Queendom
On the 50th birthday of artist and patron-of-the-arts Lerma Julian, she and five other female artists from varied professional and geographical backgrounds come together in King Arts and Restaurant in Tagaytay to express their own visions of joie de vivre in an exhibit titled Lerma’s 5D.
Julian has contributed much to the Sta. Rosa, Laguna art scene by founding a community, Life n’ Arts, which provides quality art education and materials to local creatives.
Joining her in the current exhibit are artists hailing largely from the art scene south of Manila.
Vicente Manansala’s granddaughter Khristina has dedicated the last 13 years to a full-time art practice. Known for her evocative depiction of human facial expressions vis-à-vis archetypal images of Eastern philosophy, Manansala was initially dissuaded from pursuing art as a professional path but has since persisted and made a name for herself.
A compatriot of Julian, Ana Isip is a professional makeup artist who has continued collecting dolls since childhood. Now a mother who shares her collection with her daughters, the “child-like expression on a doll finds new significance” as Isip has turned her creative hand to a new medium: acrylic on canvas. From being a collector, her works now sit in local and international collections.
An OB-gyne by day, Aida N. Huertas-Dinulos watches and helps a different kind of life bloom and unfold in her watercolor paintings of flora. While a doctor’s practice involves precision, she allows nature’s patience and spontaneity to speak through her brush and canvas as she works from Silang, Cavite.
Jeanette Bilan-Capili, a judge who grew up in Bacoor, Cavite, revives her childhood love for painting, moving from appreciator to art-maker as she moved from her childhood city to Sta. Rosa upon her appointment into the judiciary. It was here that she found time to try her hand at art and thus enrolled in Life n’ Arts, finding her voice in oil, acrylic, and watercolor.
Crese Cambronero has worn many hats, from food entrepreneur to real estate broker and wealth strategist, and from art collector to art practitioner. Moving from the form of the world towards its essence, her paintings attempt to communicate the psyche’s awakening to sublime realities. She is also the owner of King Arts and Restaurant.
The exhibit opened last November 7 and ran until December 7 at King Arts and Restaurant.
Kingdom
Continuing this thread is the two-man exhibit on December 12 by James Hermogenes and Carlo Lamano. Both artists espouse landscape expressionism, occasionally veering towards abstraction, with their use of metallic hues which add distinct character to a well-trod art movement.
The two deploy paint splatters, bold brush strokes, and rich impasto applied across the foreground to mimic the textures and elements of the earth, all under gradients which evoke the moods of the sky. Evocative of John Dunne’s poetry which sang of how the English landscape drew out strong emotions, the duo intends to impress the same effect upon viewers of their art.
Fitting, given King Art and Restaurant’s proximity to the vistas along the Tagaytay ridge overlooking Taal lake.
Aside from being known by regulars for pulling-off Italian, Thai, Indian, Dutch, Greek, and Filipino dishes, the joint also serves an artist hub promoting both local and visiting up-and-coming and veteran artists, making for a multi-sensory experience all under Tagaytay’s mild climate.
Regulars at King often come to associate the place with their warm interiors buoyed by their wood furniture, most notably their narra hardwood long tables and conference tables, which can also be purchased to bring home that experience of royalty.
Creativity is not confined to the art and objets d’art adorning the location but also in King’s menu, as the offerings adapt to the seasonality of organic ingredients as well as the requests of customers, switching up the familiar without deviating from the comfortable. King Arts and Restaurant is located at 534 Purok 5 Pasong Langka, Silang Cavite. For more information, visit http://kingartsresto.com. Feel free to contact +6391789000021.
