Marcel Antonio's second wind

There are two things that struck me at once when I first met the artist Marcel Antonio: one is that, going by stereotypes, he looks incredibly non-artist-like, blending in perfectly with the evening casual dining crowd like your stereotypical IT guy in a navy blue collared sport shirt and jeans; and two (which slowly dawns on me during the course of the meeting), is that he must have a habit of swallowing libraries of carefully selected volumes in his spare time.

Reading is apparently a passion that informs another — painting. One reason, I suppose, why the artist is exceptionally articulate when talking about art; and why his art has a lot to say.

Marcel Antonio was regarded as a kind of wunderkind when he burst onto the art scene while still a sophomore student at the UP College of Fine Arts. The year was 1983, and the landscape, both of Philippine society in general as well as of the art community in particular, was vastly different from what it is now. Philippine art did not quite enjoy as much attention as it does now, and many groundbreaking works were hatched with not much fanfare and little coverage. In the pre-Internet Age and before the game-changing advent of social networking sites, art superstardom was a hard-won thing.

As a son of acclaimed artists themselves (his father is Angelito Antonio and his mother is Norma Belleza), Antonio enjoyed either the advantage of genes and early exposure to art, or labored in the shadow of towering figures imparting what they knew. In a previous interview for www.artesdelasfilipinas.com, Antonio said, “I was born into this environment and as a child I thought painting was [a] play…play with a purpose. It was really fun.”

But this issue, it seems, held little significance to the truth of the matter at hand: that the young Antonio had a distinct style all his own, a sensibility that drew from a hyperactive curiosity of the world and ideas, and a sincerity to comprehend humanity through expressive images or visual narratives — the same qualities that have sustained his art over time, and through various stages of his personal life. And perhaps it’s this idea of fun and enjoyment that resonates with a dedicated following, a number of whom are young and belong to a new breed of contemporary art collectors. (One thirty-something collector has one of his works as the centerpiece of the large high-rise luxury flat she shares with her husband.)

Now in his early 40s, Antonio has come a long way since those halcyon days of what seemed like unhampered art experimentation at UP (his contemporaries include a few members of the Salingpusa artist-group). Still, the sterling qualities that helped seal his fate as an important artist so early in the game persist in his new works. Depending on how you see the world, the scenes on Antonio’s canvas allude to grand narratives of archetypal characters, reflect an autobiographical episode, or simply stir and inspire ideas or truths. Antonio’s style of rich and vivid colors and uneven layers are reminiscent of medieval frescoes fading in time, and carry an air of drama and enigma, a sense of tragedy or danger lurking in the corner. Each work offers the weight of a clue-laden chip that may or may not solve the riddle of the much bigger picture.

His art carries an intelligent appeal, the kind that’s built on a solid foundation of classic stories that have endured (and of which all other stories are but a permutation of), before it’s given a stealthy twist.

Talking about his current show at Galleria Quattrocento in Glorietta Mall, opening today, Sept. 26, he references a host of literary luminaries, and Italo Calvino, not surprisingly, is mentioned more than once (as is the revered mythology scholar Joseph Campbell). The famous Italian fabulist who authored such classics as Cosmicomics and Invisible Cities is among Antonio’s favorite writers.

The show, “Sturm und Drang,” a German idiom for “storm and drive” or “storm and impulse,” features a collection of new works Antonio says he did with “nothing planned, nothing contrived.” The title, which largely refers to a literary movement in 18th-century Germany advocating freedom of expression as opposed to the stiffness of Rationalism, best reflects Antonio’s approach to art.

“I like to work in a fast-mode style,” he says, “as a reference to the principles I admire.” This principle, he explains, is that of quickness, the kind proffered by Calvino in Six Memos for the Next Millennium. “It’s quickness of execution, spontaneity, as well as exactitude of thought.”

Contrary ideas? Antonio clarifies: “You know the principle in play, you know the rules of the game, you do what you have to do.” And this is exactly what might best describe Marcel Antonio the artist, 20 or so years after his first show: certain, spontaneous, significant.

* * *

Marcel Antonio’s “Sturm und Drang” opens today, Sept. 26, at Galleria Quattrocento, Glorietta Mall. Cocktails will be served at 6 p.m.