Monday * February 2, 2009
Pablo Gallery mounts inaugural show at Fort Bonifacio
Pablo Gallery opens its second gallery on February 6, 2009 (Friday), 7 p.m., at the ground floor of SOMA (South of the Market) in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. The new gallery will open with an exhibit by Gerardo Tan, entitled Recent Paintings.
The new Pablo Fort is situated at an ideal location. Besides its accessibility to the Makati business district, Fort Bonifacio is also evolving as a hub for the modern arts. One only has to consider the small galleries sprouting in the area as well as view its interesting outdoor art installations spread all over the place.
Recent Paintings, the inaugural show, continues Gerardo Tan’s exploration in collage-based paintings and collages that probe concepts of originality and individual style. The works were done during his residency at Gertrude Contemporary Artspaces in Melbourne last year.
In Tan’s recent works, painted and printed matter mined from the media such as news ads, posters, art books and exhibition invitations are collaged and made to coexist in a non-hierarchical matrix of collisions between the abstract and the familiar, the real and the fake, the rare and the mundane.
By adopting images from mass media and other artists’ works, Tan dually subverts and acknowledges individual style. This proposes that authenticity in art is a myth because expression arises from personal experience and, therefore, are simulations of pre-existing things.
Tan, an accomplished artist who has exhibited in several galleries abroad, epitomises the serious, critical artist that Pablo Fort will be showcasing. Tan’s use of many reproductive techniques, whether the digital printing process, ready-made found print materials, or silk screens within painting posits the medium itself into the here and now and gives it validity as a tool for contemporary critical inquiry.
This year, Pablo Fort has lined up other exhibitions by Berlin-based Maria Cruz, Australian artist David Griggs, Manuel Ocampo, Rock Drilon, Mark Salvatus, Gaston Damag, Argie Bandoy, and Bea Camacho.