A Filipino Interpretation of Modernist Architecture Unlike the rest of Makati today, the northern end of Paseo de Roxas in Makati is anchored by a low complex rather than a tall skyscraper. This is the elegant Asian Institute of Management, designed by architect Gabriel Formoso and completed in 1971. In my opinion, the building is […]
Pow Martinez Exposes the Dark Side of Wealth and Social Media
Martinez's latest exhibit at Silverlens Manila critiques the superficiality of social media culture.
Pow Martinez’s self-titled exhibit in Silverlens Manila features recent works from the artist in his distinctively dreamlike style. The new exhibit, which opened on July 25, depicts the lives of wealthy people as seen on social media.
Stylistically, Martinez’s work here bends shapes and perspectives in interesting ways, creating caricatures of people in mockery of their cultural shallowness. The works reveal the ugliness in beauty—as if to suggest that no aesthetic filter can mask the emptiness of the soul.
“The worlds he depicts are derived from the digital landscape we often find ourselves immersed in, his inspirations being movie tropes, pop culture moments, and the broader expanse of the online space,” the exhibit write-up said. “Martinez presents varying sizes of cartoonish paintings set in these eclectic worlds featuring a cast of recurring characters including cowboys, monsters, and soldiers.”
Vanity of Social Media
Some of the paintings in this collection showcase different social media tropes performed by rich people online. There’s “morality police,” which harkens back to those publicly-denounced pictures of rich people posing next to wild animals they killed. “inner critic” also seems to call back how influencers get showy with their luxury items.
Of course, Martinez puts kinks in the depictions. For one, almost all the characters have an ugly tan and blonde hair reminiscent of Donald Trump. For another, the works just remove any sense of luxury that people could be jealous about.
“wiggle room” portrays two people inside of a large jeep, but there’s no shine or filter to make the vehicle or its passengers look untouchable. Instead, they look so cartoony and detached from reality that it might as well be a cheap animated Barbie knockoff.
Overt political commentary exists within pieces like “mental door” or “battle cry.” The former shows an angry old man stagnantly watching television, while the latter shows a soldier giving marching orders while in a tank. “mental door,” in particular, appears to comment on how our own perspectives on things are skewed by the media we consume on a day-to-day basis.
Creating Dreamlike Cultures from Digital Spaces
An interesting thing about some of the paintings here is their sizes: some of these paintings are around the same size as a phone screen to really put you in the headspace of social media. It’s a neat aesthetic trick, but it also shows the skill of Martinez that each of the smaller 8×8 or 8×12 paintings contain the same amount of details as the larger works.
“strange appearance,” for example, layers multiple discordant images one after the other. It contains the pyramids in the background, and a person holding a snake, and two people enjoying the beach. That painting piles on the cliches, and mirrors a bit the way our attention shifts when using social media.
Martinez’s approach for the exhibit’s commentary on society is to show how untethered from reality it is. For its users, social media is mythmaking and the creation of heroic narratives for themselves. The grotesqueness of the figures detaches us from them personally, but the situations they’re in reminds us that “normal” in social media isn’t necessarily “normal” in real life.
“boss fight,” one of the larger paintings made for the exhibit, shows how un-normal social media can be. The image of a man riding a horse killing a snake reminds people of politically-charged art which depict political figures in a heroic light. It’s the “us versus them,” black and white mentality, one that social media perpetuates to all its viewers.
Pow Martinez shows the painter’s comical depictions of society has not lost its edge. In fact, the images will likely get more and more topical as people continue to recede towards the online space. Nothing can apparently separate us more from our humanity, and it shows us the ugliness we participate in when we log in.
Related reading: Silhouettes and a silvery glow welcome visitors to the new Silverlens
“Thailand has claimed urban creativity and livability. Singapore has institutional design leadership. Indonesia is emerging as a design hub. Vietnam is moving into design innovation. And the Philippines? Its position is not weak. It is simply unclaimed.” For IDr. Cecil Ravelas, National President of the Philippine Institute of Interior Designers (PIID), the challenge is not […]
The Ramon Magsaysay Center as a Modernist Landmark Driving down Roxas boulevard from Rizal Park, what will catch your eye is the most elegant modernist structure in the country, the Ramon Magsaysay Center. Most established Filipino architects put it in their top ten lists of favorite buildings. It was designed by Alfredo J. Luz, who […]
Rinna Soriano’s favorite part of her work is sanding. At her workbench, she stays focused, following the grain, adjusting to changes in its direction. Narra, she has learned, can have interlocking grain. A piece of mango once proved particularly difficult until a worker explained that she had reached the point where a branch once grew […]
Filipino 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 has long been associated with indigenous materials and vernacular design strategies, from bamboo and timber construction to jalousie windows, generous spaces, […]
A chair does not always prescribe how to sit in it. A lamp can be more than a source of light. A clock can be more than a way to tell the time.These small departures from convention are at the center of IKEA PS 2026. The latest iteration of IKEA’s experimental PS series comprises more […]
Read the issues.
Collect the volumes.
Recommended Video
Tap to Unmute
Unmute
0:00
0:00