Check out the exhibits to see this month!

ONGOING: ‘Kinetic ABC’

VENUE: Galerie Stephanie, Unit 4021, 4/F East Wing Shangri-La Plaza Mall EDSA cor. Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City

The past year has been a period of ruminations and complexities that called for moments of deliberate nostalgia. In the same way, artist Jomike Tejido realized that he has never illustrated the alphabet after producing more than a hundred picture books for children. In his latest exhibit, Tejido grounds himself back to the fundamentals and basics of things. 

“Kinetic ABC” presents mobile sculptures that spell out the letters of the alphabet. With paintings named after abbreviations that represent important definitions for Tejido. The works in this exhibition nestle as markers of people, places, and events from the artist’s recollection of the past. Here, the artist remembers himself as a young boy who excitingly scooped out alphabet-shaped pasta from his soup as he formed silly words that don’t make sense. Tejido hopes for the same experience passed on to the viewers—an opportunity to recall blithe and untroubled days and live them once more.

The intention for “Kinetic ABC” might have been to send us back to a place where we learn our beginnings in understanding primary forms. Still, what Tejido forged is a multi-dimensional way to look at how we associate memories to letters, colors, shapes, shadows, and everything else that has already been there. If only we had looked closer and further enough.

“Kinetic ABC” is up for viewing until Jan. 21.

ONGOING: ‘Displace, Embody’

VENUE: 1/F and 3/F Galleries, UP Vargas Museum

Eisa Jocson, a contemporary choreographer and dance maker from the Philippines, is featured as one of the artists of the exhibition “Displace, Embody.” Jocson’s work, “SuperWoman KTV Room,” included in the exhibition highlights The SuperWoman Band—a commissioned project which premiered at the 2019 Sharjah Biennale but was initially presented at the Vargas Museum, which includes Bunny Cadag, Cathrine Go, Teresa Barrozo, and Franchesca Casauay.

“Displace, Embody” is an exhibition, in partnership with Aura Contemporary Art Foundation, that seeks to reflect on how bodies, species, and spaces transform constraints in simultaneously urgent and playful ways. This project between the Philippines and Thailand acknowledges the issues brought about by prevailing boundaries and restrictions set on subjectivities. Prefixes prompt the probe of these conditions: “trans,” in the sense of location and direction, and “dis,” in the sense of resistance.

Physical visits may be arranged by appointment only to be scheduled with the UP Vargas Museum via [email protected] or the museum’s Facebook Page.