Natural or man-made occurrences, storms have become a part of our lives. It is this seeming regularity that Alvin Villaruel discusses visually in his latest one-man exhibit, titled Low Pressure Islands, which runs at the West Gallery in SM Megamall from October 11 to 23.
Villaruel, basing his images from photographed and published images, shows that something is brewing, albeit world-changing events like war and major hurricanes, ranging from cloud formations and hints of a country at war. He recalls that this is not the first time he has used war photography as a reference, using them before to shape his abstract works. His interest was heightened after talking to elders who personally experienced such wars. “Storms are like wars,” says Villaruel, seeing the similarities between a brewing storm and escalating war.
“I tend to use reds and other warm colors more often”, notes Villaruel in his attempt to capture the urgency and the impact of his chosen subjects. “I’ve retained the soft edges and some glare,” he adds, giving the images depth and breadth. The blurring of the images comes into play to stimulate perspective: “Sometimes, I blur the foreground, [to make it look] like you’re looking into a camera’s field of depth.”
Villaruel also makes sure that when selecting images have a foreground or a background. Sometimes he manipulates the perspective as he sees it fit, and at times adding a linear perspective into the composition. While he makes sure to devote several hours painting every day, he also enjoys composing or playing with images with the help of a computer. The cloud formations at the height of hurricane Katrina, for example, proved to be good jump-off points. He enjoys seeing and selecting such images and then rendering them as his own in the canvas.
Once he has chosen an image and has decided on how to translate it into painting, the process then continues with pencil sketches or rough brushstrokes, doing away with studies or grids and forming the images with a free hand to retain the soft visual effects he had always in mind. To Villaruel, who sometimes merges figurative subjects with abstract forms, both approaches are interesting. He likes to explore figurative images, especially in the light of the consequences of war. When he is doing abstracts, his concerns are mostly based on art-related issues and they come out more playful visually. His figurative works take on a more subjective view, and eventually, he wants the audience to see the gravity of the scenes he chose to highlight, whether they are directly or indirectly caused by something he feels strongly about.
Villaruel studied painting at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. He was a finalist at the 1994 Shell National Students Art Competition and won honorable mention at the 2001 Art Association of the Philippines Annual Art Competition.
Documentation
