BY JAY BAUTISTA |
 |
| Day Off |
For
most artists one’s first solo exhibition is his carefully conceptualized visual
statement to a rather complicated contemporary art scene. Like an illustrative
shout out, it beams as his coming out party to the world after lurking on group
shows after group shows for quite sometime. Countering this usual trend, award
winning artist Michael Froilan opts to go reflectively inward this time. Against
the artistic tide, he shuns away from political impulses and avoids wallowing deeper
into historical occurences. On the other hand, it is form that is his
substance, then his statement is his medium. By displaying simplicity of his
messages, he is like an old timer with paints.
The
direction of Still Moments seeks to surface/resurface what he is capable of
creating; how much of himself can Froilan put up with these recent works. Furthering
into melancholia by becoming more reflective, he focuses on his real life
situations by reflecting empathy as mood, amplifying it with bareness of space
and pausing time in a capsule. The brilliance of Froilan lies how he instills
solitude of action, as if the viewer arrived too late or even too early to the
scene. Injecting the personal he leaves many clues but no specific answers as he
forces the viewer to complete the narrative of his story.
Froilan’s
interest lies in simple domesticity of things with minimum action, without any
signs of mobility. Commencing with his interior spaces hinting the viewers
peeking in, they exist in flat planes placed side by side in voyeuristic
cutaway dollhouse motif. Froilan uses interior rooms of his mind at his
domesticated abode with his family members and close friends as characters.
As
a fine arts graduate of EARIST he is a true contrarian--deconstructing
proportion, and artistic perspective. His spaces set the appropriate mood while
favoring sparse colors that are not too glossy, yet very natural which gives
solitary figures to stand out.
 |
| Complex |
Consider
Complex which is Froilan’s intriguing
self portrait. The heirarchy of floors discusses the many facets of his
existence. At the ground floor is a landscape painting which represents what he
painted at an early age to earn his keep as a painter; the second floor are his
classical paintings and portraits reflecting his desire to copy the masters;
the lion at the third floor is an epitome of aggression, not the angry kind but
his eagerness to achieve his dreams. Froilan is the swimmer reflecting the
times he wanted to quit life.
Continuing
his narration is The Dreamer which dwells
in the psychological realm of inner life. For Froilan he does not see himself
not an artist. He longs to mixing his paints while holding his brushes up high
to convey his images on his canvases.
Another
creative tactic is how he allows classical paintings to emphasize the moment.
They are either decor or devices that amplify the situations. Ranging from his
influences from Johannes Vermeer, James Whistler, Peter Paul Rubens, to Claude
Monet with the progression situating from Baroque to impressionism. However it
is David Hockney, Edward Hopper, or Rene Magritte that he wants the audience to
emphatize with at this ongoing moment. Froilan studies even the circumstance or
context of which the master has painted.
 |
| The Faithful, The Undecided. The Unbeliever. |
Woman in White
pays tribute to his wife whom he praises to high heavens for being symbol of
strength and resiliency but at the same time exudes purity of the spirit and
femininity. In fact she is so strong to be alone in her life, without him on
his side. Torn pertains to her dual
being as a loving wife yet capable of wholeness, void of affection from the
other gender.
Before
he took up painting full-time, Froilan and his wife would converse about
anything while partaking their favorite wine. When Froilan became in demand as
a painter, he saw hiw wife les and less, reasons why she longed for his
company. These are evident in the paintings I’ll
be Seeing You and In the Presence of
Absence where one can almost feel her longing for him. One feels the
isolation and being disconnected. In his desire to make up for his loss,
Froilan churn these out and let her know his shortcomings making him less
guilty in return.
With
the presence of flames, Space Between Us
evokes tension to viewing audience. The existential complimentary nature of man
and woman persists that one cannot
survive without the other. As conflicts may arise, as seen in the two stairs on
the sides, in the end they mend and reunite to one another. One loves because
one needs.
The
ongoing Sao Paulo Biennial has discarded well-worn themes and usual
revolutionary ideas in guiding their artist-curators on what to exhibit. Rather
it prioritizes on feelings and emotional response of viewers in generating
attendance in the sixty seven year old world’s second oldest biennial after
Venice. Froilan has paralleled his masterpieces with this premise that art must
seek emotional response rather than be high brow rhetoric. Art must make you feel foremost.
In
music, rests is as important as notes in constructing musical composition. In
fact, the silent notes are oftentimes more deafening yet their significance as
loud as notes connote. Froilan has painted what seems to be restful in both
space and time we are all familiar with. For art is capable of presenting what
life is cannot.
 |
| In the Presence of Absence |
1 comment:
Post a Comment