Abstractions and Assemblages

Aligned 2: Imperfect Balance, Abstractions and Assemblages

Opening Reception – 8 November 2016, Tuesday, 6PM

Exhibition runs until November 21, 2016

Kaida Contemporary presents Aligned 2: Imperfect Balance, Abstractions and Assemblages by Pinggot Zulueta and Demosthenes Campos at the ArtistSpace of the Ayala Museum this November.

With mixed media works and assemblages using old discarded wood, textured fabric, carpet, string, wire cables and a miscellany of found objects, Zulueta and Campos explore themes of attachments, junctures, growth and expansion, with abstractions that rework images of mundane objects, reshaping them for visual expressions brought about by personal association and significance.

As Zulueta draws from his recent experiences abroad and the memories triggered by going back to his childhood home, he seemingly recreates parts of a new sanctuary made easier for relocation. With sand, cement, scrap wood moldings, and even junked items such as an old violin and discarded bamboo cover for a fishing basket, he fashions snippets of a past life, transforming function and meaning. Campos, meanwhile, uses acid-bathed metal cuttings, juxtaposing them with fibers secured with tin, textured panels, grassy carpets, and blooms of wire that evince hope blossoming and persistent growth overcoming odds amidst today's harsh social and political climate.

Aligned 2: Imperfect Balance, Abstractions and Assemblages will launch art the ArtistSpace on the 8th of November, Tuesday, at six o'clock in the evening. The pieces will be on show until November 21, 2016. For more information on the exhibition, please contact Kaida Contemporary at +639279297129 or email kaida529@yahoo.com.ph.

ArtistSpace is at the Ground Level, Ayala Museum Annex, Makati Avenue corner De La Rosa Street, Greenbelt Park, Makati City. For more information on the ArtistSpace, please contact Lorraine Datuin, gallery coordinator at (02) 759-8288 or email artistspace@ayalafoundation.org.

Incepto Exhibition

INCEPTO
“Thinking is preeminently an art; knowledge and proportions which are the products of thinking, are works of art” (John Dewey, 1929)

Human beings are consciousness in motion. We are essentially embodied beings defined by the layers of memories, emotions, imagined fears and sensory pleasures that we believe make up our existence. Imprisoned by our wild thoughts, we are left with the intelligence to both perceive and create beauty as well anticipate and recognize the grotesque. It is this very duality that Pinggot Zulueta has chosen to explore in his latest works.

Pinggot Zulueta will be showcasing a series of portraits on paper and canvas, in "INCEPTO: Ink Drawings" on March 10-24, 2016 at the Art Cube Gallery, Glorietta Makati.  The title is Latin in origin, which means to “begin, undertake or attempt.” It serves as a fitting moniker to signal the audiences’ entry into the thoughts residing deep within the artist’s soul.

In what can be considered his most personal collection to date, Pinggot Zulueta unveils raw visual products shaped by the innermost workings of his mind. As a widely prolific visual artist, his latest collection offers a peek into his intimate musings on the internal struggles of man.

Showcasing manic ink figures in jet black, the subject of the pieces conforms to and are characterized by the artists own emotional struggles and pains. Zulueta chooses to delve into the most haunting aspects of the human psyche scrutinizing his own personal challenges as part of his philosophical contemplations. Serving as an autobiographical account, the collection is rooted in the period of depression and loneliness the artist experienced during his solitary days.

Gleaned from the visual ideas that emerged in his dreams during these times, a slew of revelations came upon the artist who embraced these figures from his subconscious and launched it into the temporal world. The result are images that speak of the primal and internal fears that plague all of mankind, with his contemplations on the universal derelict state of existence imbibing the works with a powerful energy and a strong impact.

More than a visual catharsis, Zulueta gives a voice to the anxiety experienced by many people in the shadows. Yet through these very figures, Zulueta offers a hope for redemption as it also serves as a celebration of people’s capacity to transcend these thoughts as he himself had done by asserting his passion for his artwork. It is an ode to human sensibility, for all the faults it may present, and the infinite potential that lies within.

In the end these figures do not represent the demons of man, but rather man’s ability to stand in the face of it with a battlecry, “Incepto ne desistam” (May I not shrink from my purpose!)“We are artists of our own lives, and however we make of it will determine the kind of masterpiece that we are working on.”- Pinggot Zulueta

INCEPTO: Ink Drawings" will be on display from March 10-24, 2016 at the Art Cube Gallery, Glorietta Makati

Incepto: Ink Drawings

Text by Rhea Gulin 

Photos by Monica Pantaleon

March 14, 2016  |  Manila Bulletin

In his own words, Pinggot Zulueta defines his latest exhibition as “mga delubyong napagdaanan ko sa buhay.”  More than any advanced art endeavor, Zulueta’s Incepto: Ink Drawings is an expression- at the deepest and darkest sense of it.

Through his 28 artworks, Zulueta was able to document the various turbulence he had experienced in his life which unraveled the best of his artistry. His raw emotions were justified by an equally raw medium: pen and ink. The audience was left with nothing but pure images of an artist’s mind.

Zulueta is not a beginner in the world of arts. The opening reception of Incepto was not only packed with local art enthusiasts but critically acclaimed artists as well. Each and every one of them exclaimed that Incepto is Zulueta’s best project to date.

“Naipakita niya kung gaano kapowerful and composition,” said Filipino painter Fil Delacruz. “Nakita ko na yung earlier paintings niya, mga colorful. Pero this time, itong exhibit niya, black and white drawings, dito nadisplay niya yung kanyang virtuosity sa pen and ink na drawing.”

Delacruz also added that through using a minimalist medium, Zulueta was able to display the best of his craftsmanship..

“Malakas. Very emotional. Alam natin na may bitbit na lakas yung mga imahe ng works ni Pinggot kaya ang gaganda ng mga kinalabasan, ”however, Ching also said Zulueta’s exhibition may be improved if he transfers works to bigger canvasses. “Kung mapapalaki, mas mapapalakas.”

“I am quite impressed na kahit doodle, may composition, which is expressing something. Pen and ink is a good way of doing something na hindi ganoon ka-complicated, but he was able to express yung gusto niyang idea,” Ramon Orlina also vowed that Incepto is only the beginning of Zulueta. “With his love for the arts, we are going to see more of Pinggot’s work later on.”

Pinggot Zulueta’s Incepto: Ink Drawings runs until March 24 at Art Cube Gallery, 3/F Glorietta 4, Ayala Malls, Makati City.