Two Titans: Alcuaz & Castrillo
Collaborative work in visual art is nothing new. There are many examples of two or more artists finding inspiration in each other’s practice for new perspectives. Integrated art, however, is a pioneering approach to collaboration. The dialogue exists by blending existing media with another’s signature aesthetic to not only create an entirely new artwork, but also breathe life into older works.
What if the bar is raised and what would be integrated are the works of two titans of modern art? Galleria Nicolas explores this question for their contribution to this year’s edition of the Manila International Art Fair, or ManilART 2015. From October 9 to 11, 2015 at the SMX Convention Center Taguig at SM Aura in Bonifacio Global City, “Two Titans: Aguilar Alcuaz & Castrillo” brings together the practices of two seminal figures in Philippine art history.
The exhibition will be on display in Booth C6 at ManilART, at SM Aura’s SMX Convention Center, McKinley Parkway, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City. For more information, please call (632) 6250273, or visitwww.gallerianicolas.com
This unique exhibition takes two of the leading figures of the Philippine Modernist period and integrates their works. Modernist icon National Artist Federico Aguilar Alcuaz has a vast and renowned artistic practice that is noted for demonstration of both his intellect and his flair for experimentation. His works ran the gamut between tres maria portraits, landscapes of both Manila and Barcelona, abstracted figurations, and pure geometric or pattern-induced compositions. He also dabbled with the very medium of these works. His abstract mosaics, for instance, used rolled-up paper to create linear waves that exhibited a highly regimented outline of texture and form. On the other hand, Eduardo Castrillo is best known for his prominent public monuments—from the People’s Power Monument along EDSA to the Bonifacio Relief next to Manila City Hall. A sculptor of immense renown, Castrillo’s innovation is in applying the jewelry technique of using metal sheets and scaling them upward to craft out larger works—a long and arduous process. This requires that the sculptor be a talented artist, possessing the ability to translate concepts and ideas into the final monumental sculptures. This exhibition, however, presents to the public a rare opportunity to view Castrillo works that are adaptable to offices and residences downscaled from his monumental sculptures, highlighted by fine abstract sculptures that utilize the artist’s renowned technique and attention to detail.
“Two Titans” is a posthumous interaction between the late Aguilar Alcuaz and Eduardo Castrillo. It is a highly conceptual show as Castrillo will be dovetailing an entirely new collection of sculptural works that integrates the works of Aguilar Alcuaz in his own masterpieces. This will give viewers an opportunity to see the abstract images in various dimensions: in the flat two-dimensional surface of the paintings of Aguilar Alcuaz and the three-dimensional works of Ed Castrillo. There will also be separate works, Castrillo sculptures inspired by the abstract movement as well as Aguilar Alcuaz’s paintings by themselves. A one-of-a-kind approach, this is a fascinating window into the aesthetics and history of Philippine Modernism.
