The art exhibit Láum at UPV Lantip Gallery features art, not only for art’s sake but to fulfill a social mission: to support the scholarship program of ONE UPV Foundation USA.
There’s a lot to take in the featured works of 19 artists which was publicly opened on August 10, 2022. An Artist Reception was organized nine days after as part of the culmination of the year-round events in celebration of the 75 Years of UP Presence in Iloilo. The afternoon cocktails brought together artists, dignitaries, and UP Visayas alumni in an entrevue while the art pieces absorbed the laughter of the viewers as they examined the richness of the works and the well-respected names that are reflected in the exhibit card.
READ: INSIDE the UP Visayas Museum in Iloilo
Curated by Prof. Martin Genodepa, director of the UP Visayas Office of Initiatives in Culture and the Arts (UPV-OICA), the collection in the gallery shows 26 selected artworks while an expanded number of works were made available in a digital exhibit and sale at the Facebook page of ONE UPV Foundation USA.
Láum presents top-tier artists
Láum or Lá-um, is a Hiligaynon word that means hope and it brings to the gallery – online and offline – the works of some of the country’s well-established names in the art sector. It presents the masterpieces of art makers whose names alone make their work a collectors’ choice and by the new generation of dynamic and equally competent award-winning artists.
You will see the works of female contemporary artists like Margaux Blas, Suklin Chang, Bea Gison, Ela Jamosmos, Katelyn Minoso, Shiela Molato, Mae Tamayo Panes, and Tina Shedid.
Collectors and charity patrons got acquainted (or reacquainted) with some old, but timeless collectibles and new works by Dennis Ascalon, Marrz Capanang, Charlie Co, Ed Defensor, Gabriel “Boy” Dolar, Vic Fario, Kinno Florentino, Joey Isturis, Alex Ordoyo, Kristoffer Tamayo Panes, and PG Zoluaga.
Sought after precious pieces are of Ed Defensor’s continuously expanding opus – the Manature Series which now breached the 300 mark scattered globally and with each of the pieces having a unique pattern, line, texture, color, material, and meaning.
Know more about the artist here: ED DEFENSOR: Reintroduce yourself to the life and art of Iloilo’s living legend
Lá-um shows the 2022 series of Defensor’s Manature collection – the Fusion for a New Hope and The Falling into Place – Opus 320 and Opus 321, respectively. These two tapestries are worth owning for it breathes life like a living tree or plant inside the room adding positivity despite the changing mood and temperament of the day for their dominant hues and opulent texture depict the transforming seasons and progression of life.
Likewise, Fake News (Acrylic on Canvas, 2022) by the Visayas art sector pillar Charlie Co is worth picking up from the online collection, especially if you don’t mind the price.
Lá-um brings back native materials
The use of local materials among the art pieces has invited extra interest, especially in the exhibited works of Boy Dolar, Joey Isturis, and Shiela Molato.
The Wood Relief titled Mothers by Joey Isturis was considered a classic collectible and quite a number of female patrons expressed interest in the wood carving.
The works of Boy Dolar and Shiela Molato earned closer scrutiny. Rendered in Rafia and in a scroll-type form are two of the works of Dolar, namely: Nanay and Plantita Rabiya. Equally interesting is Shiela Molato’s experimentation on Burlap, titled: Boundaries are the Ultimate Sign of Respect 1 and 2.
The prominent use of native materials as a canvas, noted by followers of art who were at the gallery then, makes it convenient for the art pieces to be transported because these are roll-able and can be tacked in inside the traveling bag. Likewise, it renewed interest in the possibility of artmaking using native materials. Their works served as a reminiscence of 80s and 90s when local and native materials were experimented upon by local artists and which developed as a trend.
Spotlight on Panes and Blas
Soliciting awe was two new pieces by Mae Tamayo Panes – Patadyong ko nga Pula and Maya Ilongga, a modern representation of the traditional wraparound skirt weaved from local fabric showing a color-rich geometrical design and side-by-side with the character of a contemporary Ilongga from the life of her politically progressive sister named Maya.
In this collection, Panes showed her advancement in art making from her passion for plants, flowers, and mythical women as exemplified in her pandemic collection into women’s empowerment and liberty offering a focused discourse on a woman’s blended roles in society – mixing the conservative charm (traditional) with assertive femininity (contemporary), perhaps symbolic of the eyes, one demurely closed while the other attentive and anticipatory.
The entire Filipiniana themed composition is mounted in a neatly framed natural wood emerging the robust colors that usually made up the traditional pattern of a patadyong.
Similarly, the woman is also a strong subject in the work of artist Margaux Blas, titled: Temple, Transcend, and Awake While Dreaming.
The work of Blas is fertile with messages that mirror her personal experience and journey as an artist owning to her acute consciousness of things around her. Temple, for instance, depicts various elements of Balinese culture and deep spiritual practices that continue to manifest in their daily life as captivated by the artist during her trip to the island province of Indonesia in 2015.
READ ABOUT the UP Visayas Museum Complex: From Ayuntamiento to Galería de Arte
It shows the multi-faceted character of Balinese women mirroring that of the artist – a balance of ferocity and compassion and with respect to the human body as a temple. In Transcend, she imparts her self-healing journey through art, intimating that her artmaking is bigger than herself and with the Creator interceding in the process to bring divine messages.
The collection at Láum at UPV Lantip Gallery is indeed breathtaking as described by One UPV Foundation USA. Lantip, after all, means skilled artisan or master of the craft in Hiligaynon and each of the artwork is a masterpiece that is powerful enough to go beyond the gallery and give hope to the beneficiaries of this noble engagement.