Raul Rodriguez
Revisions
8 to 30 June 2006
Mag:net Gallery Paseo

Artist, musician and pastor Raul Rodriguez presents his first one-man show entitled Revisions at the Mag:net Gallery Paseo. Revisions presents Rodriguez’s series of small sketchpad-sized works rendered in pastel on paper and several large works done in oil-on-pastel. Working predominantly in oil-on-canvas during the 1980s, Rodriguez started producing his series of pastel drawings during the summer of 2004, in Baguio City , creating a series of “art diaries” chronicling his personal philosophies.

The themes and images in Revisions may be varied and seemingly unrelated except in terms of their neo-expressionistic style. But these all revolve around the artist’s central philosophical concern: to draw upon or revise previous metaphors and images in order to birth other metaphors and images in turn. Rodriguez proceeds from the contradiction that the artist’s impetus is to create the new out of what already exists, thus rendering contemporary art as a revision of previous movements. The artist may inject variations, or digress on previous themes, but can never entirely escape the influence or traces of part visual traditions.

In Revisions, for instance, Rodriguez draws metaphors and motifs from varied visual sources: war-time photography, Presidential photos, Greek mythology, and logos of international institutions, and pocketbook covers for instance. He then juxtaposes these with other contexts and renders them in a highly-textured style, changing their contexts and intentions through his interventions.

An alumna of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts, Rodriguez joined various group exhibitions until 1989, after which he immersed himself in music, animation and church work, among others. Revisions marks Rodriguez’s gradual foray into more sustained art-production after this previous hiatus.

Revisions opens at 6 pm on June 8, 2006 at Mag:net Gallery Paseo, Paseo Center , Paseo de Roxas corner Sedeno St. , Makati City. The show runs until June 30. For inquiries, please contact 8177895 (Jhennie) or email magnetplus@gmail.com