Pasalamat:Pasundayag

CEBU, Philippines — In our time there are many artists who do something because it is new; they see their value and their justification in this newness. They are deceiving themselves; novelty is seldom the essential. This has to do with one thing only; making a subject better from its intrinsic nature.”

This quote attributed to post-impressionist Henri de Toulouse Lautrec encapsulates the theme of an art exhibit that’s currently ongoing at the third level of the Alcoves Wing of the Ayala Center Cebu. It celebrates the 25th year of one of the metro’s longest-running visual arts organizations, Cebu Artists Inc. (CAI).

Titled “Pasalamat: Pasundayag” and running until Saturday, July 27, the show is mainlined by watercolors, acrylic and oil-on-canvas pieces made by award-winning members of the organization.

Curated by CAI founding member Celso Pepito, the show’s curatorial bearings touchstones the many styles CAI’s member-artists are known for – metaphorically reflecting the many styles and creative movements the organization has, as a group, been injecting into the mind’s eye of Cebu’s visual arts periphery.

Composed of realism and abstract-themed works, the show frames the many creative phases that have crossed into Cebu’s collective visual arts consciousness over the years – crossings which the organization, one way or another, had a hand in seeing through.

It’s been said that the goal of every artist is to capture beauty in all its shapes, figures and forms.

In celebrating its 25th year through “Pasalamat: Pasundayag,” CAI earmarks a milestone in its continuing zeal to frame beauty as it comes, firm in its resolve that beauty in life is an immovable constant that can’t even be fettered by analogy.