MANILA, Philippines ? Aba Lluch Dalena is entering her third Chinese-zodiac cycle this year. What better way to celebrate this milestone than to mount an exhibit closest to her heart?
?Liquid Love,? Dalena?s sixth solo exhibit, presents paintings dominated by blood-red splashes of enamel on canvas and paper, and acrylic on canvas.
Dalena claims inspiration from the thought and belief in a love that is strong, selfless and incomparable, like Christ?s. Her paintings are reminiscent of Jackson Pollock?s drip action paintings but done in singular flaming red. In her words, the paintings represent ?a lot of mixed emotions within me?the thought of death and violence, assurance and hope, confusion and pain when I think of Christ?s death, which is not unlike the political killings happening in our country.?
Aba, or Sabana Juana Magdalena, is one of three daughters of the eminent, sensitive and irreverent painter Danny Dalena and the celebrated, passionate and creative sculptor Julie Lluch.
The eldest, Sari, finished her Master of Fine Arts in Film Production as a Fulbright scholar at New York University and has, this early, already received a number of awards as an independent filmmaker.
The youngest, Kiri, a Human Ecology graduate of University of the Philippines Los Baños, is also an awarded filmmaker and sculptor, painter, composer and musician.
Aba was a precocious child. At age 6, she held her first solo exhibit of 300 clay animal sculptures titled ?Mga Hayop.?
Three years later, she had another show, ?Pieta ni Aba,? clay sculptures on the Passion of Christ.
She took up painting and had her solo painting exhibit in 1996 titled ?Isaiah 53:4: Homage to the Man of Sorrows.?
Her fourth solo exhibit in 2000, ?Purr-poses: 9 Lives Plus More? was a mixed-media installation and sculptures of cats, followed by ?Home Works? in 2001, an exhibit of paintings and sculptures at Lopez Museum.
Dalena is a Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from UP Diliman. She has also been an art teacher for children in various schools in the past 10 years while composing songs and singing with her alternative rock band, Rockbato.
?Liquid Love? presents 4 ft x 7 ft tetraptych enamel on canvas, which is the title of the show. Other paintings are 3 ft x 3 ft ?Red Washes Whiter: A Ransomed Life? series and ?Blood Bought? series.
The 4 ft x 3 ft acrylic on canvas, ?Tal Pueblo, Tal Gobierno,? is the only non-red work in the exhibit.
The exhibit runs until July 31.
The author is the executive director of Maningning Miclat Art Foundation (MMAFI) and co-author of ?Beyond the Great Wall : A Family Journal,? which won a National Book Award in Biography in 2006. MMAFI is holding the 2008 Maningning Miclat Art Competition. Visit www.maningning.com; e-mail maningningfoundation@gmail.com or acmiclat2008@yahoo.com.
