Raw Material is the second installment of artist Soler Santos’ series of the same name, an exhibit of four pieces shown previously at West Gallery. Expanding on the same themes, whilst locked down and quarantined at home, it is a prolonged meditation on the innocuous and a celebration of the ordinary.
With a pandemic raging around the world and the only recourse as a non-essential worker is to stay home to keep safe, Soler has turned to a daily practice of collaging and painting, amassing a collection of different deconstructions and reconfigurations, a family created through patience and the process of staying still and keeping stock of what is around you. Because of this imposed immobility, there is a movement towards what is within reach and what has been collected over the years.
A series of collages is reminiscent in shape and configuration of Roberto Chabet’s “China Collage” series: a square canvas with a smaller square cut out of the lower left corner. Perhaps a subconscious homage to his mentor and teacher, Soler’s works are imbued with a tenderness and sentimentality that is hard to insert in such an unemotional subject. There is silent reverence; it is evidence of the body’s movement towards establishing a connection to someone who has long been gone, but is still present in the world he moves in.
Because of the situations that surround Raw Material that may have led one to feel restless or stranded or stuck, it has instead come to be about rootedness and what valuable treasure can be discovered in the resulting undergrowth, when you stay still long enough to find them. A resigned calm pervades this body of work: an acceptance of what is given, and the ways in which we deal with what these things turn out to be.
About the Artist
About the Artists
Soler Santos (b. 1960) attended the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Fine Arts from 1978-82. He is a painter and photographer. Santos founded West Gallery with his wife and fellow artist, Mona Santos, in 1989.
Santos has represented the Philippines in international events such as the 1st ASEAN Youth Painting and Workshop in Thailand (1983), the 2nd Asian Art Show in Japan (1985), and the 11th International Biennial Print and Drawing Exhibition at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (2004). He is the recipient of the First Prize from the ASEAN Painting Competition (1983) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award (1992).
Santos has shown in both solo and group exhibitions at spaces including the Luz Gallery, Blanc Gallery, Silverlens Galleries, Finale Art File, MO_Space, Artinformal, the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the ICA La Salle College of the Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Related Exhibitions
About the Artists
About the Artist
Soler Santos (b. 1960) attended the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Fine Arts from 1978-82. He is a painter and photographer. Santos founded West Gallery with his wife and fellow artist, Mona Santos, in 1989.
Santos has represented the Philippines in international events such as the 1st ASEAN Youth Painting and Workshop in Thailand (1983), the 2nd Asian Art Show in Japan (1985), and the 11th International Biennial Print and Drawing Exhibition at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (2004). He is the recipient of the First Prize from the ASEAN Painting Competition (1983) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award (1992).
Santos has shown in both solo and group exhibitions at spaces including the Luz Gallery, Blanc Gallery, Silverlens Galleries, Finale Art File, MO_Space, Artinformal, the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the ICA La Salle College of the Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Related Exhibitions
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