EXHIBITED WORKS
Art Center, 4th Level, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City
aba
Baensantos, Delotavo, Habulan and Tence Ruiz
Four agents of Social Realism
April 2 to 15, 2008
To those articulate in Pilipino, aba is an interjection with several nuances. One says aba as exclamation of either disgust, discovery, or wonder. aba is a ventilation of impatience, but is also often the expletive blurted out upon having been suddenly but sufficiently impressed. aba declares reverence, as in aba ginoong maria. . . yet is the very adjective for the abject, the extremely poor, as in abang-aba.
Four agents of SocialRealism reconvene for a show titled aba, conscious that their recent output may touch on all the above nuances, whether by description or reaction. Pablo Baensantos, Antipas Delotavo, Renato Habulan and Jose Tence Ruiz put together a new collection of major oil paintings and a large installation in wood and metal, highlighting both wonder and disgust, the awe, discovery, abject misery and reverence one alternately feels as one scans the contemporary realties unfolding in our Philippines of 2008.
Social Realism drew together in 1975, when politico-social tensions were begining to bubble over in the cauldron of Marcosian politics. aba is merely a continuation of SR’s 80-year project, and at 33 years is close to a midpoint in its unfolding. 33 years down the line, there are still enough tensions and upheavals in the local landscape, and aba pops in to remind us that putting together an imagined community we would call our nation is a grand but long- drawn grind.
aba is organized by Finale Art File and opens with cocktails at 6pm on Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at the SM Art Center, 4th Level SM Megamall A, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong Metro Manila. The exhibit will run until Tuesday, April 15, 10am to 9 pm, daily, Monday to Sunday. For Inquiries call Gilbert or Lourraine at Finale Art File, 634 2410
