RACONTEURPH

When art is sweeter the second time around

Hot on the heels of his first solo exhibition after more than 30 years, world-renowned Filipino artist Rodolfo Gan recently staged his second solo exhibit titled Prism 2 at Finale Art File in Makati City. Attended by personalities in the local art scene, the exhibit showcased a collection of 11 paintings, highlighting Gan’s mastery in using the airbrush as his signature method in producing square abstract paintings that evoke balance, lightness, and transparency of pure geometric lines and forms.

Described as timeless and dynamic, critical and introspective, yet always forward-looking, his works reflect on the traditions of modernism, cubism, and geometrism. Considerably a study of light, Gan's paintings show how fine mists of gradient color give way to decisive lines and rugged edges bending into box-like structures to explore emotional and mental landscapes.

Gan has taken inspiration from the works of Philippine modern art pioneers Fernando Zobel, Lee Aguinaldo, and Roberto Chabet, three artists who also inspired many young artists in the 1970s and other succeeding generations. A fine arts graduate with a major in advertising at the University of Santo Tomas, Gan won several top prizes locally and internationally, and started staging exhibits at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and the Luz Gallery in 1970.

He held his first solo exhibition at the latter in 1972, the same year when he was also named as one of the CCP Thirteen Artists. His works were also shown as part of the ASEAN Collection in Israel, Jakarta, and Hong Kong, and in the 7th Paris Biennale in France. In 2014, Gan staged his first solo exhibition after more than 30 years of focusing on his printing business.

Rodolfo Gan’s Prism 2 exhibit will be up until February 11, 2019 at the Upstairs Gallery of Finale Art File, La Fuerza Compound in Makati City.