nico + nica: Jan 19 2011: FLUX, CUTFELT and OUT OF ORDINARY SPECTACLES

In Silverlens, Eric Zamuco debuts Out of Ordinary Spectacles. His first solo show in the Philippines since 2007 features a series of photographs and video installations, which reflect a man who straddles between cultural geographies and new identities. As part of the Filipino Diaspora in the United States, Zamuco makes a social commentary on the experiences of a community that is both here and there; and yet neither here nor there. This he expresses with subjects and backgrounds that don't fit (together), as if to echo a community's displacement and detachment --from feeling out-of-place in winter to feeling perplexed on how to raise a Filipino-American child.

SLab is proud to present Flux by well-known potter, Jon Pettyjohn. This year, Pettyjohn moves beyond the traditional "functional" pottery he is known for, and into contemporary art. The flux or change is a move into a new direction that includes "experimental" works, which he “would have never done in the past”. Seemingly form over function, and contemporary over traditional, Flux however does not disregard the roots of an ancient medium. Pettyjohn highlights a process defined by change. It is in every spin of the wheel,and touch of the hand. In the "transformation of rock and clay into something beautiful", change is constant.

In 20SQUARE is the first solo show of Ryan Villamael. A recent graduate of the Fine Arts Program at the University of the Philippines, Villamael presents Cut Felt, an exhibit of drawings on paper that have more to do with what was cut out. Similar to the process of making a paper snowflake-- cutting one side of the paper, “leaving the components of the whole to chance”-- Villamael nips away to unravel the full picture.

Out of Ordinary Spectacles by Eric Zamuco, Flux by Jon Pettyjohn, and Cut Felt by Ryan Villamael open on January 19, Wednesday,6-9pm. The three shows run simultaneously until February 12,2011.

words by Bea Davila

source: http://www.silverlensphoto.com/newsletter.php?date=2011-1

all photos by: Veronica Peralejo