MANILA, Philippines - A subtle transformation occurs in the paintings of Samuel Penaso. Probably unwitting on his part, various artistic disciplines seem to have seeped onto his canvases.
A multimedia artist from Bohol, who graduated with a Fine Arts degree, major in Advertising, from Technological University of the Philippines and took a course in Sculpture at Philippine Women’s University Institute of Fine Arts, Penaso is into painting, sculpture, photography, installation, video and performance art.
He is not only a much-awarded visual artist since his student days but an accomplished performance artist as well. He is a core member of the Tupada Action and Media Art and active in the Art Association of the Philippines.
He represented the country in the Nippon International Performance Art Festival in Japan three years ago, and went on an artist’s residency in Thailand through a cultural-exchange program.
Recently he was invited to perform at the Asia Performance Art Festival in Seoul and the Gwangju Biennale in Korea, and join a group exhibition in Gallery Nuri at the Korea Foundation Cultural Center.
Manifestations of Penaso’s various artistic pursuits are richly displayed in his 10th solo exhibit “Keombae,” 20 pieces in acrylic on canvas, until Dec. 4 in Galerie Astra, L/2, LRI Design Plaza, 210 Nicanor Garcia St. (formerly Reposo), Bel Air II, Makati City.
The series of abstraction is invariably done in impasto, the pigment laid thick on the canvas then scored into patterns and randomly gashed with curves and straight lines here and there. The highly textured results are in near-monochromes of brown, gold, yellow, orange, red, gray, blue, green, with accentuation of contrasting colors in half-moons, circles and straight lines both long and short.
The exhibit’s title is Korean term for “cheers.” The show was inspired by the artist’s brief stay in Korea, and the paintings are expressions of his fond memories of that country.
They are similar to the 14 untitled pieces in last year’s “Boholandia” in Renaissance Gallery at SM Megamall. Penaso said those pieces were “mirrors of my personal experiences and memories,” and that exhibit was another one of his sentimental journeys, as it was meant to depict the wonders of his hometown. It was, quite literally, colored nostalgia.
Despite the exhibit’s title and the artist’s declaration about homage to hometown, though, we didn’t see anything Bol-anon there, of course, as all of it was abstraction. The artist can say the gray canvas is a tarsier and that’s all right.
The exhibition note said the paintings’ metallic colors spoke of “transformation, restrained self-determination and understatement.” We don’t know about that but we could see that the artist’s use of color was impeccable.
The same impeccable touch is evident in this exhibit, but now the color tonalities are more varied and so much brighter.
Although this time the paintings carry titles such as “City Tour,” “Autumn,” “Gongkijung Palace,” still we can’t be certain if we’re seeing Seoul. There may be hints of topography and figures but it could be Pyongyang, you know, or cherry blossom-viewing in Kyoto.
What we see or imagine we see instead are elements of the other artistic mediums Penaso is doing. At a distance, for instance, the short straight lines appear to be a graphic artist’s colored pencils studded on the canvas.
The highly tactile surface of the canvas is nothing but the relief of a sculptor. The curves of the gashes and the swirls of the scoring simulate the motion of a performance artist.
This is reference-heavy art—and to think the artist might not have known it.
