. Nune Alvarado- Stone faced workers both men and women with arms like tree trunks, thick and veiny, probably from toiling in the fields. Unique and easy to spot among other works. credit: Metrogallery

Watch out for more!!

JH