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From Wikipedia:

From the foothills of Makiling and Pinatubo to the shores of Boracay, they came, they saw and they painted the changing landscapes – changes made by a mad mother nature or sadly by the immediate concerns for development and quick financial gains by man.  They suffered discomforts, braved being stranded in isolated places, endured hunger, heat, dust and rain, still they painted and recorded the ever changing landscapes.  With each artist’s interpretations of art in nature, they showcased traditional and modern styles in their artworks.  But in spite of the distinction in their approaches they are all ordained to have one vision for their group – give reverence to the different colors of nature which give them perpetual inspiration. This is the ever constant advocacy of Agos Kulay.

However, just like all dynamic human beings, Agos Kulay ventured into painting “live models” where they explored different figurative images and faces of the human body.  This became possible with their acquisition of a new studio in the Ayala Museum with the leadership of multi-awarded painter and ever-vigorous Mr. Jonahmar Salvosa.  This activity lasted for a year until they finally decided to go back to their first love which is nature painting.  They went back to the grounds of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, the alma mater of most of the group’s members, and gave veneration to the place by again, doing on-the-spot sketches and other artistic ventures.

In this exhibit, Agos Kulay continues to pursue this passion.  Agos Kulay revisits the roots of our colonial past here in Intramuros; painting what is left untouched from the devastation of war to what our present dispensation has done.  Images produced for this exhibition are not mere records of real or imagined past but a bidding for all of us to continually be mindful, lest we forget the lessons that nature and life have taught us.

Featured Agos Kulay members are Ben-Hur Cabana, Alen Casacop, Emerson Casacop, Myra Caymar, Mar Cempron, Rona Buenaseda Chua, Naning Estrella, Joe Garcia, Ysa Gernale, Arman Guitering, Domeng Labordo, Rodolfo Manucom Lunod, Pen Medina, Dario Noche, Victor Ng, Ernesto Patricio, Mary Grace Ramos, Jemina Reyes, Jun Santamaria, Eman Santos, Bing Siochi, Billie So, Max Sumulong, Joel Tabuena, Harry Torres, King Verano, Paul Yap, Jaime Zapanta and their President, Jonahmar Salvosa.

The cable wires seen throughout the metropolis executed as Haiku in visual terms inspire “Wired”.

As the poetry in English appear in three lines, I only used beige, black and white to define the image, relying mostly on composition to speak.   This collection of works is where east meets west.  It also pays tribute to the great abstract expressionist, Franz Kline.  But while his works focused less or nothing at all on imagery, mine displays my source of inspiration.

The cable wires existing around us are necessary to our existence but considered very unsightly that advanced countries have hidden them underground.  Could this image likewise be obsolete as the world goes wireless someday?  My job as an artist is not only to record what is around me but also to find beauty in them. However spontaneous the works may appear, each piece is carefully studied, chosen and intentionally laid out.  The process took trips to the streets, sketches and photographs to create the finish product.  I truly enjoyed interpreting this everyday object into visual poetry.

I am inspired by the intensity of feelings whether it is love, passion, anxiety or hope.  My paintings are personal but however personal the emotions are universal.  Take a simple object like the rose.  Each person will see it differently.  To a romantic, it is love.  To a perfumer, it is fragrance.  To a botanist, it is a plant.  So much about life and us get “Lost In Translation” .  I chose a limited palette to define our colorful world.  The paintings are not photographic, many details are lost but the heart is there.  For this collection, I hope each viewer would be able to take the essence of the art and relate them in their own lives.

Written by Cid Reyes:

The title of the show alludes to the famous quotation of the American poet Robert Frost: “Poetry is what is lost in translation.”  In these recent works, Jemina, an avowed Abstract Expressionist, reflects on the queen of all flowers, the rose.  The subject references Shakespeare’s line, addressed by Juliet to her Romeo: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.”  The artist’s trademark feathery brushstrokes swirl gently, forming the shape, density and texture of roses. Male and female figures embody the artwork’s romantic dynamics.

“Figure Out,” at Arias Artspace at 210 Nicanor Garcia, 3rd Floor of LRI Building, Bel Air, Makati on February 20 through March 5.

Write up by Bobby Nuestro:

“Reminding us on what is used to be.”

What if the exhibition does not romanticized the everyday, the familiar, the global, the media nor identity or society neither the meaning of images as well as the metaphor?  What if the exhibition does not deconstruct, ironized and subverted existing images from pop-culture nor from art history books?  What if the exhibition does not explain the familiar terrain of creativity based on post-modernist premise of everything is acceptable as long as you discourse it right?

Figure out is a one–person exhibition of Jemina at Arias Artspace, is not concerned with the above questions.  This exhibition is a personal diary based on the usual artist inspiration, using familiar works featured in art books as the platform to create a body of works: the reclining figure, the ballerina, the overweight figure, or the brushstrokes-filled portraits. This is the basic modernist approach to painting, deciphering the figure, reducing it to its barest essential, leading us into a magical mystery tour of the paintings according to the spontaniety of familiar subjects, including classical coloring and formal compositions; all accepted as aesthetically correct.  This kind of practice goes back to when painters have been trying to prove many possibilities in renditions not only in copying and creating illusions of reality, but resulting transforming the artist’s interpretation that is well defined as freedom of expression. The outcome is a fresh and refreshing statement of familiar subjects, which could lead to a new set of parameters.

What is wrong with aesthetic?  What is wrong to create beautiful paintings?  Somehow to go back to what is the basic is so hard to swallow especially in this age of creating bad art to make it good, to promote hatred to find peace and to sing out of tune, to be heard, the artist in this exhibition is here creating familiar paintings with new meaning through the age old basic painting credo of mastering the basic elements of art, line color texture etc. which concerns only on the positive way, the formal and the tested, easy to appreciate and warming our hearts.

Sometimes we have to go back to our senses never mind the highly complicated art discourses just go back to the basic, appreciate the sweetness, innocence and reality of paintings, a painting that will never be out of tune like the paintings in this exhibition.