Today, i received an email from my cousin… share ko lang sa inyo.
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hi, niko. attached is the invitation for my first show. IDIOmaTIC Expressions ang title. Compilation ng iba’t ibang pinoy idioms at kasabihan. Attached din ang depiction ng bawat painting. Kaw na muna bahala mag imagine kung ano itsura ng mga paintings. Tsaka na lang yung ibang pix kc di pa nadevelop. musta na lang jan, pre. Ingatan mo yung pwet mo… 
nonong
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Lotsu Manes holds his first one-man exhibition, IDIOmaTIC Expressions, at the West Gallery in SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City. The title’s play on words refers to everyday Filipino folk idioms, sayings or beliefs that relate to the viewer pragmatic approaches to life borne out of local practices, or border on idiocy brought on by ignorance, false hopes and simplistic fantasies. It is viewing existing society’s Generations X and Y, and giving it definition through the all-too-familiar, Filipino idioms or traditional proverbs (kasabihan). These sayings, given a fresh perspective, not only give advise on how to live our day-to-day lives righteously, but serve as a social commentary on current issues and practices Filipinos are used to (nakasanayan na), good or bad, which make up the daily patchwork of experiences and stories culled from a masa Filipino community.
Nasa Kabataan Ang Pag-Asa ng Bayan (The Country’s Hope Lies on the Youth) is a 5feet x 4feet painting that shows an image of a child laborer who, instead of having quality education and playtime, is bound to the rigors of hard work. Even his toy, a basketball, is chained on top of his school books, seemingly an insurmountable burden that he cannot lift to play and enjoy, with books he cannot study or browse through. The father figure who is supposed to take care of the family financially nonchalantly reads a newspaper while a leather belt is ominously displayed on the wall, promising unsubtly that punishment awaits the child if ever he decides to act his age. The boy’s prematurely burdened spirit is reiterated by the listless flying of a paper airplane tied to the wall clock, held captive in a relentless adult world.
Using centuries-old oil painting techniques on canvas, Lotsu Manes’ works portray contemporary issues encroaching the twenty-first century – media’s infiltration of the Filipino basic unit of society, the disintegration of family values, child labor, the loss of childlike wonder and innocence, poverty and the destruction of the environment. Since winning the First Prize in the 29th Shell National Student Art Competition in 1996 and being a Finalist in Metrobank Foundation’s Young Painters Annual in the years 1996 and 1997, the Philippine Women’s University Fine Arts Painting major has settled into a simpler life of being a family man away from the madding art scene crowd. His art making process has evolved from being a “deadline painter” to an artist more systematic in his approach to life and his career. Given a choice to leave the country as an overseas contract worker, he decided to stay in the Philippines and continue his art practice with the knowledge that he is able to keep his family intact amidst the struggle of everyday survival. Wielding fine brushes and rendering lifelike hues to his subjects with the painstaking technical skill and an eye for realism of a traditional oil painter, Manes currently does portraiture and restoration work for museums and private collectors.
IDIOmaTIC Expressions can be seen at the West Gallery, Artwalk, 4th Floor SM Megamall Building A, Mandaluyong City, from May 18 - __ , 2006.
To you Cousin… congratulations!!! Natupad din ang pangarap mo. Hope someday ako naman susunod sa yapak mo…
Ipost ko next time ang mga iba pa niyang gawa para makita ninyo o kung nasa Pinas kayo pwede nyong bisitahin sa Megamall.
