Ten UE Artists: Beyond The 'X' Factor
Ten UE Artists: Beyond The 'X' Factor
By Cesare A.X. Syjuco
Published in: The Manila Times, October 28, 1987
IT is a peculiar quirk of the local artworld that the intense rivalry between schools is carried through long after graduation and beyond the confines of the UAAP. Inter-collegiate myths persist and proliferate. For instance, graduates of the UP are said to be ultrachic, articulate almost to a fault, and given more to thoughtful brooding than to doing. UST graduates, on the other hand, are said to be dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists, honed on four centuries of anatomy and the classical land scape. Graduates of PWU are often thought to be craft-oriented, inclined to technique and the methodical handling of their materi als. And UE graduates are inclined to the linear, the spare in coloration, and the atmospheric.
The title "X" more than marks the spot for a comprehensive group exhibition ongoing until the 9th of November at Kulay-Diwa Galleries in Sucat, Paranaque. The numerical quantity "X" is for the number of artists in participation. And the "X" factor they share is an academic background derived from the University of the East - - specifically, the UE's Department of Fine Arts.
As openly cynical as I have always been about the significance of an academic background in the visual arts, I must admit that I was surprised to find a vague, underlying relationship between many of the artworks on exhibit.
But this is not to say that some shared fundamental predilections have made these artists alike in style, focus, talent, vision or stature.
Outstanding in any company, Lao Lianben and Augusto Albor reiterate major developments in their respective investigations that include departures into the sculptural, with Lao ever the meditative and Albor the uninhibited virtuoso of the razored line and the ambiguous pictorial surface.
The assimilation of pastoral elements into a visual vocabulary approaching abstraction characterizes the works of veteran painters Jess Rivera and Danny Garcia, an ambivalence that juggles both the patently-decorative and the barest attempts at creative problem-solving in turn. But whereas Rivera's scenic composites are a visual shorthand that are often supple enough to be sensually engaging, Garcia fumbles with a wide array of contemporary influences picked at random and not entirely digested, resulting in a flourish-ridden, spit-polished gaseous stew that almost always threatens to strike a nerve like the probing end of a dentist's pick.
Roberto Robles is disappointing. His corrugated-boxboard collages are not nearly as impressive as they are intimidating in their largeness, bearing a marked resemblance to Robert Rauschenberg's celebrated “Cardbird" multiples with strips of commercial-grade carton, adhesive tape, and twine wrapped around plywood supports. Edwin Coscolluela uses similar means in the creation of infinitely more successful pieces that are a dynamic patchwork of folds, overlaps, creases, parallel planes and angulated edges.
The young Convocar shows great promise with small, luminescent constructions that weld ethnographic elements with vibrant, hi-tech fields of taut lines and venomous hues, much like artifacts from some hyper-civilization demolished by an angry god.
Still some of the works are almost too sad to mention. Graphic artist Pablo Orendain is the classic example of the pointless pencil-pusher, invariably resorting to visual clutter and a sparse repertoire of illusory devices to mask his total lack of purpose and vision. Reuben Pagaduan's solitary calligraphic study plays peek-a-boo with outdated painterly effects mercifully pared to a minimum, a virtual notation that borrows heavily from others for all its insignificance. And clearly the odd man out, stylistically, is the late Nonoy Ferrarez, whose bland and uninspired watercolors are at best picturesque and unremarkable.
Although punctuated by works we have already seen before, "X" is fascinating enough when viewed in the context of an alumni overview. For one thing, it is virtual proof that despite common origins, all men are not created equal.
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Cesare A.X. Syjuco, “Ten UE Artists: Beyond The 'X' Factor” (page 1 of 1), The Manila Times, October 28, 1987
