Jonathan Olazo

Jonathan Olazo received his Bachelor of Fine Arts Painting degree from the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1992. Olazo was a recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines 13 Artists Awards in 2007. Currently a professor in the College of Fine Arts at UP Diliman.

Olazo’s works involve densely clustered dabs and splatters of paint—with each stroke having a thick and ardent texture. He explores the chameleon-like nature of abstract painting, showing a capacity to embrace and use several ways to put life into his abstract works with varieties of expressions and movement.

Current Exhibit

It’s Casual Entertainment, We Aim to Please!

This exhibition showcases artists whose oeuvre exemplifies mastery of technique, while managing to execute with utmost freedom and control, of equal measure.

Jonathan Olazo gives us a taste of what has come out of his prolific experimentations in painting. In “Elevators and Labyrinths,” we see his use of vat dye process in creating his large ground that appears as a creased and wrinkled canvas where he superimposes child-like abstracted linear markings. In it, we see hints of door-like images in varying scales and upon prolonged viewing the overlapping lines would suggest a topographic view of a maze. His work “The Bacon Arena” likewise gives the audience a suggestive imagery of a Francis Bacon painting from the sketch-like linear imagery, in which the use of geometric lines heavily influences the space where the central figure is often placed. These works encourage the viewer to make their own connection as the automaticity of the process leaves a roomful of interpretations, subject to the playfulness of the viewer’s own imagination.

Notes by: Lec Cruz