EKZENA
Ricco Renzo Galleries puts on view a three-person exhibit entitled “EKZENA” which opens on May 22, 2009. Revolving around the perception of “scenes,” the mind-set of Zen and the concepts of lyrical abstraction, the title has inference to a philosophy where art is presented in a style that combines maximum of technique and a minimum of planning and deliberation. However, the abstractions presented are not the haphazard approach for art’s sake, but of the manner by which the artwork impacts on the viewer.
Scenes are very much a part of everything that is art. A scene can be a subject or the content the artist will portray but it can also be the place and venue where an event takes place. To create and make a scene implies action and movement. This action of a scene is the very essence of the phenomenon of a happening. The occurrence of an art happening alludes to an improvised spontaneous art activity or exhibit where the eyes of an audience are treated to art that is free and unpredictable. Spontaneous abstract art can not be planned and predetermined. Pure and clean abstraction excites visual perception. Looking at an abstract painting oftentimes creates individualistic episodes depending on how the viewer views it. Abstraction is open to varied opinion and interpretations. It combines free will, intellect, intuition and instinct.
“EKZENA,” an abstract art exhibition by the triumvirate of artists namely JCrisanto Martinez, Sio Montera and Javy Villacin suggest all of the things and incidents mentioned above. Each artist presents a personal series of works that tackle chosen themes like time, space, the jouirney of life, death, wisdom, and the paradoxes of our human condition.
JCrisanto Martinez’s oeuvres reflect on “time” as a sinuous medium to be maneuvered similarly as paint. His washes of acrylics on burlap delve into the continuum of time. By layering images, Martinez incorporates undertones and meanings that summon a response by the viewer. At one end of the premise of his series’ working concept is to defy the notion of art as perceive merely by sight. Intuition – which is the state of knowing something instinctively, or the immediate knowledge of something – as a word and a process came as a challenge to the artist in developing this series.
Sio Montera’s mixed media explore on “free form.” These impasto art pieces bring him to the state of mind where the cerebral authority rules over “art;” an awakening of the artist’s subliminal self. As the outcomes are unpredictable, the artist is conscious all throughout in what he is doing, while freeing himself at the same time from representations that limit visual perception.
The large canvasses of Javy Villacin continue and deepen his foray into the dream world. The aggregate of works aptly about “shambala” which is a “higher level of consciousness and spirituality,” Villacin reinforces his fascination with this dream world that straddles many states of consciousness by focusing more on the emotional atmosphere and visual resonance. But the basic elements of a Villacin artwork are the usual pencil backgrounds that rejoice the reticence, the daring even, in some cases, the mayhem of drawing.
The three artists are highly individual players who have all made a niche in the arena of abstraction. Though a happening is a scene or an “ekzena” in the confines of a gallery it very much includes the creation of an overall feeling of a contained atmosphere in a walled environment. Abstractions can be a trip to an altered state and an environment in an alternate dimension. As products of potent minds, abstract art embraces all and everything the heart and mind can originally conceived and at the same time alienates impossibilities.
EKZENA will be on view at Ricco Renzo Galleries & Caffe starting May 22, 7pm with an opening cocktail. The exhibit runs until June 11, 2009. The Ricco Renzo Galleries is located at the LRI Design Plaza, 210 Nicanor Garcia St., Bel-Air II, Makati City, Philippines. For inquiry please call 898-2545 or 0927-386-1460, email kbn@riccorenzo.com or visit www.riccorenzo.com. [ARTEPINAS / JCrisanto Martinez / Ritchie Landis Doner Quijano]
Texts:
Ritchie Landis Doner Quijano, 2009
JCrisanto Martinez, 2009
