Manila Ukiyo-E Hidden Beauty

A solo show by Marius Black

June 14 – 16, 2019

Sigwada Art Gallery
1921 Oroquieta St. Sta Cruz, Manila, Philippines

You know those moments when you suddenly see something and you take a moment to appreciate it? Those moments when you’re riding a jeep orwhen you’re out fora walk and something suddenly catches your attention even justfor the split second that you’ve glanced at it.

People in the streets, sleeping, selling food or walking ahead of you. Admiring them even before it registers in your mind that what you’re seeing is actually beautiful, when you’re silently at awe at what you’re looking at and then go on with your business as if nothing happened. It’s about that. This is about admiring the hidden beauty of Manila.

Most of the time when we see people working hard, pushing their carts or simply just sitting in a certain way, we look at them silently,not even thinking about it. We look not because someone told us to look,we look because for a moment, for some reason, we are captivated with them.

We admire them for who they are and what they are doing and we keep it to ourselves.We tell no one about it. But seeing them this way, discovering them in this very moment, a picture of them is forever embedded in our in our minds.Not because we want to remember it, but because we have seen something of beauty no one else noticed.

Beauty not in the sense of fashion or glamour, beauty not in the sense off lawless actresses that mostly plague our TV, screens and magazines,but it’s a different kind of beauty. It is beauty of life unfolding,right there before our eyes.

Like catching a flower in bloom, people blossoming not because of their new or expensive shirts and dresses, quite the opposite. It’s beauty of having to live life to the fullest even with worn out clothed and patched-up pants. Living life, even if one is going through tough times. Accepting one’s self even if one has flaws and short comings. It’s about capturing the hidden beauty of the resilient Manila.

As an artist, I’m no stranger in surviving the roller coaster ride one calls life. I’m no stranger to the struggle and difficulty of selling my artworks and paintings on my own.This route is not easy, more often than not,people give up on being an artist and painting altogether upon realizing doing so,no matter how good you are, can’t produce a steady income.

I’ve been there: the gnawing feeling of hunger, uncertainty, of thoughts giving up and suicide, thoughts of death and the seemingly endless chasm of self doubt, still I strived. And after numerous failures and tries,I was finally able to create something that made it all worth it. Yes, it has been a tough journey for me.But like the people I paint and like many Filipinos have proven, life is hard, but it’s not impossible to succeed.

To my surprise, my Manila Ukiyo-E series has been widely accepted(even around the world)and is still being appreciated by numerous people who can relate to the struggle of life, along with the lesson that:Beauty can be found almost anywhere, only if we learn how to see them.

“It comes out in the art” is what people say when I tell them that I enjoy making these artworks of mine.And as simple as that may sound, I’m glad to have it because it’s actually something rare to have in life.The joy of making and creating, what you love to do and have it be appreciated by others.

HIDDEN BEAUTY is about discovering the grace of the people living in Manila that is often overlooked.This exhibit is about the people who I randomly see whom I find inspiration from, the strangers I encountered to which when I paint them, I seemingly get to know them a little better even if they do not know me and they do not know I have painted them. This my way of sharing what I see beautiful in our city.

Not everyone has seen these moments I’m about to show you,but everyone knows when they have witnessed and felt something similar. It’s because we can see beauty all around us, we can all find the hidden beauty of Manila.Learning that true beauty lies beyond what we see in our own eyes.And maybe in doing so,we might learn to appreciate people for who or what they are.Accepting them,treating them as people just like you and me,even if they have flaws because we all do, because no one is really perfect, and it’s okay to have imperfections. It’s perfectly human.And being human is what makes us beautiful.

Marius Black
Manila
2019

ARTIST’S BIO

Marius A. Funtilar also known as Marius Black is a 33 year old Filipino artist. He studied in the University of Santo Tomas taking up Fine Arts Major in Painting and graduated Cum Laude in 2007. He has since exhibited both group and solo shows in numerous galleries such as The Ayala Museum, Vinyl on Vinyl, KANTO Artists – Run Space, Metro Gallery, the NCCA Gallery and many others. He is a traditional painter and the founder of Kuro Saku, a tandem art group with his wife Guada. They write, draw and self-publish their own independent comic books, manga, art books, poetry and short novels.

Manila Ukiyo-E is an art series Marius created back in late 2017. The process of producing a single artwork is both tedious and fascinating. First he takes candid pictures of random people he sees on the streets. He then prints and traces the outline of the photo on to paper. Then pencils and inks the outlines and scans it to his computer, after which he prints them via laser printer on to watercolor paper. He then paints the colors on each print by hand using gouache, color markers, highlighters and other water based media. Thus each Manila Ukiyo-E piece he creates is both a print and an original artwork hybrid. The whole process he says, is a modern version of Japanese Ukiyo-e prints.