Past Exhibitions
Likhang Luad
Nov. 26, 2019 - Mar. 1, 2020
The works from the Ceramics Workshop led by artist Jezebel Wee encouraged the people of La Union to reconnect and rediscover their clay roots. During the workshop, they used locally sourced Terracotta from the town of San Juan, La Union. By allowing them to feel and touch the clay, it made them appreciate the process of making and understanding the importance of being patient with the terracotta. The works presented here are all handmade. Meticulously pinched, coiled and formed according to their aesthetics.
Present Archives
Mar. 9, 2019 - May 20, 2019
This first photographic exhibition of the Alfredo F. Tadiar seeks to show images of the everyday. The photographic images presented here record aspects of the daily social worlds of communities in the lowlands and highlands of the Northern Philippines. They document and show aspects of people's lives and environment that are shared and ephemeral, disappearing, or otherwise unrecognized, unacknowledged, and unarchived.
Biag Dagiti Agay-aywan
May 26, 2019 - November 20, 2019
The writing workshop, Biag Dagiti Agay-aywan: Life Stories of Nurses, encouraged Filipina nurses of various ages and from different backgrounds to tell their personal stories. Founders of Gantala Press, Faye Cura and Rae Rival, facilitated the workshop, guided participants in writing their stories and revising them for publication in a collected volume. The resulting publication was launched on May 26, together with an exhibition about nurses based on their stories. The exhibit comprised of photographs and memorabilia contributed by past and present local nurses along with the history of nursing in the Philippines was collectively curated by members of Gantala Press.
Beyond the Eyes
Nov. 10, 2018 - Feb. 12, 2019
Curated by the Artists Guild of La Union (AGLAUN), this exhibition showcases local artists' use of abstraction to broaden viewers' perceptions, interpretations, and imagination in the appreciation of beauty and in the opening up of the subconscious.
"We see through our eyes and we tend to see the superficial, but once we use different senses we somehow see beyond what the eyes can see. This Art Exhibition is beyond senses, we try to challenge our minds on a small scale. We just need a minute to let the Artwork tell you its story."
AGLAUN Artists Statement
The Inaugural Exhibition
KADKADUWA
Riel Jaramillo Hilario
December 18, 2017 – March 1, 2018
The Show
In the Ilocos, kadkaduwa refers to the self that lies between consciousness and the dream state or unconsciousness, which in turn, has been the source of all of Hilario's imagery and themes for close to 15 years of wood work. Exhibiting the works under the rubric of this vernacular term allows the artist to foreground the subject of the dreaming state in art making. Kadkaduwa also refers to the self that travels outside the body, and whose adventures in other worlds constitute the stuff of dreams when it returns.
The Artist
Riel Hilario was born Ronald Jaramillo Hilario in 1976 in Vigan Ilocos Sur. He is a fourth generation woodworker from the Jaramillos of San Vicente Ilocos Sur. He studied visual arts at the Philippine High School for the Arts as a state scholar and eventually took up painting and art history courses from the University of the Philippines. While his first solo show in 1996 up to 2001 featured paintings and drawings, Hilario has perennially worked with hand-carved wood sculpture.
He is a winner of the 2012 Ateneo Art Awards: Sneak Peak. He is also among the eight national winners of the Philippine Art Awards in 2012. He has also won residency grants to Paris through the Philippine Artist Residency Program of Alliance Française de Manille (2012) and to New York and Malaysia (2013) courtesy of the Asian Cultural Council. He has been named Elizabeth McCormack and Jerome Aron Fellow with regards to his ACC grant. The Cultural Center of the Philippines has also named the artist as among the awardees of the Thirteen Artist Awards in 2012.
