Elaborate and lived out his depictions of cities may seem, with landmarks standing tall and stories on the ground taking shape, Rudy Yu maintains his artworks are not maps.
The veteran artist insists he is no cartographer, saying the true intention of his pieces is to visualize the character and culture of a particular place. This explains why his reimagination of New York, for instance, glistens in midnight blue despite the presence of the high-noon sun—a city free from the constrictions of time. Meanwhile, Iloilo, his home for six years now, radiates dynamism in a delightful showcase of pastels, inspired by the province’s vibrant people.
The two pieces figure in Yu’s upcoming solo exhibition with Artes Orientes, titled Cityscapes. The show forms part of the gallery’s series of exhibitions to be presented at ManilART 2022, which will run on the third week of October.
“[My work is] basically a collage,” said the 61-year-old artist, adding he’s not even striving for geographical accuracy in his process. Yu takes the liberty of repositioning iconic structures as he deems fit, so long as he captures the culture of the place. An example is his depiction of California, where landmarks such as Lombard Street, Universal Studios, and Golden Gate take up reimagined locations.
Intricacy extends beyond the composition of Yu’s paintings and encompasses his technique as well. There are six steps involved in his tedious process, including preparing the canvas to receive media and sketching the “skeleton” of the image. But despite the great amount of effort and attention to detail his art demands, each piece is more or less done in the head of the visionary artist before he even starts the first step.
“It’s faster that way,” he said.
Yu’s paintings come alive in a sophisticated network of colors and textures. Rivers run in shades of blues with white, running lines conveying gushing waves. Meanwhile, watercolor touches the trees, mountains and the sky with gradient depth.
And then there’s the detailed depiction of buildings and infrastructures. Drawing structures has always appealed to Yu, a proclivity that traces to his background as an architecture student at the University of Santo Tomas. It’s evident that Yu treats each structural drawing with an informed eye and a trained hand on the principles of architecture and art, having spent time as well and graduating at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 1989 when he moved to the US.
Yu portrays in Cityscapes places he has an affinity with. Aside from his hometowns of California and Iloilo, there’s China, the homeland of his father, and New York, where some of his friends reside and a place that remains on his travel bucket list. There are also paintings of Paris and Manila.
The exhibition will take guests beyond tours from city to city. There’s a stop as well to outer space, with Yu’s illustration of an advanced alien society. The artist also pulls the audience inside his head with a painting showing the inner workings of his mind, which, by extent, serves as the general intention of the exhibition.
“I’m trying to make them understand how my mind runs,” Yu said. “Hopefully, my pieces give them a snapshot of my brain.”
Yu’s Cityscapes serve as the long-time artist’s debut at ManilART. Aside from Yu’s solo, Artes Orientes will also present in the event four other one-man exhibitions featuring Edwin Ladrillo, Ted Peñaflor, Milmar Onal and Nikko Pelaez, respectively.
Anticipated as well is a showcase of revered names in Philippine art that will take up half of the gallery’s booth. The presentation, titled Master’s Corner, offers the works of National Artists Federico Alcuaz, J. Elizalde Navarro, H.R. Ocampo and Arturo Luz. Also to be featured are Raul Lebajo, Edwin Wilwayco, Hermes Alegre, and Marcel Antonio.
Yu’s exhibition as well as the other presentations of Artes Orientes will be on view at ManilART 2022. The 14th edition of the annual event, tagged as the “National Art Fair” and copresented with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, will run from October 19 to 23 at SMX Aura Convention Center.