Fiction / Non-Fiction
Two-man show: R.M. de Leon | Jonathan Olazo
6 – 30 September 2008
 

Fiction/Non-Fiction, a two-man show by R.M. de Leon and Jonathan Olazo, opens next week at Galleria Duemila in Manila. The exhibit features recent works by De Leon in acrylic on paper and by Olazo in oil on canvas.

Fiction/Non-Fiction is the second collaborative exhibit between the two artists at Galleria Duemila, the first being the two-man show entitled Figuring in July 2007. As with the first show, De Leon and Olazo approach this joint event on separate terms, with differing concerns as visual artists. Each one's style, process, and output in painting is pursued independently of the other—the collaborative aspect of the show surfacing in the two's common conceptual concerns.

The 2008 show explores the binary oppositions of fiction/non-fiction as a process of representation. The collaborating artists approach these dualities on differing aspects, though.

De Leon centers on the concept of non-fiction, exploring how dated comic book illustrations (essentially fictive representations) may serve as documentation of reality as mediated through mass/popular media and visual culture. Replete in his paintings are occurrences that may once have seemed extraordinary, but are now commonplace realities: natural disasters and catastrophes, homes torn asunder, partings both literal and figurative.

Conversely, Olazo directs his sights towards fiction-building through painting, merging and straddling the lines between abstraction and representational forms in his canvases.  The artist strives for fictions that do not anchor themselves on narratives: thus covering up implied representations of superheroes and clowns with erasures and distortions. Seen together, De Leon and Olazo's collaboration have produced works both fictive and reflective of realities, both personal and actual.

R.M. de Leon is known for his whimsical and graphic works. He was the first Filipino awardee of the studio arts program for painting of the Vermont Studio Center in the United States. De Leon is also an art educator, currently serving as a lecturer for the De La Salle University's arts program and a coordinator of annual children's art workshops in Quezon City.

Working mainly in abstraction, Jonathan Olazo was the recipient of the Thirteen Artists Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in 1994. As a printmaker, Olazo twice won the Third Prize in the Graphic Arts Category of the Art Association of the Philippines competition in 1986 and 1987. Both artists received their degrees in Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

Fiction / Non-Fiction opens on the 6^th of September (Saturday) 2008 and will run up to the end of the month. For inquiries, please contact Galleria Duemila at Tel.Nos. (632) 833 9815 and (632) 831 9990 or email us at duemila@mydestiny.net