Arts & Culture

“Eclipse: The Strange and the Familiar” Offers a New Spin on a Retrospective

July 30, 2024
|
By 
Elle Yap

The new Artinformal group exhibition, Eclipse: The Strange and the Familiar curated by Stephanie Frondoso, builds selected artists’ past works—some of which are decades old. Of course, artist retrospectives aren’t new. But the stated goals here carries the idea of finding meaning in art beyond producing works. The exhibit concerns itself with evolution, graphing the past and the exploration of the artist’s identity, even with perceived “lesser” works from an earlier time. 

Lui Medina’s painting “Untitled (After Metamorphic Histories) III” and Christina Quisumbing Ramilo’s “Slaughter of the Innocents” for Artinformal's new exhibit. Photo by Elle Yap.
Lui Medina’s painting “Untitled (After Metamorphic Histories) III” and Christina Quisumbing Ramilo’s “Slaughter of the Innocents” for Artinformal’s new exhibit. Photo by Elle Yap.

“By recontextualizing the works through presentation, Artinformal highlights the educational aspect of art, as it has done since the gallery’s origin, by considering artists as more than incessant producers, and instead by inquiring more holistically on how artworks had imperceptibly come to be,” Frondoso wrote in their artist note. 

Portraits in Monochrome

Thematically, Eclipse: The Strange and the Familiar puts together a slew of monochrome works from different artists. Many exhibited with Artinformal in the past, and one of them, Salvador Joel Alonday, worked as a curator for the gallery. Frondoso believes that the choice allows one to focus on the progression of the artist, instead of focusing on “the numerous distractions of a robust and busting art scene.”

The works differ from artist to artist just enough that you start noticing different motifs and ideas. The output even varies between artists, from sketches and abstract drawings to photographs and sculptures.

Lui Medina's "Untitled (After Metamorphic Histories) III." Photo by Elle Yap.
Lui Medina’s “Untitled (After Metamorphic Histories) III.” Photo by Elle Yap.
“Slaughter of the Innocents” by Christina Quisumbing Ramilo. Photo by Elle Yap.
“Slaughter of the Innocents” by Christina Quisumbing Ramilo. Photo by Elle Yap.
Christina Quisumbing Ramilo’s "Ruminations" work showing her evolution as an artist. Photo by Elle Yap.
Christina Quisumbing Ramilo’s “Ruminations” work showing her evolution as an artist. Photo by Elle Yap.
“Apparition” by Christina Quisumbing Ramilo. Photo by Elle Yap.
“Apparition” by Christina Quisumbing Ramilo. Photo by Elle Yap.
Lui Medina's "Untitled (The Notion of the Edge) III." Photo by Elle Yap.
Lui Medina’s “Untitled (The Notion of the Edge) III.” Photo by Elle Yap.

Visually, the centerpiece of the exhibit combines Lui Medina’s painting “Untitled (After Metamorphic Histories) III” and Christina Quisumbing Ramilo’s “Slaughter of the Innocents” together to create an image of a stairway to a planetary body. It certainly catches one’s eyes when entering the exhibition room. 

Each of the artist’s works Frondoso showcases tells a story about their evolution as artists. Ramilo’s sculptures, for example, focus on dentures, while her “Ruminations” series shown here uses sandpaper to illustrate decay. Both of these play within the same idea of preserving the rotting object, possibly as a commentary on the way we tend to discard things when they lose any utility for us. 

Beyond the Past 

Monica Delgado’s "I used to hate drawing," shown for Artinformal's "Eclipse" exhibit. Photo by Elle Yap.
Monica Delgado’s “I used to hate drawing,” shown for Artinformal’s “Eclipse” exhibit. Photo by Elle Yap.
"I used to hate drawing (3)" by Monica Delgado. Photo by Elle Yap.
“I used to hate drawing (3)” by Monica Delgado. Photo by Elle Yap.
"I used to hate drawing (2)" by Monica Delgado. Photo by Elle Yap.
“I used to hate drawing (2)” by Monica Delgado. Photo by Elle Yap.
Monica Delgado’s "I used to hate drawing (8)." Photo by Elle Yap.

A lot of the works here feel exciting to look at even without the context of the artist’s past. Monica Delgado’s nine “I used to hate drawing” paintings uses graphite and gel to create these abstract constructions that feel very precise in their placing even with how it uses the language of drip painting. 

Victor Balanon's "Waking Babylon Babylon Waking 08" for Artinformal's "Eclipse" exhibit. Photo by Elle Yap.
Victor Balanon’s “Waking Babylon Babylon Waking 08” for Artinformal’s “Eclipse” exhibit. Photo by Elle Yap.

And Victor Balanon’s detailed inkworks “Waking Babylon Babylon Waking 08” and “Phantom Decoy” capture a sense of motion in how they portray our daily lives. “Phantom Decoy,” especially, feels like storyboards compiled together with how each image contributes to an actual storyline building up to the present. 

"Phantom Decoy" by Victor Balanon. Photo by Elle Yap.
“Phantom Decoy” by Victor Balanon. Photo by Elle Yap.
A fragment of "Phantom Decoy" by Victor Balanon. Photo by Elle Yap.
A fragment of “Phantom Decoy” by Victor Balanon. Photo by Elle Yap.
Fragment of "Phantom Decoy" by Victor Balanon. Photo by Elle Yap.
Fragment of “Phantom Decoy” by Victor Balanon. Photo by Elle Yap.
Fragment of "Phantom Decoy" by Victor Balanon. Photo by Elle Yap.
Fragment of “Phantom Decoy” by Victor Balanon. Photo by Elle Yap.
A fragment of "Phantom Decoy" by Victor Balanon. Photo by Elle Yap.
A fragment of “Phantom Decoy” by Victor Balanon. Photo by Elle Yap.

The Artist’s Evolution as Changing Approaches

Exemplifying the subtitle “strange and familiar” are Raena Abella Abella’s “Trois Couers” wetplate collection. The works capture images of an octopus’s arm so surreal that it harkens back to the 2019 movie The Lighthouse. It certainly previews some of her works in the future, which are just as dark and meditative as the “Trois Couers” collection suggests. 

Raena Abella's “Trois Couers” series. Shown in Artinformal for its "Eclipse" series. Photo by Elle Yap.
Raena Abella’s “Trois Couers” series. Shown in Artinformal for its “Eclipse” series. Photo by Elle Yap.

Eclipse: The Strange and the Familiar captivates even if you aren’t familiar with the artists’ works, as great art often does. And for those who wish to delve deeper into the artists’ backgrounds, it adds a new dimension to understanding their artistic evolution. The Artinformal exhibit illustrates that while style and craft can improve over time, the core essence of the artists is present from the beginning, driving their growth and development into something greater.

Related reading: ‘Eclipse: a Forecast’: Light and Darkness of the Urban Landscapes

Curator Soler Santos analyzing a painting by Patrick de Veyra for "Storm in a Teacup."

‘Storm in a Teacup’ Explores Abstraction in Printed Images

Artist Patrick de Veyra has always been obsessed with the idea of images and appropriation. As recently as last year, he curated two exhibits for Faculty Projects which tackle the idea of how we deal and define the images we use today. Storm in a Teacup, his most recent exhibition at West Gallery, circles around […]

Smart Home Philippines Wins Best Interior Design in Asia Pacific.

Smart Home Philippines Wins Best Interior Design in London, United Kingdom

Smart Home Philippines continues to solidify its position as a leader in smart home innovation, receiving the prestigious Best Interior Design Smart Home in Asia Pacific award at the IPAX Global Property Awards 2024-2025. Held at the Savoy Hotel in London, this recognition underscores the brand’s commitment to seamlessly integrating state-of-the-art technology with modern, functional […]

Fort Santiago, newly-cleaned with Kärcher products and personnel.

Kärcher Sponsors Fort Santiago Clean-up for Heritage Preservation

Kärcher, the German multinational company known for their cleaning machines, debuted the newest part of their 2025 Cultural Initiative as they partnered with the Intramuros Administration to clean up the walls of Fort Santiago.  A “restorative cleaning effort” done to celebrate the company’s 90th anniversary, Kärcher’s team focused on cleaning up the wall facade and […]

"The Infinite Dot" exhibit at Primex Printers.

‘The Infinite Dot’ Celebrates 45 Years of Primex Printers with New Exhibit

To celebrate the 45th anniversary of Primex Printers, Chief Marketing Officer Mariel Ching and Creative Director Gio Prado put together The Infinite Dot. The exhibit functions as a showcase of the capabilities of modern-day fine art printing, giving audiences a taste of the flexibility of the form to different ideas.   The exhibit’s name comes from […]

Panasonic Brings 2 New Revolutionary Products to the Philippines.

Protected: Panasonic Brings 2 New Revolutionary Products to the Philippines

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Two porcelain statues as seen in "Breaking to Mend."

‘Breaking to Mend’: Ciane Xavier Illustrates the Fragility of Human Emotions

Seeing the spectrum of human emotions as fragile is a concept as old as time. The way emotions break and mold itself to our environment is the subject of a lot of art. What Ciane Xavier does with Breaking to Mend, however, is to capture these emotions in porcelain, literalizing the conceptual framework interplaying with […]

Download this month's BLUPRINT magazine digital copy from:
Subscribe via [email protected]