Pete Jimenez
Bakal
3-17 June 2006
Mag:net Gallery Katipunan

 Bakal , Pete Jimenez’s 8 th one-man exhibition of steel sculptures at Mag:net Gallery Katipunan, demonstrates the creative utilization of found and discarded materials as a basic artistic medium, capable of creating metaphors and visual puns.

Bakal features Jimenez’s small-scale sculptures made out of welded steel discards—a medium he has consistently worked in and experimented with for over a decade now. Jimenez salvages and re-assembles junk steel—an easily available and often overlooked material— as a basic element for his sculptures, producing new forms from old disjointed parts and new configurations and images from otherwise mass-produced mechanical parts.

The works in Bakal are visual puns, where the literal and figurative are combined. Jimenez’s sculptures retain an element of surprise as the way his images are formed and shaped are entirely dependent on the available junk steel used for a particular piece. In Apple of My Eye, for instance, Jimenez uses discarded cement mixer parts to create a frontal rendition of the human eye, with an actual apple positioned in the center as a pupil.

Other themes to his works are appropriated from Jimenez’s work in the advertising and digital graphics industry, such as the pieces entitled Old Navy (inspired by a brand of clothing apparel) or Pixels, where square-shaped steel parts are fused together to simulate the pixels of digital photography when “zoomed in” by the viewer. Jimenez also features his sculptural rendition of everyday Pinoy scenes, such as Askal (Asong kalye, or stray dog) and Pusakal (Pusang Kalye, or stray cat).

Pete Jimenez is a multi-awarded TV and animation director and graphic designer, garnering the Best in Art Direction and Best in Animation Awards at the 17 th Philippine Advertising Congress for his productions. He was a Regional Finalist in the 1998 Art Association of the Philippines National Centennial Painting Competition. He was a consistent Dean’s Lister while majoring in Visual Communications at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts and is an alumni of the UP Artists’ Circle.

Bakal opens at Mag:net Gallery Katipounan on June 3 and runs until the the 17th. For inquiries, please contact 9293191 0r 4352631 (Malou) or email magnetcafekatips.@yahoo.com.ph or visit www.magnet.com.ph