Froilan Calayag’s “Signs of Life” exhibition is ongoing until September 9 at the Pasilyo Guillermo Tolentino (3F Hallway Gallery) of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The exhibition is presented by CCP with support from West Gallery.
Signs of Life is an exhibition that offers a threefold manifest.
The first is the fictional account of a boy who finds a large rock. Upon closer inspection, it becomes a head, and forms a figure. Moving even closer, it transforms into a planet carrying life. The rocks become the frames of the story of these life-forms that contain heroes, villains and adventures.
The second is the narrative of the man who pursued the field of art, but has been decidedly missing from the center of it. He persists, same as before, and yet does not often come out to the surface. Froilan Calayag is but one of many painters that first made a mark in the student art competition circuit, and then in commercial galleries in the first two decades of the millennium. Signs of Life is his twelfth solo exhibition in eleven years.
The third is the idea of painting within the confusing and multifaceted context of Philippine contemporary art.
In the end, the manifest, whatever can be read from it, is merely an accounting of the adventures taken on the ship. History will tell us which of these stories will find importance to those in the future.
Exhibit viewing hours are from Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm (and until 10pm on days with evening performances at the CCP Main Theater). For more information, contact the CCP Visual Arts and Museum Division at (632) 832-1125 local 1504/1505 and 832-3702, mobile 0917-6033809, email (ccp.exhibits@gmail.com), or visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph.
