This would seem largely part of what Pia Rivera and Alfredo Mendoza have brought to each other’s crafts Set in the easy, comfortable and yet splendid world inside the Souk Gallery, a creative fashion and art space, the unusual joint exhibit of a painter and a photographer titled Open for Inspiration is a subtle yet strong display of art that demands closer inspection and is open to interpretation, offering depth and experimentation for the curious and the critical, but without the pretentiousness or intimidation that would drive away the common observer. Spread out, often inconspicuously, in the urban bohemia of the gallery slash fashion haunt, the common thread between paintings and photographs, upon first glance, would seem to be the ease with which it blends into the store—behind racks of clothing or between displays of beads and pearls, hung on walls or laid on the floor, each piece nestles comfortably in the space it is given, not desperately jumping out to be noticed, but, like hidden treasures, sit waiting to be discovered.
But what really ties these pieces together runs much deeper than that. Both Pia and Alfredo’s work reflect the common philosophy they have about their respective crafts: that it reflects their lives, their current thoughts and emotions, and things that are important to them. There is something very emotional about their works which, ultimately, make them very alive and very real.
Long-time painter and former full-time international model, 28-year-old Pia stands among the few who understand two rather obvious yet immensely profound things about art that are often unappreciated: one, that art is a powerful and effective tool for not just self-expression but for growth, learning, and communication, and two, that the understanding and interpretation of art, once borne out into the world, becomes the property of whoever views it, and no one person, not even its creator, can dictate its meaning. Pia’s acrylic and mix media pieces, which are richly textured collage-like pieces with layers of color and concreteness, lend to a degree of abstractness so that, despite having very personal meanings to her, they are easily open to whoever interprets them.
"I actually like it that people see things in my art," Pia explains. "Some people interpret it in a way that’s personal, they put their own meaning and see certain little details in a different way." Pia personally works according to her moods, which are sometimes apparent in series of pieces that she does at the same time—sometimes they have the same color palette or occasional style similarities—hints of the process she goes through in creating them. For her, art is very much about the process, not just the finished piece, and incidentally, she likes it that as much as art is the process of creating, viewing it also becomes a process of seeing.
"I like taking my time with my pieces," she says. "And I never know exactly what the outcome will be. I like looking through my personal scrapbooks and writings, getting ideas from the emotions and experiences I have. And I use softdrink can tabs, tea bags, embroidery, scraps of denim, or any other found objects in my works—whatever strikes me, sometimes a stamp I collect from my travels, or stitching and beadwork that I like. The pieces in the exhibit illustrate my relationships and my continuous search for meaningful experiences. I enjoy the whole process I go through to translate what I’m feeling, which is why my art is very personal to me." Pia goes on to explain that even when she had been a Fine Arts major in UST, she preferred a more emotional approach to art and didn’t quite take to the way art was presented in the institution, which was rather impersonal, technical, and constrained. "Honestly, if you ask me what school of art my paintings hail from, I can’t answer that," Pia says. "That isn’t how I create my pieces. I don’t think that way." After UST, Pia took studio painting courses at the San Francisco School of Art, then later went to Florence, Italy, where she earned a Graduate Certificate in Art at the Instituto d’ Arte Lorenzo de Medici. In between, she has had several exhibits, both group and solo, including one in Florence and several in Manila.
While Open for Inspiration is Pia’s sixth exhibit, it is actually Alfredo’s first. Having discovered the power of photography at the tender age of 11 (prompted by his wanting to let his father see more of the world through photographs after being diagnosed with Glaucoma), 26-year-old Alfredo has had remarkably comprehensive experience in the field so far. Having gone through the shift from the darkroom to the digital lab, Alfredo is one of the few and perhaps youngest in the overflowing pool of Philippine photographers with unquestionable technical proficiency and creative capacity, with an understanding of the medium that goes beyond prints on a page. For Alfredo, taking photographs is about presenting the realities of life no matter how grotesque or beautiful—about presenting what is real.
"I don’t use digital manipulations," he explained when he presented his photographs. "And I don’t like overly made-up shots, like some ‘artsy’ types who’ll tie tin foil to trees and do ‘artistic shots.’ I believe you should simply capture first, naturally translate the experiences you have in this world." Although Alfredo is a talented architectural photographer—and one of the few—his personal preference is photographing people, though in Open for Inspiration, his subjects are varied. Many of his prints are scanned from transparencies, though more recent works are on digital film, and are printed using a Durstlambda, which produces a result remarkably similar to film with accurate color reproduction, on fiber-based non-coated archival paper for better contrast and sharpness.
"The photographs in this exhibit are my personal shots," Alfredo says. "Working as a photographer, I started feeling like I wasn’t taking the photos I wanted to be taking, like I was always taking photos for other people. It’s about time I showed my personal works. These photographs reflect me as a Developmental Studies graduate, as a professional photographer, as a traveler, and as a Filipino." From a simple candle to a grand structure, the quietness of Alfredo’s photographs and unique way choosing the less obvious angles immediately draw the eye because of their simple, clean lines and vivid colors. Alfredo has a natural eye for composition and even when he breaks the rules of framing or plays around with the available light, his photographs always create a subtle yet striking image, open to the emotions and the interpretation of the viewer.
"Someone once said, ‘Capture the world through your photographs, then let the world capture you,’" Alfredo muses. "This is what I’ve always tried to achieve in my photographs—showing the world how I experienced this scene through my pictures."
Having studied both here and abroad in such prestigious institutions as the International Center of Photography in New York and under such people as Adam Eidelberg, who handled large scale printing of the Metropolitan Museum, and Allan Rocach of Southern Living Magazine, and, locally, Emilio Esguerra and Tom Epperson, Alfredo has a strong creative and technical capacity that is defined in his art. He has been a regular with such magazines as My Home, Real Living, FHM, Cosmo, Seventeen, Slam, Preview, Prevention, and Working Mom, among others, and has had several direct clients like Cena, Pilo, Dove, and Domex.
Pia is currently finishing her Master of Arts in Education at Ateneo and runs a studio in Makati where she teaches art to both children and adults with varying creative skills and encouraging them to let out the artist that is inside them. Alfredo is now the photography editor for CEMEX+Me, the full-feature corporate magazine of CEMEX Philippines. They have some plans to work together in the future, merging painting and photography, further creating art and interpreting on the canvas the world as seen through their eyes.
Open for Inspiration runs until the end of October in Souk Gallery, 2nd floor Crescent Building, 21 San Miguel Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City (building with Union Bank on the first floor). Pia Rivera may be reached at 0917-5331336 and Alfredo Mendoza at 0917-5360479.
