Puluy-an Art Gallery Guide | On show Hangin sa Pakpak and Alpas

Puluy-an Art Gallery Guide from August to September 2023.

The Puuly-an Art Gallery opened the group show “HANGIN SA PAKPAK” in celebration of National Heroes Day together with ALPAS, a culminating exhibit of its art mentoring and residency program BLACKSHEEP.

BLACKSHEEP Art Mentoring and Residency Program Culminating Activity and “HANGIN SA PAKPAK” an Art Group Opening Exhibition., we are proud to present a group art exhibition.

HANGIN SA PAKPAK shows the works of 10 artists while ALPAS exhibit the works of four artists who completed the residency program.

The back-to-back show opened August 28 and it will run until September 28, 2023.

The Puluy-an Art Gallery
Brgy. Bita Sur, Oton, Iloilo
By Melvin Guirhem and Recheal Olivares-Guirhem

The name puluy-an means home in Hiligaynon, and the gallery serves as the home of Ilonggo artists and art students who intend to pursue a vocation in the visual arts. It developed robust programming with art residency, art education and mentorship through workshops, and conversations and dialogues with artists through regular art talks.

Puluyan-Art-Gallery-Opening-Iloilo-Art-Life — Melvin and Recheal Guirhem during the inauguration of the Puluy-an Art Gallery in November 5, 2022.

The Puluy-an followed a simple bungalow design with a common space that serves as a reception and dining area and with two rooms adjacent to each other that function as a gallery, symbolic of a specific space for family members; thus, the programming included a group show and a solo exhibit simultaneously.

About Puluy-an: Puluy-an Art Gallery, an art space enriched by its rural aura

The two sculptural works at the entrance door with a carabao head represent the hardworking Guirhem couple, comparable to a carabao (water bufallo), with Melvin as artist-father and Recheal as educator-mother and a nurturer of the family.

Puluy-an Art Gallery was opened in November 5, 2023 by award-winning Ilonggo artist Melvin Guirhem and educator-wife Recheal Olivares Guirhem with an inauguration show @Home.

The artist-run gallery is located in Brgy. Bita Sur, Oton, Iloilo, a First Class Municipality 11 kilometers from Iloilo City. It can be accessed both from the town proper and from Sta. Barbara-San Miguel access road through the Oton-San Jose-Sta. Barbara Road.

Read Allyn Canja: Melvin Guirhem’s Puluy-an Art Gallery Offers New Home for Artists

Melvin Guirhem (b. 1980) is a painter who developed the use of fabric on his art with colorful stitches that depicts traditions, culture, and familial relationships showing narratives of struggles and triumphs of everyday life. He weaved stories in a tapestry using scraps of clothing, a skill inspired by his grandmother who was a seamstress, now considered a rare preoccupation.

Pulu-ay Art Gallery Guide 2023

Breakthrough, in tandem with the solo exhibit by Jeline Laporga, Stranded in Between a Plethora of Reasons and Alibis was exhibited from July 22 to August 22, 2023.

Breakthrough featured the works of the Acedera brothers, Ningnong, John Ernie, and Norman Vincent, together with those of Carmelo Camohoy III, Leo Gali, Roland Llarena, Al Provido, Allec Wiggin, and PG Zoluaga.

Jeline Laporga, on the other hand, will bring in new works. One of Iloilo’s foremost abstract artists, Laporga, is known for his modern and minimalist works that invite deep thought. He won the GSIS National Open Art Competition in the abstract category in 2012.

Laporga’s work was featured in a two-man show titled Not So Sacred with abstract artist Allain Hablo at the defunct Gallery i in 2017. In 2021, Laporga’s work was also featured in the group show ILOMOCA 5 at the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art with four works, namely: The Title (Oil on canvas, 16×16″), More (Oil on canvas, 48×36″), Untitled from the Start (Oil on canvas, 48×36″), and Five Digit Pleasure (Acrylic on canvas, 48×36″).

Tamwa
3rd Solo Show of Ronnie Granja
June 17 to July 17, 2023

Tamwa is Ronnie Granja’s third solo show. The collection is a reminiscence of his past, a set of works that pay tribute to his life and experience in the Boarding House, and this is made evident by demonstrating the chaotic scenery and giving a face to different characters.

Read Ted Aldwin Ong: Ronnie Granja’s Tamwa, a review

The art genre of Granja is inspired by the works of Botong Francisco, with their soft contours and emotive pastel palettes. He is also deeply influenced by El Greco, who avowed that color had primacy over form, and this is lauded by Granja, noting the subtle yet striking discursion, an element that is dominant in the works of Granja.

Read John E. Barrios: Panahon, Memorya, at Pagnanasa sa Tamwa ni Ronnie Granja

Ronnie Granja is considered one of Iloilo’s most valuable painters, with passion and dedication to art-making. Considering his social background as coming from an underprivileged family, he carved out a name in the local arts scene through self-study, and his skills were sharpened through the drafting course that he completed.

Ulayaw
Group exhibit by members of Tagatig Arts Hub
June 17 to July 17, 2023

Art is another form of language that communicates with all walks of life. There is a subtle and sometimes obvious message that the artists wish to convey that may or may not translate to its audience, but when the obscurity becomes clear, a genuine connection is sealed, writes Rowell D. Salulog, describing the group exhibit Ulayaw as a heterogenous collection of artworks.

Ulayaw means intimate conversation that tells the stories of its diverse artists of varied perspectives, backgrounds, and personalities. The fusion of their individual uniqueness creates a massive pile of poignant art concealed in colors, curves, and styles cascading from expressionism, surrealism, photorealism, and modern art, among others.

The collection shows a combination of juvenile and deep-rooted sensibilities that upholds symmetry but in a way weighs toward unevenness as the theme is diversified as well as the medium and execution.

Ulayaw banks primarily on the array of expressions inspired by Tigbauan town’s local scenes, figures, and events that captured Tagatig’s inclination to conceive and consummate his intimate art.

Tagatig is a group of artists from Tigbauan, a second-class municipality in Iloilo Province’s First District. The name Tagatig is a contraction of the phrase Taga-Tigbauan, a common language used to refer to the residents of a town. The group was assembled through the facilitation of the Local Government, primarily the Municipal Tourism Office, which brought together local artists and formed the Tagatig Arts Hub.