Exhibitions

This year has seen Filipinos slowly but surely returning to a semblance of normal life at last. This gradual re-emergence is what painter and sculptor Katrina Cuenca seeks to convey with her upcoming show, “Slowly We Unfurl.”

Running from November 14-25, 2022 at Galerie Joaquin Rockwell, the exhibition features paintings and sculptures of flower-like forms on the cusp of blossoming, their undulating petals rendered in muted, soothing shades. There is a sense of steady, graceful movement, with all of these elements coming together to evoke the gradual awakening of spring.

“I wanted to somehow depict how humanity is ‘re-blossoming’ after all the quarantines and lockdowns,” Cuenca explains. “Although I know the pandemic isn’t over, I am happy to see how people are re-emerging into society and how we are learning to adapt to our current situation. I can see that we all have learned a lot about ourselves and how much we can endure and it seems we are coming out of this stronger and more hopeful.”

The series retains elements of Cuenca’s signature style. There is the sense of movement and flow, along with the use of gold leaf for the paintings. At the same time, this series marks a departure from Cuenca’s previous work. In keeping with the hopeful theme of the collection, she uses lighter pigments for her paintings, as if to signal brighter days ahead. Like the shift from midnight to dawn, her sculptures have gone from metallic and jet black tones to illuminated shades on white bases.

“I really enjoyed the shift in mindset I had to do while working on the pieces for this exhibit,” Cuenca says.”For the paintings, the composition is very different from my past works. As for the sculptures, the color palette as well as the flow and shape of the figures are different as well. As an abstract artist it is very important to explore new things and I’m really happy this exhibit paved the way for that exercise.”

For Cuenca, the road to becoming an abstract artist was a long and difficult one. A self-taught painter and sculptor, she has been drawing and painting since childhood. “In 2010 I got invited to my first group exhibit which gave me my first taste of what it would be like to be a part of the local art scene. But it wasn’t until 2015 that I really became active in joining art exhibits and really started to put my work out there.”

Since then, Cuenca has had multiple well-received solo exhibitions and has participated in the Philippines’ longest-running visual arts fair, ManilART, in 2020 and 2021. Experimenting with figures, patterns, and textures, Cuenca continuously rediscovers and evolves her art practice based on life experiences. The result is a melding of figuration and abstraction at its most spontaneous and celebratory.

With “Slowly We Unfurl,” Cuenca has certainly captured the current mood we find ourselves in as we emerge from the pandemic. Each of her pieces has an ethereal, transitional quality, speaking to society’s hopes for a post-pandemic world.

“Slowly We Unfurl” will run from November 14-25, 2022, with the Artist Reception on Thursday, November 17, at 5PM at Galerie Joaquin Rockwell, located at the R3 Level, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell Center Makati. For More information contact +63915 414 5502, email info@galeriejoaquin.com or visit the website at www.galeriejoaquin.com.

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