Baguio-based artist Leonardo Aguinaldo is no stranger to success. His rubber-cut lino works have made a remarkable impact: as Grand Prize winner of the ASEAN Art Awards, Bangkok 2004 and his remarkable 2005 exhibition, “Ay-Apo” at Galleria Duemila. But in this, his tenth solo exhibition, we see a diversion from his ‘characteristic’ style and a return to paper.  What may seem disjunctive is in fact a mature exploration of ideas that transcends medium, as Aguinaldo says: 

“Expressing in different mediums creates different visual aesthetics but the meaning or message would be the same. The connection is the ideas [and] events that inspire me, whether it be from my personal experiences or as an observer in my immediate surroundings.”

“Subjects” is a series of mix media drawings on Korean rice paper dating back to 1998, a group of artworks made for the Philippine Centennial.  Why show them now? These works are timeless - and timely - speaking to concepts of ‘freedom’, ‘democracy’ and ‘subjugation’.  Contemporary colonisation - political and cultural – is a recurrent issue in defining who we are as Filipino’s today and remains the catalyst for Aguinaldo’s visual inquiry.  The 1998 drawings have been expanded upon with new works, offering a mature series that probes through veiled readings of power, the self, and of our cultural heritage.

These are sensitive, ‘thinking’ works of art, yet they do not over-power the viewer with weighty doom.  They carry a sense of dignity and strength in the human spirit, offering a point of depart from colonial sentiment and a way to re-invent our cultural identity in the present day.   For example the work “Kings Cross” takes the topic of religious colonisation, albeit a most subliminal dialogue. The hands of the faceless figure are in a position of stigmata – a powerful gesture - yet the figure remains faceless to connote the loss of identity.  But equal to the heady symbology of these works, is the sensuality of their surfaces; their thoughtful layering of text, fluid brush stokes and familiar icons of the indigenous beliefs.

Similarly, “Apo Candido”, a portrait of the artist’s grandfather in a crisp white linen suit - the symbol of a colonial era, transports us to a place of quiet dignity and contemplation.  He carries a rosary; his face obliterated by the text of an old American book. So many images of colonial domination – who is Apo Candido?  Aguinaldo presents us with a complex layering of information, ideas and history.

Aguinaldo’s “subjects” are a celebration.  Their layered surfaces of coffee, inks, old photos and religious pamphlets, offer a metaphor for the multi-layered character of the Filipino.  As drawings they are beautiful objects; as ‘subjects’ they invite thought and connection.  Aguinaldo is an artist with a maturity beyond his years.

For exhibition enquiries, please contact Mimi Santos or Beth Manuel at (632) 831-9990 or email Duemila@mydestiny.net