The Cebu Visual Arts Scene in 2015

CEBU, Philippines – If 2014 was the year when knowns, unknowns and known unknowns were making a mark in the local visual arts scene, 2015 will be remembered as the year when Cebu's creative vistas witnessed a resurgence of modernism's future-forward views.

From retrospectives to debut shows, group presentations and solo art exhibitions, there have been noteworthy art presentations that established some kind of benchmarks in the metro's art scene in 2015. Shorn of their individual flairs, the two "verbs" summarized Cebu's state-of-the -arts in 2015 - which was practically an amalgamation of what was and where art in Cebu will be in the days ahead.

Ang Kalibutan Sa Mga Mata Ni Martino Abellana

January 29 to February 28, 2015; Northwing Atrium/Art Center, SM City Cebu

Like any form of reverence, art has its own share of patterns, its own manifestations of genius, and its own spectrum of divining dictums - so much so that an artist's obra maestra is typically perceived as the well-curated summation of the three.

But is this all there is to art and to artists? Are painters only defined by the works they produce - particularly those that inhibit some creative elements that fall beyond a unique sense of creative identity?

The exhibit "Ang Kalibutan sa mga Mata ni Martino Abellana" (The World as Seen Through the Eyes of Martino Abellana) proved that this is not necessarily so - given that the exhibit documented the "dean of Cebuano painters'" 60-year career as a portrait artist, a passionate landscape artist, an abstractionist of the modernist vein and as an educator who inspired a generation of Cebu's now-top-notch talents.

Going beyond presenting pieces that were crafted by Martino "Tinong" Abellana, the exhibit doubled as a commentary on an artist's relationship with evolution and change - putting forth that there is no such thing as a saturation of creative tendencies for those who immerse themselves in the highways and byways of the creative arts arena.

Modernist Print Collection

March 16 to March 27, 2015; 856G Gallery

In the lexicon of creative terms and jargons, there is a difference between "modern" and "contemporary" art.

The exhibit "Modernist Print Collection" did well in emphasizing the difference between the two - by presenting a series of works by modernist masters Manuel Baldemor, Pandy Aviano and the "Father of Philippine printmaking" Manuel Rodriguez.

In essence, the exhibit reminded viewers of how divergent creative growth and direction can be - focusing on pieces that resound where the masters of the past were steering us to; reminding everyone that art is not just eye candy, but an integration of societal structure and social aesthetics.

Loppo Martinez

May to June, 2015; Canvas Bistro Bar & Gallery, The Terraces, Ayala Center Cebu

Though the exhibiting artist was not present during its two-month-long run of the show, the exhibit stood on its own and proved to be one of Cebu's noteworthy art shows in 2015.

Featuring watercolors and etchings made by internationally renowned visual artist, scriptwriter, fashion designer and musician Jean-Paul Loppo Martinez, the exhibit's circa 1980s works brought viewers to the past - articulating that there's actuality in the axiom "the more things change, the more they remain the same."

To certain extent, the show also enthused how influence can pervade into creative psyches, regardless of the 'when' or the 'where'.

40th Anniversary

June 10 to July 7, 2015; Qube Gallery at The Crossroads

"40th Anniversary" was, simply put, an exhibit that was entwined with the 40th anniversary of the Fine Arts Program of the University of the Philippines Cebu, the first Fine Arts program in the province.

It reunited three generations of the program's graduates - functioning as an avenue where established and up-and-coming talents got to display their respective creative mettles.

In bringing together works that were made by different generations of artists, the show wrought similes that colorfully related how context outweighs tradition in the making of progressive, timely and relevant artpieces - a quality that pushed the modernist movement and its subsequent successor, contemporary arts, into being.

Distortus December 5 to 10, 2015; Qube Gallery at The Crossroads

If 2015 is to be assumed as a clinching sentence and the year's art exhibits are its verbs, the sentence would begin with verbs that look back at what was, closing with those that previewed what is to come.

The exhibit "Distortus" - which featured a selection of neo-expressionist-themed paintings by Adeste Deguilmo - was a fitting clincher for January 2015's "Ang Kalibutan Sa Mga Mata ni Martino Abellana," in the sense that it showcased an artist's evolution in traction - a corollary to a retrospective look at the timeline of an established artist's career, growth and evolution.