After being set amongst the ruins of an abandoned theme park in the past years, Jia CURATED found a home on the shores of Pengembak Beach, Bali for this year’s installment. It’s a unique location with multiple natural features like Sanur’s coastline, pine and mangrove forests, and a stream—making nature an important participant for how […]
Erwin Teves Pascual’s New Exhibit “Washing Machine” Debuts at Super Duper Gallery
Erwin Teves Pascual’s newest collection Washing Machine provides us with works that vary in size, intensity, and focus. These abstract creations, exhibiting at Super Duper Gallery until August 28, use small works as references to larger works, recreating them in a bigger canvas for everyone to see. The artist attempts capturing intense chaos with precision and focus.
Pascual named the exhibit Washing Machine due to the works being done “in between loads of laundry and school runs, around the ebb and flow of domestic life.” The frenzied, chaotic feel of many of the paintings reflect the similarly-turbulent day-to-day existence of many households.
“To view these works is to listen to a kind of beautiful noise,” the exhibit write-up said. “Languid and fuzzy, a hum, a whirr. A swirling chaos that keeps going and going, then, for whatever reason—a stroke of the brush, a shift in color—wrestles its way back to coherence, like a wink before mayhem takes over.”
A Rollercoaster of Swirls and Squiggles
Erwin Teves Pascual’s exhibit opens with seventeen small acrylic artworks entitled “Rollercoaster.” These small pieces, barely a foot long in length, use a wild series of strokes and drippings to get its frenetic feel.
Its brush strokes are wriggly and aggressive, taking on circular curves that break as suddenly as they started. Some of the paintings let the paint drip downwards, embodying a feeling reminiscent of graffiti on the streets. Even as faces and figures emerge from the piece, Pascual lets them hover in the background, putting the focus on the chaos of these colors and shapes.
There’s a playfulness with what the artist attempts within the confines of these pieces, as well as a knowledgeability in how to execute the chaotic abstractness in a visually-interesting way. He varies the heaviness of his strokes and the mixture of colors in each area of the canvas.
Pascual uses a lot of contrast with the color usage for the smaller works. He pairs it with the atypical squiggles and shapes of the paintings. That methodology gives the eyes something to focus on when looking at the images.
Recreating the Chaos Wholesale
The smaller paintings became the “blueprint,” so to speak, for many of the bigger works shown in Super Duper Gallery. Some of them, like “The Boy Who Waited,” adapts the ideas of “Rollercoaster” into a larger canvas to showcase more of the details of the piece. Works like “Maybe Merry Go Round” combine two of the abstract pieces into a larger whole.
The exhibit calls these works “a reflection of a reflection, a painting of a painting.” The brushstrokes in the larger paintings showcase Erwin Teves Pascual’s care for details as he manages, stroke by stroke, to recreate some of the paintings on a larger scale. He translates these ideas in ways that don’t betray his original intent for them, clarifying them to show the audience its purpose.
Washing Machine displays the artistry which can exist even in the mundanity of everyday life. Whether the smaller paintings or larger works, it represents the craft of the artist and the way that translates into precise ideas overall.
Related reading: Abstracting the countryside: Andrew de Guzman depicts Filipino sensibilities in ‘Melange’
Just moments away from the bustling area of Bonifacio Global City is 171, a multi-level villa set on a 302-square-meter lot. M.CAL Architecture Design Studio, headed by Ar. Monique C. Albert-Lopez, built the residence as a minimalist modern sanctuary surrounded by landscaped gardens. This creative direction was drawn from the homeowners’ brief to create a […]
The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has announced its 2026 shortlist, with several Filipino practices earning recognition across a diverse range of categories. Across civic architectureArchitectureThe art and science of designing and constructing buildings, structures, and spaces that are functional, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. It encompasses the planning, design, materials, and techniques used to createGo to […]
Located in Paroc, Pampanga is MQ Residence—a tropical-modern private residential home designed by Marikina-based architectureArchitectureThe art and science of designing and constructing buildings, structures, and spaces that are functional, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. It encompasses the planning, design, materials, and techniques used to createGo to Architecture Glossary firm Arkisens, spearheaded by principal architect and co-founder […]
De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) will open its new campus in Aseana City, Parañaque. Occupying a 3,845-square-meter site, the new development signals a fresh chapter for the college, where architectureArchitectureThe art and science of designing and constructing buildings, structures, and spaces that are functional, safe, and aesthetically pleasing. It encompasses the planning, design, […]
As one of Metro Manila’s established central business districts, Ortigas has grown into a vibrant center for business, commerce, and urban living, strategically spanning Pasig, Quezon, and Mandaluyong City. At the core of the district lies the Ortigas CBD, home to some of the country’s leading corporations and institutions. Adding a new dimension to this […]
Read the issues.
Collect the volumes.
Recommended Video
Tap to Unmute
Unmute
0:00
0:00