MANILA, Philippines - Expressionist Jesus Genotiva seems to be coming up by leaps and bounds.

He mounted his first solo exhibit of paintings in a relatively unknown gallery in Makati two years ago, joined a few group exhibits, held his second solo show in the province last year, then followed it with his third two months later at the GSIS Museum of Art.

Now he is presenting his fourth solo exhibit, "Laman-Loob," pieces in acrylic on canvas and pen-and-ink on paper, until May 25 at Pasilyo Victorio Edades (4/F Hallway) of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, no less.

There is only one painting here, rendered in Genotiva's signature bold colorism. The numerous drawings, washed with coffee powder and smudged with colored ink of red and blue, are chiefly monochromatic. They all look uncharacteristically muted, but for the gory imagery running through each.

In last year's "Balintataw," Genotiva's third solo show of paintings, drawings, sculptures and an installation, he was referring to the Tagalog term for the pupil of the eye in the exhibit's title, and he reinterpreted it as a third eye through which the soul saw visions of corruption and greed, false promises, torments. Thus his imagery was of blood, worms, thorns, the flesh in perpetual agony.

Western but Filipino

Repulsion is the viewer's first reaction upon seeing such pieces as "Patibong," "Tinik," "Uod," in which blue naked women are put to incredible torture through crucifixion and entrapment. Particularly assaultive is the last, wherein the crucified woman is heavy with child and red worms are coming out of the gashes in her distended belly, nailed hands and feet, mouth, eyes and ears.

In "Magnetikong Larang," a woman undergoes facial distortion à la Picasso, surrounded by skeletons and skulls of animals in a red desert à la O'Keeffe.

A consummate piece is "Steal Life," subtly composed of the color and figure of the Philippine flag while showing an arrangement of silver fork, green mango and bluish animal skull on a plain yellow-ochre wooden table. This is, of course, a vanitas, one still life that's both social commentary and spiritual statement.

The rough-hewn sculptures of mixed media and papier-mâché represent distorted faces or masks, carcasses or torsos with gaping holes where limbs and heads have been-deep-blue figures dripped or splattered with blood-red.

Some of these images are derivative, quoting 20th-century Western art, but their impact is strong nonetheless. By limiting his palette to the colors of the Philippine flag, Genotiva has somehow rooted those alien images in native soil.

"Painting originated with the Europeans," he says, "but it is absurd to keep following their way forever. I may be strongly influenced by Western culture but the concept and emotion behind my works are of Filipino bias, values, culture, will, attitudes, traditions, behavior."

Visceral and spiritual

In his latest show, the gory vision continues-but now more surreal, more expressionistic, more Picassoesque, more Miróesque, more Goyaesque-as the third eye sees through the bundle of human flesh. The exhibit's title, in fact, means "internal organs."

Explains the artist: "God lives in the guts, because this is where the people feel it."

Most of the drawings depict disembodied body parts: multiple eyes, multiple breasts, screaming mouths, phalluses disguised as noses, ear pierced with an inverted cross, tongue spiked with thorns, dead tree trunk growing human arms, winged heart, flying brain, opened ribcage, splattering blood, spilling intestines.

These are set against desolate landscapes of dead trees and architectural ruins, scattered with nails and thorns, swords and daggers, giant keys, crutches and crosses, animal skulls, horns, bat wings, birds of prey, biomorphic forms, bugs and worms. The one painting in the show, "Ahod," is the archetype of this wasteland.

"This is how I see the world," says the artist. "These hideous images show us the true face of our world-one of degradation and filth. I'm opening up my art to the ugly, to the visceral. I thank the Lord that He hasn't taken my sight away so that I've been able to witness and record what has been happening here."

Genotiva is a talent to be reckoned with. He may be depicting a vision of society but the spirituality of his work is particularly strong. This is one young man who paints with the zeal of a Crusader.