OAAW Crossroads Catalog (with updated QR Code)

presents
CROSSROADS
a group exhibit by
Fitz Herrera, Binong Javier, Marlon Magbanua
Coeli Manese, Bea Policarpio and Resty Tica
June 6 – August 12, 2023
Gallery C, Conrad Manila

Crossroads
Conrad Manila proudly unveils its 3 rd exhibit for 2023, the
24th installment of its highly-acclaimed “Of Art and Wine”
exhibition series at Gallery C, featuring the works of Fitz Herrera,
Binong Javier, Marlon Magbanua, Coeli Manese, Bea Policarpio, and
Resty Tica.
In light of its 7 th anniversary celebration, the hotel elevates its
commitment to providing its guests with great stays and a glimpse of
perfection – the symbolic representation of number 7, through its
own brand of Filipino hospitality, unique gastronomic experience, and
contemporary art. This seamless interconnection is well represented
by exceptional artworks, albeit crafted by different abstractionists,
each with unique approach and style.
“Of Art and Wine: Crossroads” will be on exhibit at Conrad
Manila’s Gallery C from June 6 to August 12, 2023. The artworks
are available individually for purchase. For more information,
please call Conrad Manila at +63 2 8833 9999 or email
Ruston.Dongaol@conradhotels.com
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Crossroads
CROSSROADS
Over a century later, since the Russian Wassily Kandinsky discovered and
pioneered the art of abstraction in 1906, this manner of painting still puzzles
not a few. Defined as art that "does not attempt to represent an accurate
depiction of a visual reality," abstract art in our country continues to
encounter resistance and bafflement. In the 1950s, pioneers in this idiom –
also known as non-representation or non-objective – were Hernando R.
Ocampo, later proclaimed National Artist; Victor Oteyza; Charito Bitanga;
and Jose Joya, also a future National Artist.
Generation after generation, decade after decade, more Filipino artists,
brash and enthusiastic, have emerged to pursue the challenge of
abstraction, which, because of its nature, is unfettered by reality, ushering
their art into regions and dimensions of human feeling, emotional states,
psychic spaces, and spiritual terrains unreached by images of portraits,
landscapes, nudes, still lifes, and other representational formats.
Today, we see the emergence of Fitz Herrera, Resty Tica, Bea Policarpio,
Coeli Manese, Marlon Magbanua, and Binong Javier. In this exhibition at
Conrad Manila titled "Crossroads," curated by Nestor Jardin, the divergent
paths of these six abstractionists have intersected, as it were, in this sitespecific
location. The interrelationships of each individual work of art with
the others and this exhibition space, are welcome and providential.
"Crossroads" is a hallmark of Conrad Manila’s commitment to the promotion
and exhibition of the finest in contemporary Philippine art.
– Cid Reyes
3

FITZ
HERRERA
"The canvas as an arena in which to act" is the famous statement that the
American critic Harold Rosenberg used to describe the newly emerging
movement, which he labeled Action Painting." It was, however, superseded
by the now more acceptable label "abstract expressionism." An exciting
colorist, Fitz Herrera whips the arena of his many canvases with lashings of
the thickest impastos in the most luscious colors, each jostling its way for
space. The result is a rousing symphony of bristling and vivid hues,
uninhibited in their brio and bravado, dispensing cheer and joy. Seemingly
humming and bubbling, a long-running series of works titled Happiness,
aptly captures their unique power to bring smiles to the viewer's face. These
paintings sing out!
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Crossroads
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Crossroads
Fitz Herrera
Smile (Series)
Acrylic on Canvas
23 x 17 in
2023
PHP 50,000
Fitz Herrera
Smile (Series)
Acrylic on Canvas
23 x 17 in
2023
PHP 50,000
6

BINONG
JAVIER
The art of Binong Javier rivets the retina, as if determined not to release the
eyes from the painting’s mesmeric hold. Gazillions of squeezed-out, tiny
globules of pure, unsullied pigment blanket the pictorial space, arrayed in
militantly ordered fashion for the viewer’s delectation. In the artist’s hand,
color and material become one, triumphantly achieving visual cohesiveness,
with the eye and the mind inveigled to do the color blending, resulting in a
more intense luminosity. Needless to say, Javier subscribes to the idiom of
pointillism, the revolutionary painting technique pioneered by Georges
Seurat and Paul Signac. Binong Javier, however, used the technique in the
service of pure abstraction, giving it a formal thrust. Indeed, this is a radical
change that will gladden the hearts and eyes of the two French masters.
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Crossroads
Binong Javier
In All Its Glory I
Acrylic on Canvas
48 x 24 in
2023
PHP 85,000
Binong Javier
In All Its Glory II
Acrylic on Canvas
48 x 24 in
2023
PHP 85,000
Binong Javier
In All Its Glory III
Acrylic on Canvas
48 x 24 in
2023
PHP 85,000
9

Crossroads
Binong Javier
One Heart Illuminates Another
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 36 in
2023
PHP 100,000
Binong Javier
Beyond The Golden Grass
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 48 in
2023
PHP 140,000
10

MARLON
MAGBANUA
Wassily Kandinsky, the founder, and pioneer of abstraction, was said to
experience synesthesia, meaning "joined perception," a rare condition
whereby one sense (hearing) triggers another sense (sight). Listening to
music while painting, Kandinsky saw corresponding colors to the sound
notes. He even titled his works with the musical terms Impressions and
Improvisations. However, Filipino artist Marlon Magbanua does Kandinsky's
one better. The artist is a professional musician playing with a band.
Synesthesia being a personal experience, the viewer can only experience
vicariously what Magbanua undergoes in the process of creation. For this
artist, music and art are the most compatible bedfellows.
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Crossroads
Marlon Magbanua
Magenta Doppler Effect I
Acrylic on Canvas Laminated
with Clear Resin
36 x 36 in
2023
PHP 80,000
Marlon Magbanua
Magenta Doppler Effect II
Acrylic on Canvas Laminated
with Clear Resin
36 x 36 in
2023
PHP 80,000
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Crossroads
Marlon Magbanua
Blue Doppler Effect I
Acrylic on Canvas Laminated
with Clear Resin
36 x 36 in
2023
PHP 80,000
Marlon Magbanua
Blue Doppler Effect II
Acrylic on Canvas Laminated
with Clear Resin
36 x 36 in
2023
PHP 80,000
14

COELI
MANESE
Simplified forms germinate from a reductive and gentle geometry that
eschews the hard-edge rigidity of minimalist art – just such a stillness that
brings to mind the mystical lyricism of Mark Rothko, the American Abstract
Expressionist. Manese constructs architecturally, solid tableaux of flat,
undifferentiated planes and surfaces that often allude to horizons and
perspectives, evocative of landscapes surely, but stripped of references to
verdant fields and vegetation. In their underpinnings, they are classical
structures. A technically oriented painter, Coeli Manese calibrates her cool
and elegant walls of light with her intuitive predilection for ashen gray,
subdued brown, tan, and beige.
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Crossroads
Coeli Manese
No Fear In Love #1
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 36 in
2023
PHP 88,700
Coeli Manese
No Fear In Love II
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 24 in
2023
PHP 58,700
17

Crossroads
Coeli Manese
No Fear In Love III
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 36 in
2023
PHP 88,700
Coeli Manese
No Fear In Love IV
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 24 in
2023
PHP 58,700
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BEA
POLICARPIO
The vigorous sweep and velocity of Bea Policarpio’s restless brushstrokes
carry the viewer away into a region where competing forces are at play.
Oceanic vistas, swirling cloudscapes, spectral whirlwinds, volcanic eruptions
– the artist gives tremendous visual weight to the coiling and writhing of paint
as physical material, tearing space asunder – nature in a state of turbulence.
This is artmaking at full throttle and intensity. One imagines the artist’s hand
and arm outstretched, straining the agitated pigments from leaping out into
the air. The artist unleashes paint in torrents. To be caught, willingly and
blissfully, in the vortex of artmaking is the triggering force behind Bea
Policarpio’s artistry.
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Crossroads
Bea Policarpio
Do You Realize?
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 48 in
2023
PHP 101,000
Bea Policarpio
In The Meantime
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 48 in
2023
PHP 101,000
21

Crossroads
Bea Policarpio
Spirit In The Sky
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 48 in
2023
PHP 101,000
Bea Policarpio
Que Sera Sera
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 48 in
2023
PHP 101,000
22

RESTY
TICA
Resty Tica creates a quiet interplay between the placidity of space and the
contained tension of jewel-like colors, content to glisten in their interiorized
domain. The works may look sparse, awaiting animation, but therein lies
precisely the distillation of their muted elegance. Steeped in introspection
and lingering just a few steps away from theatricality, they solicit silence and
serenity with their light-filled atmosphere and open space. Like rosy islands
sunlit and drifting in the midst of a vast sea, in their isolation, they lie beating
still, despite the textures and drips that he wields as trademarks of Abstract
Expressionism. Resty Tica is sensitive to the aesthetics of stillness, a
species of Zen sensibility with its detachment from visual clutter and
commotion., but does not shrink away from the wonderment of color.
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Crossroads
Resty Tica
Floating Colors
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 48 in
2023
PHP 120,000
Resty Tica
Purple Dusk
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 48 in
2023
PHP 120,000
25

Crossroads
Resty Tica
Sea Jellies
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 48 in
2023
PHP 120,000
Resty Tica
Sinking Sun
Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 48 in
2023
PHP 120,000
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Published 2023 by Conrad Manila
All rights reserved @ 2023
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and
retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher and/or artists.
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