“IT wouldn’t matter if you lived until you were 75,” Keith Haring, the iconic American pop artist who died in 1990 at age 31, once said. “There would still be new ideas. There would still be things that you wished you would have accomplished.”
His artistic desire may have been insatiable, but Haring’s prodigious oeuvre continues to fill cultural consciousness around the world and decades after his death. In time for his birth month this May, Pasig-based Space Encounters Gallery mounts an exhibition in honor of Haring and his jazzy hieroglyphics.
The Keith Haring Show gathers some of the most prominent young Filipino artists who, like the show’s namesake, have made the successful jump from street art to the mainstream circuit. The group exhibition’s participating artists include Jappy Agoncillo, Studio Bitto, Emard Cañedo, Isad Diwa, Tyang Karyel, Distort Monsters, JP Pining, Brent Sabas, Arvin Santos and Bryan Yabut.
Each one pays homage to Haring by depicting his figures and works using their own respective styles. Distort Monsters, for instance, choreographs his wide-eyed, bright-colored creatures to mimic the wiggly motions of Haring’s stick persons. Meanwhile, JP Pining bathes the barking dog with his signature hues and geometric lines.
Elsewhere, we see other executions of paying respect to one of the foremost figures in contemporary pop art.
Brent Sabas reimagined Haring’s piece titled Self-Portrait Polaroid in the vein of his textured human portraits with animal heads. Arvin Santos, who cuts out custom canvasses, outlines one of Haring’s last works, titled Flying Devil (Batman), and on it pieces together a rich montage in the style of Haring’s street graffiti.
Alongside the ongoing Haring tribute exhibition is the second solo show of Edwin Martinez with Space Encounters Gallery, titled Still Sailing.
Martinez is mostly known for his portraits of monochromatic astronauts in various situations. In his latest presentation, we see the artist take his characters almost exclusively to more hopeful territory. The astronauts seem to be no longer directionless as they have found purpose in their new settings.
In Not All Those Who Wander are Lost, we see a picture of life, wherein an astronaut is shown riding a boat surrounded by daylight and water, holding a breathing plant in his hands. Two other pieces feature plants crawling across the subject’s air-tight helmet.
Still Sailing and The Keith Haring Show opened on May 20 and will run for three weeks. Space Encounters Gallery is located at Unit 7D, 7th Floor, Padilla Building, F. Ortigas Jr. Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.