Saturday, September 7, 2019 | 6 PM
Sigwada Art Gallery
1921 Oroquieta St. Sta Cruz, Manila, Philippines
Frustration is a familiar friend few would want to be acquainted with, for fair reasons. Frustration often rears its ugly head when least expected, but with most reason; perhaps to seek company with situations and emotions just as ugly as it appears? However it may manifest, our humanity lashes out and reacts in different ways. For one to cope and eventually release from the often rebinding chains of frustration, an outlet is needed.
These artists express their own respective dissatisfaction: whether the resentment from being rejected in relationships, a conflict in identity, or even the inconvenience from a difference in schedules, the familiar feeling of frustration is greeted by their art.
Three Man Show
Tissa Pagaduan
Megumie Alcala
Michael Cu Fua
About the Artists
MEGUMIE ALCALA
Megumie Alcala balances her activities for the arts with adept ease. Juggling between her roles as a lifeserver at Van Gogh is Bipolar in Teachers Village, and the frontwoman of the up-and-coming shoegaze band Polar Lows, Megumie delves in the arts with the wonder of conquering life’s blank white wall as her own canvas. The artist was motivated to get involved with the arts due to her fascination of Art Nouveau, an art movement that identifies itself as decorative in all natural forms founded in the environment. This movement stirred Megumie to dwell in the being of her inner child. Megumie’s pieces outline her inspirations, resulting in a soothing, hypnotic experience. Her pieces speak for safe spaces, an accessible language inclusive for everyone who believes in love.
MICHAEL CU FUA
As proof of frustration being one of the uniting realities of humanity, Michael Cu Fua is a Filipino visual artist based in Singapore. The passionate, evocative nature of his art would definitely throw off anyone knowing the fact that he was architecturally trained by profession. However, these two diametrically opposed visual styles instead come together to become a style of his own. Pretty girls may make graves, but they primarily become the visual conduit for his stories and experiences. These stories are then laid out through the use of detailed skin tones, facial features, and even the inclusion of his own blood and sperm, coalescing together in celebration of life. In addition to being a visual artist, Michael Cu Fua is also an avid novel and poetry book reader. However, writing had always been an elusive artform to him. He lets his art speak for itself, but this event sees him in his journey to intertwine both visual arts and literature with care, as to encourage him not to dread writing in the future.
TISSA PAGADUAN
With matters regarding life and canvases, Filipino born artist/illustrator Tissa Pagaduan is also one to breathe life with the language of visual arts. As a business graduate, her love for the arts came back when her cousin invited her in a group called Urban Sketchers. This not only propelled her to create sketches/paintings, but also raised confidence in her works. Describing herself as an “urban sketcher”, a title befitting her art, she elegantly creates illustrations of various people and places she encounters almost every day, painted in different canvases. Precision is key in her works, having developed a style that she describes as “quick art”. The idea of “quick art” came from her urban sketching of whatever the artist sees in front of them. The semi blind, improvised contour creates the framework for what eventually becomes an illustration you may or may not recognize, but commands attention, respect, and cheerful admiration.
