After seven years, Leslie De Chavez returns to the Philippine art scene with a big and loud sigh. De Chavez has much to say with Buntong Hininga, his “breathe out” of his “experiences, disappointments, observations and imaginations about Filipino contemporary life and its imperfections”.

On May 22, Saturday, from 3-5PM, de Chavez will explore the stories –the good and the bad- behind his paintings; sculptural installations with numerous statues of the same masked man; two statements- one written with cement letters, the other with pen on paper; greased bamboo ladders; and a video installation with a wax-figure of a crucified Christ. Through various mediums, de Chavez creates scenes of people and objects, each symbolizing a story from the Book of Philippine socio-politics. He references particularly the enduring effects of the chapters on Spanish colonization and American imperialism, on political scandal and corruption, all immersed in themes of poverty and hypocrisy.

His critical, yet searching narratives span a colorful journey from Lucban, Quezon to Korea, from politics to art. Join de Chavez as he recounts Buntong Hininga’s story…

Using symbolism, set within his characteristic quiet, dark and ghoulish backdrop, De Chavez creates a narrative that is critical, but is also searching. With ideas of “self-preservation, spiritual decay, dissatisfaction, corruption, and culture of impunity”, Buntong Hininga reminds Filipinos of the inspiration Philippine social and political history never provided, and gives a glimpse of the possible future.  On view at Silverlens Gallery | SLab | 20SQUARE until May 22.  For inquiries, please contact 816-0044 and 0917-5874011, email manage@silverlensphoto.com or log on to www.silverlensphoto.com.

For the first time in seven years, Leslie De Chavez releases his frustration and disappointment in the Philippines’ history of struggle and shortcoming in the Philippines… and this time with a big and loud sigh.

Philippine socio-politics has been the keystone of De Chavez’s art since 2002, and he expresses it without words or sound, but with images and colors that blare out very strong ideas and resonating emotions. This show, entitled Buntong Hininga, realizes (what he feels is) the Filipino reply to socio-political reality: the collective sigh. De Chavez describes it as “for the most time, the immediate or probably the only thing we can do” when faced with such dim situations.

It is without coincidence that De Chavez’s work comes at a most fitting time. With election fever on its final and most crucial course, De Chavez fills the three exhibition spaces of Silverlens Gallery with paintings, installations and video projections with themes only too familiar to the Filipino people. With the cancers born from colonization, poverty and disorder firmly embedded in society, Filipinos are…

Going beyond the boundaries of paper, Paper Panic! engages us in dialogue as it exposes the colors of life. With a background in advertising as graphic designers, Dina Gadia and Mark Salvatus know quite well what is popular, what sells and entices, and what alienates and turns off. Each takes what they have learned and experienced in their practice and infuses them with their respective questions, ideas and emotions.

Paper Panic! highlights Gadia and Salvatus’ preference for the collage, which to them is beyond the literal cut and paste. Drawing from their varied interests and influences (such as Gadia’s attraction to the 30s to 70s eras, movie posters, and comics; and Salvatus’ interest in street art)Gadia and Salvatus combine these different elements to make a single image or thought. They deconstruct and reconstruct to make every piece of work whole.

Salvatus invites us to imagine ‘what was’ and to question ‘what is and is not’. Feel anger, comedy, fear, abstraction and vision, he says.Gadia, on the other hand, tells us of ‘the way things are’.…

Opening on January 13, 6PM at SLab, Silverlens Gallery and will run until February 6. It will open simultaneously with Stereo 1 Juan Caguicla and Christina Dy at Silverlens Gallery and Paper Panic! by Dina Gadia and Mark Salvatus in 20Square, SLab Gallery. Gaston Damag will have his Artist Talk on January 19, Tuesday, 5-7PM at Slab.

For inquiries, please contact 816-0044 or 0917-5874011 and email manage@silverlensphoto.com. Silverlens Gallery is located at 2/F YMC Bldg. II, 2320 Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday from 10AM–7PM and Saturdays 1–6PM.

SLab proudly presents a collection of design pieces by Stanley Ruiz, an industrial designer and media artist currently based in Brooklyn, New York.  Ruiz recreates modern everyday objects—a clock, a bowl, a set of crayons—from raw organic materials fused with machine wrought processes and elements. He celebrates both the handcrafted uniqueness of art and design together with the homologous industrial and mechanical sterility.

Early during his career, Ruiz practiced industrial design for Jonathan Adler and has taken part in a number of design and art shows in New York, Frankfurt, Paris, Estonia Helsinki and Hong Kong. In his show at 20Square, Ruiz attempts to reinterpret familiar objects, and explore the meaning and application of these objects within our contemporary spheres. He returns to what is basic, using folk culture symbols as visual guides, organic elements (twigs and bark) as core materials and hand assembly and evolves the process to produce modern forms with new and relevant functions. His work is a study, almost a historical approach to design, as he explores, experiments and fuses craft with…

SLab proudly presents Satellite: Eye In The Sky by Gus Albor.  A show inspired by the omniscience of the satellite, its relentless scrutinizing and participation in our lives. Albor, a seasoned abstract expressionist, first emerged from the 70’s art scene with his now signature abstract and minimalist approach. He sustains this contemplative nature in his show, signifying our collective and constant meditation on the simplicity and complexity of life, in comparison to the ceaseless watchfulness of the satellite. This visual dialogue is resounded in the make and imagery of the paintings and sculptures and even more in the restless laser light installation.

Opening on August 12, 6PM in SLab, Silverlens Gallery and will run until the September 12. It opens simultaneously with Some Of The Things You Don’t Already Have by Julius Clar at 20Square Gallery. For inquiries, please contact 816-0044, 0905-2650873, email manage@silverlensphoto.com, or visit www.silverlensphoto.com. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 10AM–7PM & Saturdays 1–6PM. Silverlens Gallery is located at 2/F YMC Bldg. II, 2320 Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati.

SLab proudly presents Julius Clar’s 2nd installation of his previous show of shadow box assemblages. Clar methodically puts together curious pieces collected from thrift shops, flea markets and found objects assembled in shadow boxes made of balsa wood and some in Narra. Opening on August 12, 6PM in 20 Square, SLab, and will run until the August 29. It opens simultaneously with Satellite: Eye In The Sky by Gus Albor at SLab.

For inquiries, please contact 816-0044, 0905-2650873, email manage@silverlensphoto.com. or visit www.silverlensphoto.com. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 10AM–7PM & Saturdays 1–6PM. Silverlens Gallery is located at 2/F YMC Bldg. II, 2320 Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati.

When unearthing what has been left behind, the urge to reconstruct the lingering fragments of memory manifests itself– not only to make sense of the story but as well as to blueprint what is remembered. There is something to be said about how certain unexpected reminiscences seem to burn more brightly than others that they lead us to reassess the past.

In Land of Promise, pixie-like sisters Gail Vicente (older of the two by four years) and Marija Vicente return to the accounts of their childhood, fleshing out a shared autobiography that encapsulates the struggle between what was perceived then and what is seen through retrospect.

Opening at the 20Square Gallery, SLab on July 15, 6PM and will run until August 1. Land Of Promise by Gail Vicente and Marija Vicente will be shown alongside Dead Ends and False Starts by Mariano Ching at SLab and Sundance by Kawayan de Guia, Neal Oshima, Allan Razo and Julius Clar at the Silverlens Gallery.

For inquiries, please contact 816-0044 and 0905-2650873, email manage@silverlensphoto.com or log on to www.silverlensphoto.com. Gallery hours…

SLab proudly presents a series of work in an array of materials—of acrylic paintings on paper, canvas and metal signages. In this show, Mariano depicts a dreamer and his desire for utopia in a post-apocalyptic world and presents a silver lining despite decay and obsolescence.

Opening on July 15, 6PM and will run until the August 8. As a related gallery activity, he will also show a film, In The Realms Of The Unreal: The Mystery Of Henry Darger, on July 25 at the Silverlens Gallery, from 3-5PM. This exhibit will also be shown alongside Sundance by Kawayan de Guia, Neal Oshima, Allan Razo and Julius Clar at Silverlens Gallery and Land of Promise by Gail Vicente and Marija Vicente at 20Square Gallery.

For inquiries, please contact 816-0044 and 0905-2650873, email manage@silverlensphoto.com   or visit www.silverlensphoto.com. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday 10AM–7PM and Saturdays 1–6PM. Silverlens Gallery is located at 2/F YMC Bldg. II, 2320 Pasong Tamo Ext., Makati,