JR Ledesma
“Hidden Grief”
September 7 – October 7, 2019
JR Ledesma’s ‘Hidden Grief’ series of acrylic paintings opens in the KULAY-DIWA GALLERY ONLINE VIEWING ROOM GALLERY on September 7 and continues until October 7. The monochromatic imagery in this exhibit can as the result of Ledesma’s recovering from an accident in 2018 and the references to the emotions he experienced at that time.
Ledesma is a 33-year-old freelance visual artist from Cadiz City, Negros Occidental. He has been painting and exhibiting since 2004 joining group exhibits and competitions including Philippine Art Awards and Metrobank MADE exhibition and had his first solo exhibition at Kulay-Diwa Gallery in 2016. He was short-listed for a Philippine Art Award in 2018 and an ‘Artist Awardee’ at Philippine Normal University in 2009.
Ledesma’s canvases depict the female form in varying degrees of abstraction that, combined with the dark, monochromatic colours, evoke a mood of sadness, grief and other emotions of depression/melancholy. His palette has the ability to simplify the scene and the mood and the absence of colour highlights other compositional elements such as texture, shape and form. It sets the mood throughout the ‘Hidden Grief’ exhibit. His scraping away or hiding some of the human image also suggests emotion.
For Lesdsma, this series of works portray true human life experiences – the struggles and pain physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually that one goes through to find a way through the troubles in life.
