RENAISSANCE GALLERY CELEBRATES ITS 15TH ANNIVERSARY

Press release

AMBIDEXTROUS: THE LEFT AND THE RIGHT

JUNE 24 – JULY 4, 2018

In celebration of its 15th Anniversary, Renaissance Gallery, a leading purveyor of non-representational art in the country, presents “AMBIDEXTROUS: THE LEFT AND THE RIGHT” which opens on June 24 till July 4 at the SM Art Center, with cocktail reception on June 25 at 6 pm.

A group exhibition of artists working in both representational art and abstraction, “AMBIDEXTROUS” shall feature the works of Hermes Alegre, Art Bermido, Remy Boquiren, Arley Carig, Addie Cukingnan, Egai Fernandez, Sam Penaso, Ronaldo Ruiz, Aner Sebastian, Valen Valero and Janice Young.

“AMBIDEXTROUS” is curated by noted art critic, writer and visual artist Cid Reyes.

The Art Center is on the 4/F, Bldg. A, SM Megamall, EDSA cor. Julia Vargas Ave., Mandaluyong City. For inquiries, call Margaux Romero-Oracion at mobile: 0925-555-7790.

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AMBIDEXTROUS: THE LEFT AND THE RIGHT

By CID REYES

Henry Moore, the great British sculptor, stated, “All art is abstract in one sense. Not to like abstract qualities or not to like reality is to misunderstand what sculpture and art are about … I see no reason why realistic art and purely abstract art can’t exist in the world side by side at the same time, even in one artist at the same time. One isn’t right and the other wrong.”

On the other hand, Picasso declared, “There is no such thing as abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.” In fact, the greatest titan of twentieth century art who was a genius in representational painting, drove his works in the Cubist style to the very edge of abstraction.

The Renaissance Art Gallery, as part of its fifteenth anniversary exhibition, celebrates the talent of artists who might be regarded as ambidextrous, or possessing the ability to paint with either hand with equal ease or dexterity. Both hands, in this case, do not literally signify the left and the right hand, but rather, that each hand can represent representational art, and the other, abstraction.

Participating artists in “Ambidextrous” are Hermes Alegre, Art Bermido, Remy Boquiren, Arley Carig, Addie Cukingnan, Egai Fernandez, Sam Penaso, Ronaldo Ruiz, Aner Sebastian, Valen Valero, and Janice Young.

The show will be a revelation: some artists better known for their abstraction will demonstrate their skill and talent from years of academic and classical art, in works executed in a range of styles inflected by Impressionism and Magic Realism; while those whose reputations were built on the Mother and Child theme, still lifes, portraiture, or social realist figuration, can be impressive with their purely abstract works.

All this proves that, in certain individuals gifted in both styles, the division between figuration and abstraction is “porous,” allowing for the crossing of boundaries and demarcations, which are, to these ambidextrous artists, essentially non-existent.

Renaissance Art Gallery raises a toast - with two glasses of wine ! - to  celebrate the unlimited skill and talent of the Filipino artist !