Art Fair Philippines 2020

Artist Statement

Space Shangri-La depicts a big blue-haired portrait hidden behind the landscapes and colourful characters. The work tells a story about putting a foot into someone’s psychedelic-like mind, all his imagination and his struggles in becoming self-hero in his own life. Our mind is like a borderless galaxy space with limitless possibilities. All the images appeared are what of floating and playing in his mind, like a creature with a famous artist’s face – Andy Warhol, Frida Kahlo, and Van Gogh, were a mix of inspiration to someone’s creative journey, while some other might be a threat. Nik’s interest in Japanese comics, silkscreen .printmaking, patterns and satirical art has influenced his art movement into more graphical while giving some metaphors or symbolism to make the viewers creating their own narrative and perception.

Artist Statement

The works that I made for Axis by Praxis are paintings that belong to the Time Stain series.

These are random scenes and objects that capture my attention especially when in transit. By painting these subjects, I attempt to investigate the environment’s relation to us, its inhabitants, and how their own state of degradation reflect the passage of time and our own histories. The specificity of each place and/or an object triggers different memories in each of us bridging familiarity and unfamiliarity. These subjects are our portraits. The narratives they hold are ours.

Placed all over each work are biomorphic shapes with painted representation of rust to indicate time passing and decay as a natural occurrence and are experienced by everyone. Rust has been a common interest of mine being both a subject and material to some of my fabric works and installations. The subjects are rendered in black and white to lessen its specificity and to serve more as a broad memory.

Artist Statement

Jason Montinola explores an indvidual’s task of projecting identity and levels of power through a series of sentinel paintings. The word sentinel has been further personified in lore and fiction as the ultimate watcher. Due to the word’s repeated fictionalization, its usage becomes a powerful tool to envision a figure safekeeping the most valuable of objects and civilizations. Oftentimes the item of protection is guarded so close and away from ordinary eyes, one would question the validity of its existence. Yet the existence of the sentinel as an unwavering force compels man to believe that something is being protected and carried across time.

Montinola transfers the role of the sentinel closer to the ordinary man as he identifies an individual’s capacity to become a sentinel to himself. He presents two separate sentinels, 10 and 14, held in a seemingly reverent state enveloped in darkness, directing the viewer’s focus on the figures alone without any distraction. Each sentinel is anonymous yet familiar, either morphed or fragmented but fully manifested up to the point of its inception. Their recognizable images either broken up or stitched together reveals man’s capacity to absorb influences and values he holds in the highest regard. Man takes these values upon himself and wears it as a mask of influence. He later on projects them together with his artifacts and his idols and uses it as a membrane that grants him the power to survive. Man’s competence rests on his capacity to safekeep his principles and beliefs and his ability to personify success. His embodiment changes the way he is perceived without ever so slightly changing his physique. For Montinola, man as a sentinel to himself does not mean he is superfluous and all-encompassing. In his paintings, a sentinel’s appearance is visually concise as his operation lies in his core and his capacity to protect it with his life. It is in his potential to wield it as he aims to ascend or seek comfort in his place. Each person in the world is a sentinel to themselves.

Artist Statement

Jason Montinola explores an indvidual’s task of projecting identity and levels of power through a series of sentinel paintings. The word sentinel has been further personified in lore and fiction as the ultimate watcher. Due to the word’s repeated fictionalization, its usage becomes a powerful tool to envision a figure safekeeping the most valuable of objects and civilizations. Oftentimes the item of protection is guarded so close and away from ordinary eyes, one would question the validity of its existence. Yet the existence of the sentinel as an unwavering force compels man to believe that something is being protected and carried across time.

Montinola transfers the role of the sentinel closer to the ordinary man as he identifies an individual’s capacity to become a sentinel to himself. He presents two separate sentinels, 10 and 14, held in a seemingly reverent state enveloped in darkness, directing the viewer’s focus on the figures alone without any distraction. Each sentinel is anonymous yet familiar, either morphed or fragmented but fully manifested up to the point of its inception. Their recognizable images either broken up or stitched together reveals man’s capacity to absorb influences and values he holds in the highest regard. Man takes these values upon himself and wears it as a mask of influence. He later on projects them together with his artifacts and his idols and uses it as a membrane that grants him the power to survive. Man’s competence rests on his capacity to safekeep his principles and beliefs and his ability to personify success. His embodiment changes the way he is perceived without ever so slightly changing his physique. For Montinola, man as a sentinel to himself does not mean he is superfluous and all-encompassing. In his paintings, a sentinel’s appearance is visually concise as his operation lies in his core and his capacity to protect it with his life. It is in his potential to wield it as he aims to ascend or seek comfort in his place. Each person in the world is a sentinel to themselves.

Artist Statement

If you are a kid, you want to grow old to do all the things you want but once you become an adult, you would likely wish to be a kid again to uplift the burdens felt being old leaves.