Silverlens is pleased to announce At First Sight, Leo Valledor’s (b. 1936–d. 1989, San Francisco, USA) first solo exhibition in Manila, opening 25 July 2024. Widely acknowledged as one of the most influential Filipino-American artists, Valledor played a pivotal role in the development of his community’s burgeoning art scene in the 1960s, while establishing a life-long artistic practice later recognized to have expanded the lexicon of American Modernism.
LEO VALLEDOR, Supriolism, 1979
LEO VALLEDOR, Exit, 1970
Valledor was a founding member of downtown Manhattan’s trailblazing Park Place Gallery, an artist collective and exhibition venue founded by 10 emerging artists in the 1960s, many of whom are now recognized as among the most influential Modernists in American history. Valledor’s co-founders include Dean Fleming, Mark di Suvero, and Robert Grosvenor. Park Place Gallery also provided a space to exhibit the works of their friends who are now considered icons of American Art: Sol LeWitt, Eva Hesse, and Donald Judd, among others.
In the exhibition At First Sight, we are surrounded by highly finessed canvases of almost pure color, organized in terms of geometric fields. They are very nearly flat, with barely a tone to suggest an illusion of dimension, denying the lyricism of gradation that validates skill or simply the realism that gives pleasure. The seeming flatness may trick the eye, though, making us ask if the color is the very support of the painting, or if it is, in fact, the layer of painting. Where is the medium here? And how does the paint work? The stature of painting may be betrayed by drips on the margins, index of material life beyond the control of even the most exacting artist, or by a slight shift in the hue of the dominant palette. Color is a kind of all-over sublimation, and yet it is a clearing as well, a refuge in an existing—or another—state of nature. As Valledor himself puts it, “By four-dimensional color I mean the notion that it exists within time. And I have this idea about time being part of all these ambiguities that we see in dimensions, like the idea that you read a line two-dimensionally.”
Rounding out the exhibition in the gallery’s front room are studies and drawings, demonstrating the calculated intention and precision integral to Valledor’s practice.
Leo Valledor: At First Sight will be on view from 25 July to 17 August 2024 at Silverlens Manila, with an opening reception on 25 July from 4 to 7 pm.
Pow Martinez, ‘Sleepwalk,’ 2023.
Solo exhibition by Pow Martinez
Silverlens is also pleased to present Pow Martinez at Silverlens Manila, opening 25 July 2024.
Pow Martinez often describes his practice as “what a nature painter might do in a digital landscape,” rendering surreal, whimsical, at times unsettling, scenes in bold colors and whimsical compositions.
The worlds he depicts are derived from the digital landscape we often find ourselves immersed in, his inspirations being movie tropes, pop culture moments, and the broader expanse of the online space. Martinez presents varying sizes of cartoonish paintings set in these eclectic worlds featuring a cast of recurring characters including cowboys, monsters, and soldiers.
POW MARTINEZ, classy, with just the right amount of dirty, 2024
POW MARTINEZ, inner critic, 2024
The smaller works in the exhibition, ranging from 8 x 8 to 8 x 12 inches, invite us to engage like we would on social media: with a fascination for a separate reality. In contrast, the larger 4-foot works invite us directly into these worlds, drawing us in among the uncanny. In one painting, Martinez plays out a dreamlike scene, characters in various states of action and reaction, one of the personas a large head expelling a burst of fire. Another work centers on a lone peasant in red garb, key in hand, approaching a chapel. In this exhibition, the characters are perpetually in motion, whether riding a vehicle or figuratively navigating their way towards a distant goal.
The artist’s eponymous monograph, written by renowned contemporary art writer Tony Godfrey, will be published by ArtAsiaPacific. This book offers a comprehensive view of the Filipino artist’s work spanning 2009 to 2023. Through insightful essays based on his conversations with Martinez, Godfrey delves into the artist’s passions and inspirations, both within and beyond his artistic practice. Silverlens Manila will host a book launch in August in celebration of the book’s publication.
Pow Martinez will be on view from 25 July to 17 August 2024 at Silverlens Manila, with an opening reception on 25 July from 4 to 7 pm.
