Migs Villanueva
October 21 – 31, 2019
Power Plant Mall
Rockwell Center, 1200 Makati
Villanueva is a multi-awarded writer, a very much sought after painter, and a former president of the prestigious Saturday Group. She is known for her refreshingly simplified depiction of children, employing a wabi-sabi style which pares down the elements of form to their most basic, in order to highlight essence instead. Using the simplest lines and often, only hints of soft, harmonious color, she is able to convey simplicity and innocence – precious attributes in children, which, we as adults tend to lose. In Catch Me If You Can, the artist presents twenty-eight artworks which include an introduction of two new series – the Shroud Series, of which there are nine works, and the Motion Series, of which there are seven works. Both series take on the idea of activity, movement, and action, in different ways. The latter contains the title piece of this exhibition, Catch Me If You Can.
Catch Me If You Can, shares the same title as a 2002 movie featuring Leonardo di Caprio as a forger. He becomes so good at it, and the movie basically involves the chase, until that the FBI eventually seek him out to help them catch other forgers. The exhibit by Villanueva, poses a similar mischievous, but altogether innocent challenge, often employed by her grandchildren. Villanueva, who is now a grandmother, insists in giving her grandchildren the right to do as they please, to prolong their childhood as much as possible.
Delighting in their playfulness and carefree innocence, she paints them in various activities suggesting situations of joyful discovery and make-believe wonder. By sharing her own experiences through her work, she invites viewers to make their own connection with their own childhood, and remember their own joys, when they were themselves children. She firmly believes that the world will be a better place if we think of children, and be as they are. What sets this exhibition apart from her previous works is that the Motion series present children at play, in the act of moving. This is a departure from the still poses that the children in her work have previously been depicted in. In this new series, they are rambunctious and playful, as most children are.
The Shroud series, on the other hand, are a natural progression from the wispy and diaphanous depiction she has always done. The translucent veils which billow around the children add an air of implied movement.
Catch Me If You Can is presented by Galerie Francesca in partnership with Galerie Joaquin. The exhibit will be up on view on October 21 – 31 at Powerplant Mall Rockwell, with an artist’s reception happening on October 21, 6PM.
Find us at
Galerie Joaquin
R1 level, Expansion Wing
Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center, Makati.
For inquiries please contact us through
02-8659 2667
02-8723 9253
www.galeriefrancesca.com
