“ At first glance,
this series of Jose Zulueta is
a terrible discourse on the annihilated
self. Man’s contorted and sometimes mutilated body perhaps best
expresses Zulueta’s own sentiments as a
migrant Filipino artist. Yet his
humanity as a Filipino also seems
to urge him into providing
spaces for dreams—some literal wings of
hope for a future redemption. Zulueta
still fervently wishes for man’s
ultimate salvation from a history of
violent and violated existence.”
Virgilio Almario
National Artist for Literature
Scream
Oil on Canvas, 2003
Oil on Canvas, 2003
Oil on Canvas, 2003
PINGGOT ZULUETA’S AOTEAROA SERIES IN NEW YORK
Visual artist Pinggot Vinluan Zulueta presents his 3rd-solo show, entitled Aotearoa
Series on 19 December 2005, 6 o’clock in the evening, monday at the Philippine
Center Gallery, 556 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York, NY. Invitational
cocktail reception is scheduled during the opening of the exhibit.
Aotearoa Series is a collection of 25 paintings on canvas rendered
in oil and acrylic. The paintings were inspired by the artist impressions and
reflections of his experiences abroad, Aotearoa, which translates to “
Land of the Long White Cloud ”, is New Zealand’s indigenous name. The
artist has made New Zealand his home since January 2003.
Aotearoa Series is a documentation of the artist’s experiences
while living in a foreign country. The paintings chronicle the artist’s
emotional journey, culminating in hope and a resolve to overcome. These works
have served as the artist’s refuge…his sanctuary.
The visual images portray upheaval, adaptation and redemption. They are
presented in surreal and meditative forms, which may elicit profound
contemplation or reflection on existencial issues. A fundamental idea
underpinning these works is the potential for self-affirmation in a context of
cultural dysfunction.
Consul General Cecilia Rebong of the Consulate General of the Philippines
in New York along with Department of Trade and Industry Representative Eugene
Reyes and Philippine Center Management Board General Manager Gavino Abaya, Jr. lead
as Guests of Honor during the exhibition.
Prior to his migration to New Zealand, Zulueta was an exhibiting artist
and news photographer in one of the major daily newspapers in Manila,
Philippines. In September 2002, he launched a successful one-man art
exhibition and book launched dubbed “ Asinta: Images and Imageries” at the RCBC
Plaza in Makati City. The exhibition was in collaboration with UP Creative
Writing Director and TOYM Awardee Vim Nadera.
The exhibit runs from 19 to 30 December 2005. For further details and
information, contact the Philippine Center, New York, at telephones (212 )575-4774, Fax (212) 575-3133.
EXHIBITION NOTES
From what we saw of his last exhibit on home grounds, Jose Vinluan Zulueta (Pinggot, still, to his many friends, though perhaps now simply Zulueta, the artist, to his increasing admirers), sets aside his digital palette and returns not only to "analog" paint but to the even more primal and interior territory that has always been there before it could be touched by any brush or "pick tool."
He returns, too, to
the individual figure, not the dazed (by hunger) or distraught families or
Madonna-and-streetchildren picking through
garbage or lost in the middle of street marches cowering under the
transmogrified manifestations of state power—remnants of his digitally-altered
photojournalism.
Instead, the lone
figure materializes in the by now recognizable Zulueta
colors, the form not just disembodied but disemboweled, torn perhaps in the
elemental struggle with loneliness and loss of a native foothold.
But the title itself seeks homage to his
adopted home, and though the Land's "lone white cloud" might be
"stained" with his pained memories, it is the colors that triumph,
less in the tortured manner of an Edvard
Munch, but in the flushed, apocalyptic intensity of an early Legaspi.
Marne
L. Kilates
Writer
Pinggot Zulueta is a truly gifted soul who is, in parts, a photographer, a painter and a cartoonist -- a combination of talents that he spotlighted in his one-man show in the Philippines. As a photojournalist for many years in the Philippines, Zulueta captured through his lens countless powerful images of unfolding current events as well as human-interest scenes that he was always on the look-out for as he roamed Manila’s streets.
Moving to New Zealand
with his family proved daunting for him at first. Transplanted to a new land
and suddenly immersed in a different culture, Zulueta
faced the most difficult times. But it was here that he actually managed to
return to his roots as an artist. In his paintings, he has sought to define the
migrant experience – the wrenching emotions of being away from one’s country
and all that is familiar, as well as the urgent need to uplift one’s self in
the midst of a strange environment.
The New York exhibit
is Zulueta’s way of showing
fellow Filipinos -- especially those who have been based in the United States
for a long time, a shared experience. In his themes of change and constancy,
upheaval and adaptation, Zulueta particularly wants
to establish a connection with those who, like him, have struggled to find
meaning in a foreign land and have risen to meet the challenge
Susan A. de Guzman
Susan A. de Guzman
Curator
AUCKLAND, New Zealand-Jose "Pinggot" Vinluan Zulueta says his works as photojournalist and visual artist have always been social commentaries. The 42-year-old artist has always opted to depict "the good and bad in Philippine society, the challenges and shortcomings of Filipinos, as a nation and as individuals."
These themes were evident in his critically- acclaimed exhibits in the Philippines, the most recent of which was "Asinta" (Bulls Eye, September 2002), which featured digitally processed drawings and photographs of political and socio-economic events in the past two decades.
These days, however, those themes have been taking a back seat as Zulueta's art explores more personal feelings on a recent major change in his life.
In January this year, Zulueta and his wife Vanessa and daughter Paula, 16, migrated to Aotearoa, "Land of the Long White Cloud" New Zealand.
While the move, Zulueta admits, jolted him, it had a hint of irony. For the first time in nearly two decades, he had all the time in the world to paint; time, which was a luxury when he was working six days a week, sometimes more, as a news photographer.
His house in Auckland's North Shore is now replete with his works that he planned to exhibit in Manila. But while surfing the Internet for jobs, Zulueta stumbled upon the Big Idea (thebigidea.co.nz), the online community of New Zealand artists, and learned about a forthcoming exhibit of migrant artists.
Zulueta contacted the organizers, Arts Access Aotearoa and AB Arts Partnership, and is now one of the artists of the ongoing group exhibit "On Arrival."
The exhibit at the Bashford Gallery, in the trendy Auckland section of Ponsonby, brings Zulueta together with artists from Argentina, Brazil, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Colombia, England, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Kenya, Kosovo, Malaysia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Somalia, Spain, Taiwan, Uganda, USA and Uruguay.
Zulueta opted to create three new works for the exhibit. The oil paintings, he declares, "represent mixed feelings of uncertainty and fear-emotions that a migrant experiences on arrival in his or her adopted land." The titles say it all-"Introspection," "Journey" and "Unknown."
While the colors may appear attractive and vivid, a closer look reveals sadness and fear.
Those who are familiar with his earlier works would also note the colors are "darker," a fact Zulueta acknowledges.
The choice of surreal figures in his works is deliberate. "The figures do not have detailed faces and have protruding skeletal outlines indicative of the migrants' difficulties and challenges. The paintings depict their search for meaning and identity and what the uncertain future holds for them."
The figure in "Introspection" is actually faceless. In "Journey," the facial features are hazy. The principal figure is entering a door, but seemingly floating on the air, as if in limbo. This, he says, was how he felt the first few weeks and months in New Zealand.
The third painting, aptly titled "Unknown," shows his uncertainty on what his future holds in his adopted homeland.
A common image-the moon, always in flaming red-links the three canvases. In "Introspection" and "Journey," the moon is peering from behind the human figure. In the last canvas, the moon is less discernible, merging with the head of the human figure.
Zulueta explains the moon reflects constancy and a link to his past life. It is the same moon, after all, that could be seen in the land he left and the country he now calls home.
While Zulueta has devoted more time to photojournalism in the last decade or so (he won the first and third prizes in the 1997 Willie Vicoy Photojournalism Awards in the Nature and Environment Category, among other awards), his academic background is in painting.
He graduated in 1982 with a Fine Arts degree, major in Painting, at the University of Sto. Tomas and took up post-graduate courses at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts.
In 1982, while working as a graphic artist and illustrator in a government agency, he enrolled in a workshop of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The workshop lasted two months, but for Zulueta, it was "an eye-opener and paved the way for my sustained interest and studies in the visual arts."
He knew, however, he had to take on a regular job to sustain his craft, and, since 1986, has been working in major Philippine newspapers, first as an editorial artist, then as news photographer.
But the fast pace of newspaper work meant Zulueta did not have ample time to paint. He consoled himself by the fact that he had a daily "exhibit" of his works-on the front pages of the newspapers.
As he puts it, the nuances of injecting art into photojournalism and painting are different. As a photographer, he says, he sees the subjects outright, and can compose the picture. In painting, he starts on a blank canvas.
He credits, however, his vast experiences in news coverage-he has covered coup attempts, presidential visits, crime scenes and the less gritty lifestyle shoots-for providing him endless subjects for his artworks.
His current exhibit-a feat, considering he has only been in New Zealand for only seven months-is simply a first step in what he hopes to be a full-time career in visual arts in his adopted country.
Brett Hopkins, of AB Arts Partnership and curator of the exhibit says Zulueta's paintings are "unique" compared to the other artworks in "On Arrival."
"They have real strength in terms of both color and composition. As expressionist works, they deftly convey an intensity of experience that is intriguing, although a little disturbing. I particularly admire his ability to translate his recent experiences with such immediacy."
Even then, Hopkins finds a common thread in Zulueta's works with those of the other artists.
Not all the artworks in this exhibition attempt this feat, but among those which deal with migration or relocation, there is a sense of dislocation and the trials of dealing with the unknown. In contrast to placing experience within past culture or the culture from one's past, Zulueta's work is about dealing with the present and its possible future."
It is worth watching, then, how the choices of themes and colors of this exemplary artist will change as he adjusts in his new home.
The author is a staff writer of an IT management magazine in Auckland, and a columnist of Diario Filipino, the newspaper of the Philippine community in New Zealand.
“The burden of Pinggot Zulueta is a journeyer’s sorrow: cutting
soles, skinning soul, singing paean to facelessness and peril in another land
and clime. But a hand remembers the gift; the hand reaches the heart, and the
heart remembers it beats to life, and is grateful.”
Rebecca T. Añonuevo, Ph. D.
Miriam College
Miriam College
The road he has taken
can be lonely, but Zulueta has used this experience wisely to
get reaquainted with his art and raise it to a
higher level of consciousness. What we
see are the inner roads of a man's journey.”
Nestor Cuartero
Panorama
“ After a year or
two, Pinggot is back in vengeance, so to speak,
with a fresher, ironically more mature, perspective and persuation,
or it is persuasiveness? Aotearoa Series is his way of saying his
reason for leaving, and at the same time, living. “
Vim Nadera
UP Creative Writing
Moon over Aotearoa
August 25, 2003
Philippine Daily Inquirer
By Divina C. Paredes
AUCKLAND, New Zealand-Jose "Pinggot" Vinluan Zulueta says his works as photojournalist and visual artist have always been social commentaries. The 42-year-old artist has always opted to depict "the good and bad in Philippine society, the challenges and shortcomings of Filipinos, as a nation and as individuals."
These themes were evident in his critically- acclaimed exhibits in the Philippines, the most recent of which was "Asinta" (Bulls Eye, September 2002), which featured digitally processed drawings and photographs of political and socio-economic events in the past two decades.
These days, however, those themes have been taking a back seat as Zulueta's art explores more personal feelings on a recent major change in his life.
In January this year, Zulueta and his wife Vanessa and daughter Paula, 16, migrated to Aotearoa, "Land of the Long White Cloud" New Zealand.
While the move, Zulueta admits, jolted him, it had a hint of irony. For the first time in nearly two decades, he had all the time in the world to paint; time, which was a luxury when he was working six days a week, sometimes more, as a news photographer.
His house in Auckland's North Shore is now replete with his works that he planned to exhibit in Manila. But while surfing the Internet for jobs, Zulueta stumbled upon the Big Idea (thebigidea.co.nz), the online community of New Zealand artists, and learned about a forthcoming exhibit of migrant artists.
Zulueta contacted the organizers, Arts Access Aotearoa and AB Arts Partnership, and is now one of the artists of the ongoing group exhibit "On Arrival."
The exhibit at the Bashford Gallery, in the trendy Auckland section of Ponsonby, brings Zulueta together with artists from Argentina, Brazil, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Colombia, England, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Kenya, Kosovo, Malaysia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Somalia, Spain, Taiwan, Uganda, USA and Uruguay.
Zulueta opted to create three new works for the exhibit. The oil paintings, he declares, "represent mixed feelings of uncertainty and fear-emotions that a migrant experiences on arrival in his or her adopted land." The titles say it all-"Introspection," "Journey" and "Unknown."
While the colors may appear attractive and vivid, a closer look reveals sadness and fear.
Those who are familiar with his earlier works would also note the colors are "darker," a fact Zulueta acknowledges.
The choice of surreal figures in his works is deliberate. "The figures do not have detailed faces and have protruding skeletal outlines indicative of the migrants' difficulties and challenges. The paintings depict their search for meaning and identity and what the uncertain future holds for them."
The figure in "Introspection" is actually faceless. In "Journey," the facial features are hazy. The principal figure is entering a door, but seemingly floating on the air, as if in limbo. This, he says, was how he felt the first few weeks and months in New Zealand.
The third painting, aptly titled "Unknown," shows his uncertainty on what his future holds in his adopted homeland.
A common image-the moon, always in flaming red-links the three canvases. In "Introspection" and "Journey," the moon is peering from behind the human figure. In the last canvas, the moon is less discernible, merging with the head of the human figure.
Zulueta explains the moon reflects constancy and a link to his past life. It is the same moon, after all, that could be seen in the land he left and the country he now calls home.
While Zulueta has devoted more time to photojournalism in the last decade or so (he won the first and third prizes in the 1997 Willie Vicoy Photojournalism Awards in the Nature and Environment Category, among other awards), his academic background is in painting.
He graduated in 1982 with a Fine Arts degree, major in Painting, at the University of Sto. Tomas and took up post-graduate courses at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts.
In 1982, while working as a graphic artist and illustrator in a government agency, he enrolled in a workshop of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The workshop lasted two months, but for Zulueta, it was "an eye-opener and paved the way for my sustained interest and studies in the visual arts."
He knew, however, he had to take on a regular job to sustain his craft, and, since 1986, has been working in major Philippine newspapers, first as an editorial artist, then as news photographer.
But the fast pace of newspaper work meant Zulueta did not have ample time to paint. He consoled himself by the fact that he had a daily "exhibit" of his works-on the front pages of the newspapers.
As he puts it, the nuances of injecting art into photojournalism and painting are different. As a photographer, he says, he sees the subjects outright, and can compose the picture. In painting, he starts on a blank canvas.
He credits, however, his vast experiences in news coverage-he has covered coup attempts, presidential visits, crime scenes and the less gritty lifestyle shoots-for providing him endless subjects for his artworks.
His current exhibit-a feat, considering he has only been in New Zealand for only seven months-is simply a first step in what he hopes to be a full-time career in visual arts in his adopted country.
Brett Hopkins, of AB Arts Partnership and curator of the exhibit says Zulueta's paintings are "unique" compared to the other artworks in "On Arrival."
"They have real strength in terms of both color and composition. As expressionist works, they deftly convey an intensity of experience that is intriguing, although a little disturbing. I particularly admire his ability to translate his recent experiences with such immediacy."
Even then, Hopkins finds a common thread in Zulueta's works with those of the other artists.
"The artists are attempting to deliver their impressions of dealing with life in a new world order.
Not all the artworks in this exhibition attempt this feat, but among those which deal with migration or relocation, there is a sense of dislocation and the trials of dealing with the unknown. In contrast to placing experience within past culture or the culture from one's past, Zulueta's work is about dealing with the present and its possible future."
It is worth watching, then, how the choices of themes and colors of this exemplary artist will change as he adjusts in his new home.
The author is a staff writer of an IT management magazine in Auckland, and a columnist of Diario Filipino, the newspaper of the Philippine community in New Zealand.
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