Tales of the Trade

In "Tales of the Trade," Patrick Esmao and Sonny Palles turn their practiced gaze toward the unsung actors of the urban theatre: the vendors who barter with fortune, the street dwellers who build their empires from the ephemeral. In this joint exhibition, the two artists map the quiet resilience and indomitable will of those who, despite the gnawing hardship of the times, persist, endure, and make a life worth living amid the raw material of struggle.

Esmao, known for his geometric abstractions infused with spiritual depth, presents works that frame the quotidian as sacred. His pieces Divine Symmetry, Between Faith and Fortune, and A Woman’s Sunday transform the transactional into the transcendental. The precise interplay of forms suggests the quiet dignity of the Filipino vendor—each arc and line reflecting an inner structure, an unseen order that guides their struggles. The layering of subdued tones and metallic accents implies quiet grandeur, elevating the mundane into a realm of almost celestial significance. His compositions, though seemingly detached, hold an unmistakable warmth, a silent acknowledgment of faith as both refuge and currency in a world of instability.

Palles, by contrast, captures the raw textures of daily toil with expressive fervor. His Pakyawan pulsates with movement—figures huddled together, their angular bodies coiled in the dance of survival. In Tita Hardinera, a woman bends over pots of flowers, her hands steeped in soil and history. The thick impasto and jagged outlines conjure the weight of labor and the permanence of struggle, while the subjects' faces, fractured but expressive, seem to speak in hushed tones of stories passed down through generations. Palles’ distinct visual language, which melds folk sensibilities with modernist distortion, renders each composition a tactile experience—paint applied as if sculpting the very essence of perseverance.

Together, these two artists offer a dialogue between structure and spontaneity, between abstraction and figuration. Esmao's work lends an air of the eternal, hinting at the unseen forces that guide the hands of vendors and workers, while Palles roots the viewer firmly in the visceral, in the immediacy of sweat and barter.

"Tales of the Trade” by Patrick Esmao and Sonny Palles will run from March 12 - 20, 2025. Galleria Nicolas Glorietta is located on the 3rd Floor, Glorietta 4, Courtyard Drive, Ayala Center, Makati. For inquiries, contact Galleria Nicolas at +63 917 534 3942, or email info@gallerianicolas.com.