It is no surprise then, that memory persists as one of the most enduring themes in contemporary art.
Palinodial Ground
Carlo de Guzman, Carzen Esprela, Arvi Fetalvero, Kitty Kaburo, Gia Luistro, Jem Magbanua
Dec 20 To Jan 20, 2025
Six artists take off from the idea of memory and contemplate its contours:
Rather than forwarding a single conception of memory, the artists—through their own painterly languages—altogether present various ways to grapple with a process that is otherwise unseen and cerebral.
ARVI FETALVERO
Arvi Fetalvero is a visual artist currently taking up her master’s degree in curatorial studies under the Art Studies program at the University of the Philippines - Dilliman. As an artist and budding curator, her artistic inclinations run towards processed based works and projects, as well as space-oriented installations, wherein she combines a range of mediums and techniques — from paintings in acrylic and oil, drawings in graphite, to sculptural objects using textile, beeswax, resin, and wood. They are reflections of her musings about space and the fluidity and rigidness of its boundaries — whether it be personal, physical, internal or otherwise. She explores how one can activate a space to convey narratives, thoughts, and experiences.
Since her works are also very personal in nature, she adopts the imagery of lace to signify her personhood and sense of being, by using it as a replacement for her skin, muscles, nerves, veins, and organs. The meditative process of manipulating, shaping, and rendering of lace, fabric, and thread with other organic objects, as both material and subject, allows her to mentally and emotionally simulate and initiate personal therapy and self-healing. Through the delicate strength, openness and the see-through quality of lace, she assert her presence and attempt to claim her space.
CARLO "UBONG" DE GUZMAN
Carlo "Ubong" De Guzman (b. 1982) is a musician and visual artist based in Batangas City. A bank worker by day and abstract painter the rest of the time, he holds two degrees: a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Arts/Painting from the University of the Philippines Diliman and a Business Management degree from the University of Batangas.
His first solo exhibit, Punktion, was held at Kanto Artist-Run Space in 2017. Previous group shows shows include: Buhay na Walang Hanggan - Nuzen Art Gallery (2021), Heroes & Villains 2 - Makati Contemporary Art (2020), Maniackiss and Friends - Galeria Alvero (2018), Pilipinas Not for Sale - Galeria Uno (2017), Probable Impossibilities - Village Art Gallery (2017), and Attack! at Prose Gallery (2007).
CARZEN ESPRELA
Carzen A. Esprela(b.1994) is a graduate of Philippine High School for the Arts, where he majored in visual arts. In 2016,he graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree (major in Painting). His thesis work ‘Bag and a Boat’ sculpture has been featured in various public spaces and art exhibitions such as UP Fine Arts ground, part of group shows 8 Questions (Tin-aw Art Gallery, 2016), Traversals/Trajectories: Expansive Localities (UP Vargas Museum, 2017) and was featured as one of the Special Exhibitions in Art In The Park 2017.His first solo exhibition titled “Hinumdom” which means “to look back” in Visayan vernacular was held in 2020 at the Pinto Art Museum. Since 2013, he has participated in exhibitions around the Philippines. Through sculptures made of epoxy and found objects, and paintings made of oil or acrylic, and rubber latex, Esprela depicts his personal experiences and how these eventually turn into memories. Now, his works study the intricacies of memory and remembering, especially people and places that made an impact on his life. His references for his works usually were based from old photos or his experienced environment and playing around the composition through fragmented images, forms and colors. His works are veritable postcards of memory made permanent in paint, inflected with his weight of emotional and mental associations.
GIA LUISTRO
Gia Luistro lives between Batangas, Quezon City, and Los Angeles. She studied at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She was an artist-in-residence at Yale Norfolk School of Art in 2022.
JEM MAGBANUA
Grounded firmly in the practice of drawing, Jem Magbanua's work explores the nature of place, of human beings in place, and of the structures- organic and artificial- that shape human nature. Under these themes, ‘motion’ plays a huge role in the way the work is composed- whether it be the cyclic movements of nature or the way the body and mind navigates space. Within her drawings and paintings, she limns landscapes that lie between the mental and the physical where structural space converges with the realm of memories embedded within those spaces.
Jem Magbanua (b. 1992) received her BA (Hons) Fine Arts from the LASALLE College of Arts, Singapore (in partnership with Goldsmiths’ College, University of London). She has participated in three art residencies located in Japan and has exhibited in various solo and group exhibitions in the Philippines, the United States, Taiwan, Japan, and Singapore.
She is currently based in Manila and is represented by Galerie Stephanie, Philippines.
KITTY KABURO
Kitty Kaburo (b. 1987) is a Filipino artist of Korean descent. She works with various traditional and non-traditional mediums, incorporating each of their peculiar properties to simulate transformations and effects of time, the elements and human activity. She graduated from the University of the Philippines’ College of Fine Arts in 2015, receiving an Outstanding Thesis award and a series of videos has been shortlisted for the Ateneo Art Awards in 2017. Aside from the Philippines, she has also exhibited in varied locations, including Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea.
