Jeff Salon: Truth Well Painted

BY JAY BAUTISTA |

Battle Realms

For an artist the simplest yet hardest role is not to look away--to speak the truth in his evolving context. And for Jeff Salon the only time he deserves the truth is when he paints it. 

For his fourth solo exhibition, Broken Boundaries at the SM Art Center, Salon continues this commitment to reflect his settings and pursuit for the truth in our current social reality. Compared to his previous exhibitions, fiercer and more tormented pieces emerge this time--Salon is fuming, wrathful even.

The slow demise of nature has been a recurring theme that has haunted Salon’s canvases for the longest time. Alarmed at the rate we are tearing Mother Nature apart it obsesses him to no end. His most potent work is seen in Thy Kingdom Come. A swirling chase in existence involving endangered animals lorded it over only to be reminded of their distant mortal cycle. Salon’s valiantly captures the big picture show done in exquisite strokes with gusto and bravado; how a thing of beauty can be led to its wrath and decay in one fell swoop.

It is now considered a privilege to still view these threatened creatures in the wild and not captive in public and private zoos. The Guardian pays homage, as well as a glorious pitch for the Philippine eagle to critically survive. Discovered two centuries ago, this majestic bird, which is the biggest winged animal in the country, are the only 150-500 pairs left out there. Salon’s depiction of his lonesome self, perched on a branch against a graying background of negligence leaves an eerie feeling of guilt.

A complimentary pair to The Guardian is Cultural Survivor, which proves that there is nothing that differentiates animals from us. A lone indigenous Filipino caught in an act of defiance for their survival, he is a bygone reminder of quest for national identity. There is an urgent need to document their traditional and oral traditions in our fight against their perishing and modern day relevance.

Salon brings us to closer to various situations in depicting his take on our daily occurrences. They are often grounded on his personal experience and specific longing in behalf of children. Basked in golden brown with tinge of silver, somewhat like an impending explosion greets the viewers of his pieces. In Battle Realms against the scrutinizing eyes of His benefactor Salon wages war on many fronts—our oppressors, against clichés and what-have-yous in Philippine art. A hint of orange encroaching from behind to hint danger. Even in this very exhibition he has constantly honed while maturing in his artistic boundaries as well.

Thy Kingdom Come

Beautiful Mosaic provides a gentle pause yet turning the tides against colonialism. The colors or tempered of them are his signature hues are observed in the Filipina. Accented by a few reds in highlighting his message, our ongoing emancipation is defined by Spanish galleons, Japanese Tora Tora planes, and the American soldier. It may be evoking nostalgia but Salon’s art is anything but cuteness.

Recent issues have made news how foreign presence in guarding our shores. More than the old maps that documented our territoriality in our 7,106 islands, our sovereignty resides from our people. Our strength in safeguarding must be firmly in place. The allegory of nature evident in women’s bodies abounds in Shaping the World. How our islands are often exploited for their attractions mirrored in the curves of three women representing Luzviminda.

Salon’s realism follows a very abstract process in making art. Starting off by texturing his images with knife palette he then more difficultly illustrates on top of them. Everything is moving in a Salon composition, in a zen-like manner--no beginning or end. Depending on his mood he sometimes finishes of by splatting the already smooth surfaces. His confidence is key of his amount of pressure.

Specificity is another way to describe how each person is different and how we have our own peculiarities, belief, and are part of particular or imagined communities. Some features we can see, some you cannot. In A Piece of Peace may be as basic as a two-fingered universal symbol of peace but notice how rough and coarse his brushstrokes are. One can meditate on these experimentation this painted sign for harmony and equanimity.

F*ck Up Island

Charged with political acumen Salon abhors greed and hypocrites. There are more to be engaged at in F*Up Island. How semantics has ruled our lives and how power and understanding emanates for one’s anatomy to express. And they are even the hardest to demonstrate--the ok sign, clenched fist, number one, TV commercial sign, even the-holier-than-thou religious hand.

Now You See Everything

There is beauty in composed chaos that Salon depicts his pieces to convey his messages. It has always been about children and how Salon confines his purpose for their future. A child looks back to how adults behave worse than them. Now You See Everything proves we can learn more from the younger generation for our own realization. Depending how you much time the viewer has one can marvel at the Salon’s layered scenes.

Unlimited Being revisits his old style using his fondness for faces as inner canvases. Depending on the emotion on how his piece will be composed it is this foreground that immediately grabs the viewer. Representing freedom in flight, his star on forehead reminiscent of bright hope for tomorrow.

One may be familiar with His image but only an artist can interpret it on his own. In gratitude to His blessings Salon paints an enigmatic Christ in Resurrection. Notice how blood and sweat oozes from His thorn-crusted head. With Him in the middle of the exhibition space, He balances everything.

Amidst the crass commercialism of the venue, there is a certain solitude one attains after viewing the exhibition. An ironic inner peace is depicted in Salon’s artistic quagmire. Unusually the deeper conflict happens inside. Like a well thought of consciousness, Salon’s brilliance lies how issues are politically charged yet he paints a more serene scraping as a result. One may witness the goriness of the episodes yet Salon opts for a more resolute but unrefined way of enlightening his viewers.

Mark Lester Espina: Birth Paints

BY JAY BAUTISTA |

The aha moment for an artist not only comes when he has finally found his distinct visual style, it could also be the creative fruition of that long and arduous process of studying his artistic purpose and various experiments; of being exposed to his contemporaries and imbibing the contemporary in interpreting the sheer realities he evolves himself in.

Screenshot

For Mark Lester Espina (b.1985) it was in a hasty preparation for a group exhibition one fine morning in December, 2014. After bringing his visiting father to the bus station on his way home, it was almost lunchtime with only a few hours to his deadline. Using a dried academy grumbacher what was supposed to be a detailed dress of a woman in Screenshot he spontaneously painted it in textured white acrylic. A dedicated realist Espina prefers raw, rough, and raucous brushstrokes. He weighs heavily his paint brushes distorting white textures in clothes rather than directly representing natural figures.

In these auction-dictated times, when much of the prevalence of virtual is considered real, the demand to devise a new pictorial language seems expected upon serious and sometimes snotty artists. In his first solo exhibition at the SM Art Center, The Birth of Gemini, Espina has step up to the plate and raised his stakes in the art scene.

Placing highly on his artistic processes, Espina commences work by skillfully sketching the lone image of the woman with her elegant face and mandatory poise. Often coming from various sources depending on his mood, he paints them for their beauty and movement. The more demanding parts are the more meticulous strokes of the second coating focusing on the women’s dresses which involves the palette textures in white acrylic done by dry brushing using stencils. Following the curves of women in motion, he finishes by filling the open spaces with vintage clothing pattern to counter the coarseness of the white to the monotony of his grays. Evident in A Ring of Endless Beauty nothing can replace the direct involvement and sensitivity he brings intoan artwork by sensually connecting through this work ethic.

I Have No Eyes, I Must See

When You Are Engulfed in the Lights

With a background in advertising, it comes natural for Espina to alter fixed views or prescribed notions of contrived even cliché interpretations. He dabbles and takes the life out of the experience and rehashes them intuitively. Arresting whatever emotion it depicts, I Have No Eyes, I Must See Perfectly uses perspectives demarked by a fragmentation of a familiar point of view. Espina ensures how an appearance is intently perceived, as it reveals his inner thoughts, such as in When You Are Engulfed in the Lights. Using photography as reference Espina’s women is caught up in the spontaneity of the moment and off-the-cuff captured narrative--nothing formal or staged for him. In The Unbearable Darkness strikes a similar pose as Espina proves that man’s basic need is to be seduced by beauty. In Better is the Night the viewer (most likely the male gaze) becomes uncomfortable observing a reflective woman with her thinking pencil yet she does not want to be bothered or disturbed.

The Sunflowers are Mine

Despite what Espina considers his minimal approach to his pieces, multiple dialogues converge in every canvas. The smooth gray skin tones of his main subjects are amiably violated by the textured white allocation of their clothing. This coursed void of color, whose luminous version in lead was banned for over a centuries, provides a casting of light that only a versed painter like Espina can effectively execute. The ephemeral vintage pattern on the background provides a semblance of decorative order vis-à-vis the imaginative occurrence that concurs upfront.

The evidence of sunflowers on Sunflowers Are Mine and Pull the White Out of Meare Espina’s tribute to Vincent Van Gogh, his main influence. Sunflowers are representations of devotion and loyalty, even as medieval representation of turning to the sun for guidance. Van Gogh made seven versions of Sunflowers to praise his mentor Paul Gauguin who was to join him in Arles to compliment the yellow house they were about to share. A spiritual longing, an emblem of the faithfulness in following God, Espina seeks blessedness by sharing his ministry of painting. He views an art that moves and heals as it has been his passion.

Ballerina Series IX

When American art critic Thomas McEvilley welcomed the rebirth of painting in early '90s from being an exile for more than two decades he cited the death of the grand narrative brought about the futility of history and a more personal feature in this visual art form would emerge. The lack of art movement enables painters like Espina to command their unique individual expressions only they can represent. Espina’s paintings have complicated illustrative categories yet their brilliance is that we clearly see something of ourselves in its eventual depiction. He devises his own forms and formats and puts painting into a new realm while also acknowledging its long history, practice and inherent revisions and innovations. For Espina, the deeper you dwell within yourself the more sluggish your art will be. And he has just been born.