Realize, Real Eyes, Real Lies

Reynold Dela Cruz

Opening
March 27, 2021

Art Cube Gallery
Karrivin Plaza, 2316 Chino Roces Avenue 1231 Makati, Philippines

Realizations

Jay Bautista

Award winning visual artist Reynold Dela Cruz paints every single day. No day offs or holiday. An old timer in the art scene– a trained worker–who painstakingly strives on a daily wage he foregoes to see a muse for inspiration to create. Like clockwork, he shows up at his studio upstairs from his home as soon as he wakes up. And while taking his morning coffee, he is already mixing his paints. This work ethic is adhered regardless if ever he will have an upcoming show or not.

As a responsible artist, he paints what preoccupies his mind and reacts to what is happening to his surroundings. He is at the stage of his career where he can paint his heart’s desire and often expresses an opinion or two in the pieces he constantly churns out. Mind you there is no same Dela Cruz painting—all are different, opinionated, and a visual feast.

His current exhibition Realize, Real Eyes, Real Lies gather during this pandemic may be his most political showing yet. Not leaving no stone unturned. These were his realizations–a play for words he has always been fond of—they are what he saw, they are the bare truth and these are his lamentations.

The internet has been his pet peeve these days. A father of two boys, Dela Cruz remains aghast against the positive merits of social media. In Deadly Innocence Dela Cruz speaks of how children had been lavishly corrupted by information age/edge through the worldwide web that they have turned into two-headed monsters that speak even wiser than their elders. Dela Cruz has raised the alarm of peril as he morphs a child into a lion resulting into an ferocious beast. Notice how Dela Cruz merges the faces in one unified image with bipolar meaning.

Another fool in Dela Cruz’s vocabulary are pseudo collectors who use and abuse artists just to lure them just to make a greedy purchase. Eye on the Prize lends credence to how many bright people end up as false prophets leading to the wrong cause. They forget the artist as soon as they tricked them and flip his art for a bigger turnaround sale. A solid critic to guard against the tides of the prevalence of the art auctions and art fairs.

Even Dela Cruz himself is torn by the decisions he makes. Evident to that is Contrary showing Dela Cruz undergoing conflicts and he needs to distance himself for discernment. In the end, one must always aim at the greater good.

Dela Cruz is deep man of faith and armed with Biblical connotations is Deceptive Forest. A poetic parable against the presence of evil and sometimes we are lured by a beautiful face in its disguise. We immediately give in to temptation and resort to committing sin. Dela Cruz sees this parallelism with our government’s relationship with China where we are promised sugar-coated plans only to be duped on a one-sided affair as we dwell deeper in our own quagmire.

Dela Cruz is a poet of irony that he can visualize his images concealed with his real intentions. His artistic prowess is you are seeing more than what you are experiencing. State of Deception pertains again to the Chinese who have claimed our historical islands found in our own maps and have even brought the virus on our shores. Dela Cruz however argues if we can really resist them as culturally and economically we are entwined since we have already been overwhelmed by their influence

Thorns has reference again to the Bible of which Dela Cruz is well-versed. Represented by the fish, thorns signify burden as we are manipulated by how the powerful control our lives only to end up being wasted themselves. Notice the neck ruffles which is a staple Dela Cruz connoting the rich exuding European parlance. A kind of postcolonial soliloquy in the making.

Dela Cruz starts with a beautiful image as a subject. He then researches on the images and composes around it—all related to the general theme in mind. He then adds his signature flowers, or foliage that would compliment the picture. Often he adds a fictitious dragon which is a remnant of a bygone time he was doing henna tattoo by the beaches of Boracay.

Flowers and foliage have occupied Dela Cruz canvases ever since Dela Cruz went to Mt. Pulag in 2015. He saw wild foliage and flowers that he could not forget them. He immortalizes them on canvas. He also depicts that we are in our own forest that we ran blindly unaware of the wild oats that sow our fields of consciousness and morals.

As soon as the paint has dried up and subsided, he slits his canvases using a rulers and cutter—this is to know he is done. Only Dela Cruz does this sacrifice which only shows his belief that nothing is permanent—that even the most beautiful images can perish, might as well I do the sacrificial act. This is the death of the artist and Dela Cruz is fine with it.

In this ongoing pandemic one cannot help feel sense of fleeting moments—of uselessness and foreboding prevalence of going-through the motions. One feels what it is to be slowly losing it as seen in Drifting. As two opposing demarcation face the challenge of just letting go. Dela Cruz is a master of in illustrated motion. He conveys fluidity as he makes surrender look like ecstacy. A similar sense can be felt in Deep Sigh where one cannot breathe as if being wrapped in a feeling of anxiety, of being drowned from our sorrows and a sense of helplessness forebodes. Can a fish drown on its own water?

Silent Moaning refer to those who remain defiant against the odds. Again a reference to Dela Cruz who uses art to get back at his detractors. In keeping their opinions to themselves yet they are shouting from within.

It is hoped through Realize, Real Eyes, Real Lies Dela Cruz reminds viewers before we act we should think what is right not only for our children but fellow Filipinos. And as we bid our goodbyes, Dela Cruz that was already painting his next painting for his next exhibition.