Portals

During the lockdowns, Abu Dhabi-based Filipino visual artist Lester Amacio, and Manila-based Ricky Francisco coincidentally made paintings which looked like the works of Mark Rothko or Clyfford Still, or the other abstract expressionists who were grouped together under colorfield painters. The works of both Amacio and Francisco were similar to the abstract expressionists works as they also elicited a meditative or contemplative response from their viewers. Such was the need for the time when normal life was virtually turned upside down: when getting close to people was dangerous, and staying indoors and being away from those you loved, was the way to protect them from the COVID Pandemic.

This two-man exhibition brings together the works of artists who seemed to respond similarly to the lockdowns. Looking like windows or doors to another world, we are invited to look deep within our own world and find some measure of emancipation or redemption or some form of transcendence that would take us beyond the ordinary. We are presented something sublime.