Online Viewing Room
The Online Viewing Room is Kulay Diwa’s online exhibition space, where visitors can explore and collect works from curated, online-only exhibitions by artists. This is also in line with our goal to provide a space to foster cultural interaction and exchanges with the local regions, Southeast Asia and other countries.
Current Online Exhibitions
3 Samar Artists
Labana-Ventures-Tingzon
ONLINE EXHIBITION: 3 SAMAR ARTISTS – LABANA – VENTURES – TINGZON
This exhibit brings the work of three artists from Calbayog City, Samar together. Willy Labana and Aris Ventures are senior Samar artists living and working in the city and Rommel Tingzon is a young artist currently attending the Fine Arts and Architecture Program at FEU in Manila. While varied in style, all three are using their images to portray the everyday life of Samar’s peoples – fishing, studying, working or exploring education.
Aristole Ventures (Aris) is a teacher at CADSEV, the Calbayog Arts and Design School of Eastern Visayas, the only school in the region that majors in Arts and Design Programs. His style is unique and his series of cubist-like figures at work is thought-provoking and finely executed.
Labana is a graduate of Northwest Samar State University and a leading artist in the region who has consistently won awards in Filipino competitions since 1996 including First Prize in the 2018 Tarlac Painting Competition. The paintings in this online exhibition show his signature style of fluid, magical paintings that speak to the viewer about relevant social issues in and around Samar.
Both Lanana and Ventures are leaders in Samar in developing arts programs and workshops as well as setting by example as major artists of the region.
Rommel Tingzon is 21 years old from the island of Western Samar. Through his detailed oil paintings, Tingzon explores the history of portraiture, realism, and symbolism. This exhibition is meant to share a very intimate and personal view of Tingzon’s own life experiences as he grows as an artist.
Tingzon’s work can be classed as realism but the symbolism speaks beyond representation to his culture and the way of life in the Philippines. He placed among the top 30 in the Philippines in both the 51st annual Shell Painting and the PLDT Competitions. Holometabolism of Life in this online exhibition was his winning entry in this competition.
Pinipinta ko ang kuwento ng aking karanasan sa buhay.
I am painting the story of my life experiences. Rommel Tingzon
Gord Synder-Guest Curator
Labana
Will Labana, Yakap, 3’x2′ oil acrylic relief on canvas
Will Labana, Kanlugan ng lahi, 3’x2′ oil on canvas
Will Labana, Run for your Life, 3’x4′ oil on canvas
Ventures
Aristotele Ventures, Hugar#2, 30”x24”, acrylic on canvas, 2019
Aristotele Ventures, Tinapa-Tapat, 12”x12”, acrylic on canvas, 2019
Aristotele Ventures, Sining at Kultura, 12”x18”, pen and ink, 2019
Tingzon
Rommel Tingzon, Kabuhayan sa Ilalim ng Ilog, 24”x36”, Oil on Canvas
Rommel Tingzon, Himsaw sa Sapa, 26.5”x33” oil on canvas, 2019
Rommel Tingzon, Anluwage, Oil on Canvas, 48×36 inch, 2019
Current Online Exhibitions
Jonathan Benitez
Coral Reef Series
This suite of small works by Jonathan Benitez is titled his ‘Coral Reef Series’ and were done in 2012 during his stay as Artist in Residence in Dos Palmas Resort in Honda Bay, Palawan. The twelve works are all either 5”x8” or “8”x5” and are oil pastel, acrylic, and graphite on paper.
Benitez does non-figurative works as a respite from very tight portraits and this series was done after sea excursions are spontaneous and free later allowing him to return to portraiture.
Jonathan Benitez is one of the most respected and accomplished Palawan artists. He was born from a musician family in 1971. The second child of seven, he was first introduced to watercolor and charcoal portraiture in his uncle’s studio at the age of 10. Benitez progressed from there as he began winning art competitions.
In 1995, his work brought exposed him to Palawan writers, artists, and intellects. He founded the Manunggul Group- a group of local artists in 1996 and they held exhibitions and conducted lectures and workshops and thus the group become instrumental in molding awareness of the arts in Palawan.
Benitez works well in different mediums. He is known for his collage and abstract works as well as his hyperrealist paintings and portraits. His main themes are of social commentary or stories that could shed emphasis on the harsh realities in life. He believes painting as a visual storytelling piece, an object that communicates. In his works, he is always asserting his position as a contemporary Filipino artist.
Gord Synder-Guest Curator
“My art is about portraits of people and figures – oftentimes taken out of context, from ordinary to unknown entities, deconstructed and appropriated and juxtaposed on fragments of collage surfaces. My aim is to connect the relative essence of man and his relationship with other living organisms, their common traits, fragility, and impermanence.”
…Jonathan Benitez
Jonathan Benitez, Coral Reef Series#12, Oil Pastel, Acrylic on Graphite Paper, H8xW5 inches, 2012
Jonathan Benitez, Coral Reef Series #6, 5”x8”, oil pastel, acrylic and graphite on paper, 2012
Jonathan Benitez, Coral Reef Series #9, 5”x8”, oil pastel, acrylic and graphite on paper, 2012.
Current Online Exhibitions
Mike Garcia
Idiomatic Expressions
Born in 1985 in Manila, Mike Garcia attended school and grew up in Palawan.
He graduated in the University of Santo Tomas College of Fine Arts and Design, Majoring in Painting, in 2006. His style reflects the careful study that goes into the rendering of every principle (and its internal structure). Garcia works with graphite and oil on paper and paints in acrylic on canvas.
Garcia has exhibited since 2007 in a group and one-person exhibitions in Manila, Quezon City, Cebu City, Philippine Embassy, Berlin and Zurich, Switzerland. He was also the representative of Palawan to the NCCA Philippine Visual Arts Festival 2013 in Pagadian City, Zamboanga Del Sur; a first-place winner at the Palawan Artist Juried Exhibition (2015) and one of the regional winners for Luzon Philippine Art Awards (2015-16).
Garcia hails from Palawan, and is one of the first Palaweno artists to have won as a national winner for Luzon in the recent Philippine Art Awards. A founding member of the art group, ‘Art on the Move’, Garcia lives and works in Puerto Princesa, Palawan with his wife and three children. He has led and developed the Art on the Move group. In 2015, Garcia had his first one-person exhibition at the Kulay-Diwa Gallery of Contemporary Art in Manila.
Mike Garcia, A Glimpse Through Time, Oil on Graphite, 3ft x 4 ft, 2018
Mike Garcia, The Pledge, 91-cm-x-122-cm, Oil, and Graphite-on-265-gsm-bamboo-paper, 2016
Mike Garcia, The Drifter, 18×24 inch, Oil on Paper, 2016
Mike Garcia, Compassion-Offering-Perseverance, 7.5 in x-11 in (3 pcs), 2019
Mike Garcia, The-Heart, 7.5 in x 11 inches, Oil on paper, 2019
Mike Garcia, The-humbled-man, 7.5 in x 11 inches, Oil on paper, 2019
Mike Garcia, Beyond Vision and Passion, 5 ft x 6 ft, official PAA entry LUZON 2017-2018
Mike Garcia, Braingasm, 4’x3’, oil on canvas, 2017
Mike Garcia, King-and-Queen, 11 in x 11 inch, Graphite on paper, 2019
About the Curator Gordo Snyder
A CANADIAN COLLECTING FILIPINO ART
Filipino art and culture is a fascinating way to get to know the Philippines, collect upcoming, outstanding contemporary art. The best new contemporary art will become part of Filipino history and a good work of art increases in value because of it’s quality. Anyone can build a collection over a number of years.
The best Filipino art is being collected internationally and Filipino artists are living and exhibiting around the globe. Last week I visit an exhibition in Regina, Saskatchewan that included the works of Manila artist, Patrick B. Fernandez. He now lives and maintains a studio in Regina with his family.
I have been traveling to the Philippines for more than ten years now. My partner and I had quite a large collection of Canadian Art which we donated to the Glenrose Rehabilitation Centre in Edmonton and I determined I wanted to study the arts and culture of the Philippines and build another contemporary collection of works by artists I encountered along the way.
We started in Lagawe, the capital of Ifugao and close to Banaue and some of the first pieces collected were older wood carvings (bulul’s) and woven artifacts and cloth by local artisans.
Two of my prize sculptures are a wooden pregnant woman from the hearth of an old native house and two ‘bulul spoons’ collected from a native hut outside of Banaue. I also made my own woodcuts using local wood and even tools purchased by a woodcarver on the road to Solano. Making my own art again on a daily basis was an added plus to my new search for Filipino arts and culture.
In Lagawe, I discovered the photographs of Eduardo Masferré (1909 – June 24, 1995), a Filipino-Catalan photographer who made important documentary reports about the lifestyle of native people in the region of the Cordillera in the Philippines at the middle of the 20th century. He is regarded as the Father of Philippine photography. I want to collect a few of his photographs as he spent time in Ifugao. Another artist/photographer/printmaker I am interested in Angela Silva, an artist/photographer, and printmaker from Negros Occidental, PH.
Then we visited Palawan, fell in love with the island and it’s people and build a house suited for art outside the major city of Puerto Princesa. The big white walls and 9’ ceilings make it perfect for paintings drawings and sculpture. I signed up with Salcedo and Leon Auctions and started studying the history of Filipino art and culture.
It didn’t take long to meet some of the leading artists in Palawan and familiarize ourselves with their work. I was a judge at a local competition and visited studios and befriended many artists associated with a group called ‘Art on the Move’.
This was the time too that we met a young artist named Rommel Tingzon from Samar who was completing his high school in Puerto. We were so impressed with his work and work ethic that we decided to mentor him and he has just finished his first year at FEU in the Architecture and Fine Arts Department. Needless to say, our home is already filled with his drawings and paintings. The recent posting of his newest oil painting has now reached more than 11,000 likes on Facebook.
Tingzon had a one-person exhibition in Edmonton at The Works Arts Festival in June of 2018.
Mike Garcia was one of the leaders of Art on the Move and I started buying his work – I think we have fives pieces so far. Drawing and drawing into paint has always been a fascination to me and Garcia’s interest in both animism and Thomism with anatomy drew me to his work. Mike hails from Palawan and is one of the first Palaweno artists to be a regional winner for Luzon in Philippine Art Awards. He had a show at Kulay-Diwa in 2015 and we are currently working to curate another exhibition for the gallery.
With my interest in linoleum and woodcuts, I was instantly fascinated with the Indigenous artists I found in Palawan who was creating ‘rubber cuts’. This is a printmaking form which I had never encountered where the artist actually paints and sells the rubber cut once finished and a couple of prints have been made.
My first purchases were from an artist named Elordie Mesac from the Tagbanua tribe in central Palawan. He and his group SARAGPUNTA won and continue to win prizes and awards. My purchases include both original rubber cut images and the images printed from them. His images relate to the traditions of his tribe and his wish is to revitalize their culture. I also own works by his fellow rubber cut artist Roderick Pelenia. Their works are important to our collection and collectors should take note and obtain works if possible.
Three senior and important artists in Palawan are Jonathan Benitez, Mario Lubrico and Nil Sencillo. Jonathan Benitez is one of the most respected and accomplished Palawan artists. His abstract work is exciting but he is most known for his realism including his portraits oftentimes taken out of context and reconstructed beyond portraiture. Lubico’s work is a lovely mix of abstract/poetic compositions and well worth following. Nil Sencillo is a realist painter born in Puerto and trained at FEU. He has exhibited in one-person exhibitions since the ’70s. He works in oil and paints in a traditional style depicting Palawan life and people.
Other artists from Palawan worth watching are Cleng Sumagaysay (currently living in San Francisco) and Edward Beguina. Leonard Ansiong is also a young realist working out of the Palawan Cultural Centre.
Through my association with Rommel Tingzon, I met two senior artists from Calbayog City in Samar and I also want to collect their work and watch their progress. Aristole Ventures (Aris) is a teacher at CADSEV, the Calbayog Arts and Design School of Eastern Visayas, the only school in the region that majors in Arts and Design Programs. His style is unique and his series of cubist-like figures at work is thought-provoking and finely executed.
Will Labana is a graduate of Northwest Samar State University and a leading artist in the region who has consistently won awards in Filipino competitions since 1996 including First Prize in the 2018 Tarlac Painting Competition. His paintings in this show his signature style of fluid, magical paintings that speak to the viewer about relevant social issues in and around Samar.
We are currently back in Canada and I’m spending time with my daughter and her family in Regina, Saskatchewan. To my surprise and delight, I met Filipino artist Patrick B. Fernandez who recently moved to Canada with his family. His personal and surreal portraits are compelling and make me want to own a painting or two.
Moving forward, I am acting as a guest curator for a Manila gallery – Kulay-Diwa Gallery of Contemporary Art. To date, I’ve helped to promote the work of Anthony Panugao, French/Filipino artist Jonathan Nicolas (currently living in Vancouver, BC) and Egay Lising (whose work. I hugely admire). In addition, I have guest-curated a number of online exhibitions by Mike Garcia, Jonathan Benitez and a 3 person show of Samar artists – Labana, Ventures, and Tingzon.
From here, I want to continue to learn, research and visit studios as we work towards building a solid and personal collection of Filipino art. I am very interested in the work of Orley Ypon and Jessie Mondares; I want more sculpture including some good bulul pieces – I want more rubber cuts and I want to continue to draw and paint as I move towards 70 and my ‘shadow years’. I’m sure there are many artists I’ve left out and many more to discover.
G. GORDON SNYDER
FB Gordo Synder
Gordon Snyder is a writer/curator/artist who lives between Canada and the Philippines. He has been curating exhibitions, writing art books and promoting arts, heritage, and history for more than 4 decades.
