Melvin Culaba's Ipinamumukha
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Melvin Culaba (Photo courtesy of the Culaba family)
Melvin Culaba paints in the style of figurative expressionism which is described as the manipulation and often times distortion of figurative elements “to convey intense feelings.” Culaba portrays his figures in swirling strokes and imbues them with brooding colors to express his critical narratives on the state of events, the conditions of his personal surroundings, and the snippets of life that unfold in his field of vision.
Culaba titles his 19th solo show “Ipinamumukha,” a vernacular take off from the current “selfie” craze of self- photography. Using his canvases as pictorial instruments that reflect vestiges of our dysfunctional society, Culaba coaxes his audience to embark on a critical reflection on the state of our nation. Culaba presents the decrepit state of a storied structure that once sheltered the hero-general Antonio Luna in “Marker.” He depicts an out of school youth influenced and recruited by Muslim rebels in “New Breed Recruit,” prostitution in the internet in “Want To Be Friends?” and our country’s lap dog affiliation with America in “Scratcher.” In his cache of 11 works for his latest show, Culaba figuratively shakes us from the imbued apathy in our lives in the midst of decay and decline in our shared fate as a nation.
Melvin Culaba graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Santo Tomas in 1993. In 2005, he was awarded a full grant at the prestigious Freeman Fellow Resident Artist at the Vermont Studio Center in Vermont, USA. Culaba has won multiple major awards in the Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards, Art Association of the Philippines Annual Painting Competition, and in the Metrobank Young Painters Annual Competition.
ArtCube Gallery was established in 2009 by three long time lovers of art (hence "cubed", and we dropped the "d" to in order to represent a clean space/vessel for talented artists and their original works of art). Since then we have represented many young and established Filipino visual artists in exhibitions in Manila, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, Germany and Japan.
The gallery space is located at the 3rd Floor of Glorietta 4, Ayala Mall, Makati City, Philippines. We are open everyday from 11 am to 7 pm.
Telephone number: +632 7529089
Email us at: artcubephilippines@gmail.com