Ricky Ambagan: (Put Your Name) Was Here

BY JAY BAUTISTA |

We are familiar with the power of music to revert us to when we first heard it. What is vividly striking is how enticing its rhythm could make you look back to who you were with, where you were, and even what were you feeling when it was initially played.

 Award winning artist Ricky Ambagan’s recent exhibition, From Here, at the Salcedo Private View attempts to characterize what music is--only visually with his distinct iconography in subdued colors and fine brushstrokes. Continuing his artistic foray that Ambagan started with his earlier I’m Coming Home exhibition, Ambagan customizes bespoke canvases in the form of travelling bags as an effective graphic handle to eschew wonder and imbibe deep reminisces as he permits us to voyage back in time--when we were young, restless and capable of imagination.

In From Here, Ambagan purposely renders the most scenes with the heaviest emotions induced with themed songs favored by random people. Equally-note-worthy is how Ambagan has carefully thought of and arranged his settings in a theatrical manner as he directly composed them on canvases.

Huling El Bimbo remains to be most popular masterpiece as it captures what it was growing up in the 70s. One never fails to sing while observing the ongoing clip taken from the video transferred to the canvas. As a child before the advent of gadgets and computers, we used to live in our own worlds where even unrequited love affairs existed--holding hands. We All Live in a Yellow Submarine can be as psychedelic as it is reminiscent of the popular tune when the Beatles sang it, in sync. Ambagan relishes the magic and mystery as it induces the presence of the eclectic arcana showed in the painting.

In Old Friends we all have the longest chums in our favorite superheroes (or barbie dolls), we were never separated from them. In Wooden Plane, we are so enthralled and imitated their actions complete with wearing their masks and capes. We even sleep with them and bring them wherever we go. 

By nature we are all anthropologists and historians--as we tend to hoard meaningful things--that reminded us of our valued relationships. They could be bus tickets, corks from a celebratory wine bottle and even old clothes worn by a departed loved ones. In Kept Things Ambagan narrates as we grow older the more stories we have of each other the more fullness of our lives lived. Lost in Paradise is Ambagan’s concealed way to tiptoe to how secrets remain as they are that in this age of Social media we should be careful not to reveal confessions that happened only in their respective places. What happened there, stays there in oblivion.

The Flaneur in the Filipino

When Ambagan was ten years old, he envied his many classmates who owned a particular trendy bag given upon patronizing a certain fast food chain. His grandfather saw his grandson’s lamentations and created a replica of the same bag—only Ambagan’s was made of hardwood. This story never fails to instill pride in Ambagan from being the poorest student in class he was the most envied because his bag was sturdiest and man-made.

In a previous show, the travelling bag symbolized Ambagan’s personal burden—an excessive emotional baggage he tried to solve as a parent and able citizen of this country. From Here is an allegory of adventure, in adventure. By portraying a literal bag complete with straps and handles, Ambagan has created an out-of-the-box experience. Notice the boy-adventurer featured as he has been in many Ambagan canvases. He sees each and every of us in the boy as he is present in every painting in this series.

Aside from music, arcana and even toys have the strength to elicit memories. He never throws away what his children play with  as he had none as Ambagan played with other kids in the rowdy streets of Pasig. As media of remembrances, this thinking artist has ventured into the what-ifs, of living as he crosses the path of nostalgia. He wanted to remember at least for the last time—before he grows old suffering with amnesia.

Bucket List reminds us of the many places we want to visit with our loved ones. The saddest moment is arriving at your destination without them in tow. Similar to the film, Up, we should travel like in a hot-air balloon while we are still healthy and able to do so. Road Map shows sometimes it is enjoyable to get lost in a maze. Ambagan revisits his old visual style of a bygone exhibit. Ever the critical, Ambagan wants continuity from his past aesthetics as he moves forward in creative direction.

Beyond Borders and Saga Continues displays the unicycle as it makes surprise guest appearances while it wobbly treks around. An Ambagan fixture, it takes confidence as well as an old-fashioned soul to be able to ride one. Somewhat autobiographical he is Ambagan grappling for reasons for his existence.

From Here is a promising gestalt of remembrances stitched together like custom quilts where Ambagan weaves stories narrated to him by various people. As an sensitive artist he translates them into common tales understood by many, juxtaposing them with contemporary concerns and past memories while interpreting them in the most authentic and realist way.

Whether monstrous, repulsive, beautiful, comely, or alluring, his paintings register  our fears and longings, as well as our anger and faith, as a collective living in previous moments we wish to return to, Ambagan allows us to take a back seat--let us look back--as he brings us closer to truths we never still define.

From Here opens today until December 18 at the Salcedo Private View.

Ricky Ambagan: Keeping The Faith

BY JAY BAUTISTA |

Believers

Recent news about this 12-year old Taiwanese school boy accidentally punching a hole on a displayed 17^th century Baroque masterpiece by Paulo Porpora went viral. The incident caused uproar both among museum-goers and netizens alike, even the child’s parents initially run aghast.

Visual artist Ricky Ambagan too reacted profusely to the news item. Considering himself with a talent with paints, Ambagan confesses however that painting is the only thing he is good at. The obvious result is what now comprises this exhibition Restored at the Gallery Anna. 

Extending further his disillusionment with whatever is going-on around him Ambagan untangles, entangles and closely draws reactions to what he thought were other bygone privileges of Philippine low life. A realist such as Ambagan, whose broad strokes lean on the downtrodden and suffering many, it is the very task of an artist to evaluate current events and even comment on what seems to be the missing pieces in the good society equation or perishing values in our midst. For Ambagan an occurrence that involves a million dollar masterpiece has never been a mundane activity. It triggered him to create (or recreate) parallel realities as a way of positively reacting that inspires ideal situations.

Secret Garden

Enabling curiosity in the form of a red blanket, each piece has a child peeking behind the scene. Reclaiming his future, he forebodes whatever would be the directions to his visions of the possible. Believer does this and more, it is a performance on canvas. Composed in a theater-like tableau, children are caught up in a stance of claiming what is theirs. Elevated on a labyrinth of confusion and quagmire, truth came in the form of an eagle signifies purity in purpose. In a dark realm with an awaiting ember, a bright lucient approaches them, capturing the favored moment that would and should turn the tide for them.

A recurring theme for Ambagan is his credence in reading for emancipation. His shelves replete with books as settings for learning are obvious with lamps complimenting the uplifting of the spirits. Such as in Secret Garden where flying lanterns abound layering with their connoted meanings. A tiny glimmer of hope could transform and lit up more lives in one’s constant search for the truth. A father of three, Ambagan even uses his children as his models, staking his seriousness to his advocacy to education.
 

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee is reminiscent of his earlier works and a continuation of his evolving visual style. There is always a subtle or subdued pun on most of Ambagan’s pieces. His fixation with flight stems from his being often it is in their endless pursuit for survival. Everything is fleeting as everyone floats in an Ambagan piece though occupied in their own portals unmindful how we are all interrelated and affected by the actions of our neighbors.
   
As if possessed in gravity, his images happen in a dark realm, emphatic on concise behavior such as in Unsinkable. Some light may glow but none are of the glitzy or artificial kind. Uncommon to other paintings, there seems to be an uncertain sound to his paintings. An eerie feeling wraps the viewer when confronted with his works. 

Fountain of Youth

Obviously the most haunting piece is Fountain of Youth, which is a memento mori to start with. We are all passers-by and impermanent like the butterfly. Done in hauntingly smooth strokes, at one moment you have a full life ahead of you the next one you are beset with nothing. One must know the value of true existence before acquiring or even grasping the essence of life. Ambagan does fine rendering in clearly define composition.

Restored

Composed poetically like magic realism, commendable was his artistic technique; how he used the acrylic in the behavior oil paint is remarkable. His colors with mostly of the blue and orange palette are like hues of seeing the dawn. Some canvases even have artificially painted ripped canvas, a constant reminder for Ambagan of the 12-year old Taiwanese who triggered him. 
 


With more than a decade and a half in his art practice, Ambagan never tires of honing his brushstrokes like a devoted master of the craft. From the muddy distortion to the smooth ethereal, Ambagan professes his faith in painting.

Restored however may not bring back your belief in humanity. It may not even have that messianic feel or grand narrative we look for in an artwork. It will make your world a little brighter, less hopeful but more contemplative.

Ambagan toils as painter like clockwork office job. He still stretches his own canvases and usually in front of them come daybreak in whatever mood he will be. The truth about Ambagan is how he pulls us back to how painting should be. Even with Thomas doubting the resurrection of his Lord, with Restored every piece has now a resuscitated life on its own. Restored not only means “to fix what was broken” but to could be “as real” as where your imagination takes you.