FRAGMENTS are pieced together in an ongoing pair of exhibitions at contemporary art space Silverlens. One show collates collectors artworks to examine how art has grown through the years, while the other pieces plans shattered by this plague year.
In the main exhibition, titled Collectors Plus, the gallery presents artworks created in the past two decades from several prominent collectors living in Manila and Singapore. The show features diversity in terms of medium and style, bookended by an early Geraldine Javier oil in 2001 and a pair of recent Pow Martinez abstracts.
According to Silverlens Director Isa Lorenzo, in the nearly 20 years between these works, it is “electrifying to witness through the pieces in the show how art has grown and expanded through the years.”
“Collectors Plus is a show made possible by the passage of time,” Lorenzo said in the show’s catalogue. “It is an invigorating demonstration of the prosperous artistic culture in the Philippines, and is a reminder that despite the country’s modest size, a heterogeneous wealth of creative talent thrives within.”
The show also features artworks by other Filipino and Western artists. Among them are Marie Harnett’s photo-realistic pencil sketches and, Louie Cordero and Kawayan de Guia’s sublime mixed media collaboration.
The other participating artists, include James Brown, Mariano Ching, Chati Coronel, Melvin Culaba, Patricia Perez Eustaquio, Dina Gadia, Nona Garcia, Dennis Gonzales, Maria Justus, Lou Lim, Wawi Navarroza, Bernardo Pacquing, Yvonne Quisumbing, Arturo Sanchez Jr., Julião Sarmento, Yasmin Sison, Maria Taniguchi and Rosemarie Trockel.
Alongside Collectors Plus is a solo show by Gary-Ross Pastrana, titled some recent (& disrupted) projects. The title is a literal presentation of Pastrana’s projects intended for this year but were shelved due to the pandemic.
Pastrana cites up to five shows he was set to join this year that were called off, including Art Basel Hong Kong that was scheduled in March. There was also a planned exhibition at UP College of Fine Arts with his batch mates Lyra Garcellano, Louie Cordero and Nona Garcia, among others, to mark their 20th year of finishing art school.
“I was supposed to co-organize it with my friend and another batch mate, Alvin Zafra, who early on had already suggested a somewhat—in light of what we know now—painfully ominous title: 2020: Perfect Visions,” the artist said in the exhibition catalogue.
Pastrana said he hesitates to label the presentation as a proper exhibition. Rather, “it is more accurately a gathering of fragments.” Alas, presented in the ongoing show are the artist’s collages from canceled shows, a frame of collages he created at the onset of the quarantine; and individually framed pieces from his ongoing (@collage_a_day_everyday) project.
“I see no reason to even attempt to thread an overarching narrative, or force a deeper connection between these elements,” he said. “Perhaps, the only organizing principle one could infer is that they are all excerpts from disrupted projects, vestiges of floating narratives and precarious ideas of a practice currently in limbo.”
“They could very well be the last iterations of concerns and trajectories that have gone thus far and may no longer be sustained. If so, may this chance encounter serve either as a fitting send-off or, better still, an opportune moment where new paths may begin to emerge.”
some recent (& disrupted) projects and Collectors Plus are on view on-site and online until October 10.