Silverlens Showcases Filipino Artists at Art Taipei 2014
If you’re heading to Art Taipei this weekend—the fair celebrates its 21st anniversary this year—be sure to stop by the Silverlens Gallery booth. Based in Manila and Singapore, the gallery will be featuring eight Filipino artists from its roster: Bernardo Pacquing, Ryan Villamael, Hanna PettyJohn, Maria Taniguchi, Patricia Perez Eustaquio, Mariano Ching, Gary-Ross Pastrana, and Gregory Halili. Carefully curated, the presentation weaves together past and future narratives, balancing the proportion of works on paper with sculptural, video, and mixed-media work.
Bernardo Pacquing creates abstract oil paintings that combine the beauty of street art, stains on the sidewalk, and the deconstructivist aspects of the city. With an almost fetishistic interest in paint, Pacquing layers swathes of chalky paint with thick impasto, splatters and flaky marks, and often incorporates sprawling lines that resemble text or make out figurative elements like a sidewalk or a flower. Ultimately he achieves a dynamic, gritty effect that suggests rapid movement and facility with material. A first-timer at Art Taipei, Pacquing presents a cycle of paintings in which he has shifted his trajectory be less figurative, with injections of dark, fiery color.
Paper master Ryan Villamael will present works from his “Formosa Series,” miniature 3D paper cutout sculptures that are encased in bell jars. Employing startlingly intricate paper cutouts, many of these works resemble biomorphic forms such as DNA helixes or cell tissue, while others recall city maps, and some are informed by everyday objects that happen to cross Villamael’s path. Intertwining the ephemeral with the ordinary, the dispensable with the exquisite, Villamael’s work pushes the boundaries of cutout art.
Other artists to watch out for include Patricia Perez Eustaquio, who will include work from her new series “Figure Babel,” a collection of geometric floral oil paintings and works on paper in muted tones; and Gregory Halili, known for his delicate skulls—macabre sculptures carved from Mother of Pearl shells.
Visit Silverlens Gallery at Art Taipei 2014, Booth D18, Oct. 31–Nov. 3.
