Staring Into Space

Buboy Cañafranca, Wesley Valenzuela, Wipo

Thursday, August 22, 2019, at 6pm.

Space Encounters Gallery
Unit 7D, 7/F Padilla Building, F. Ortigas Jr. Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City

Space—its many meanings as a physical image and a transcendental concept—is the main theme of this month’s Staring Into Space exhibit of Space Encounters Gallery. The group show features prolific artists Buboy Cañafranca, Wesley Valenzuela, and Wipo as they explore the various nuances and interpretations of such a vast idea.

Finding beauty in bare (animal) flesh that Cañafranca scouts in marketplaces, he is able to transpose something commercially available into a more intimate space that is his canvas; he has effectively bridged the gap between something crude and something grandiose.

This marriage of seemingly disparate ideas is also displayed in Wesley Valenzuela’s oeuvres. Heavily influenced by his previous occupation as a graphic designer, Valenzuela’s serigraphs are a storybook of downtown Manila rendered in splendor. Meanwhile, Wipo sets out to explore layers of emotions in “The Blue Room,” a space where he weaves a tale of fading memories (and what is left of those memories) through mixed media executed using various disciplines.

Still on display is Paco Pili x Space Encounters’ Fear of Flying, which was launched last May. These exhibits are staged in partnership with Heineken and Don Papa Rum.