Kaida Gallery cordially invites the public to view Garden Verses

Kaida Gallery cordially invites the public to view Garden Verses
a one-man exhibition of metal and fiberglass works by Renato Ong
Garden Verses
Kaida Gallery
from 30 March to 16 April 2008

Garden Verses presents Renato Ong's recent sculptural and wall piece productions, where folk consciousness, found objects, and fusion take center stage. The artist creates montages where the sacred is fused with the mundane, juxtaposing urban and contemporary materials with traditional and indigenous imagery. Artifacts from contemporary urban decay­a cornucopia of common nuts and bolts, roofing nails, cables, and discarded metal castings­are recast amidst a backdrop of rough hewn lumber and faux timber cast from fiberglass. Images are sourced from a wide range of iconographic traditions, from the biblical to the anthropological: here, primeval gods and goddesses share space with human forms, while surfaces mimicking the natural textures of primeval forests merge with rich encrusted motifs typical of medieval-era illuminations.The show fuses and recreates images of primordial memory using materials sourced from urban reality. Ong's haunting and exquisite imagery resurrect symbols and motifs long embedded in memory, paying tribute to the power of the past. According to the artist, Garden Verses is a “compilation of voices unheard and unarticulated, sacred and mundane”, where “existence is neither glorified and nor vilified, but rendered into a song or a prayer in celebration of living”.

The show fuses and recreates images of primordial memory using materials sourced from urban reality. Ong's haunting and exquisite imagery resurrect symbols and motifs long embedded in memory, paying tribute to the power of the past. According to the artist, Garden Verses is a “compilation of voices unheard and unarticulated, sacred and mundane”, where “existence is neither glorified and nor vilified, but rendered into a song or a prayer in celebration of living”.

Garden Verses will open on March 30, 6 p.m., at Kaida Gallery, located at the 2nd Floor, GFO Building, 122 Kamuning Road, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines 1102. The show runs until the April 16. For inquiries, please call (632) 4144777 or write info@kaidagallery.com.

Kaida Gallery is an art space devoted to showcasing works by contemporary Philippine artists. Established in 2007 in Quezon City, Kaida Gallery features young, dedicated, and emerging painters and sculptors as well as supporting collaborations between them and established names in Philippine art. It also believes in supporting the efforts of women artists and a nascent generation of young and talented painters.