“Sounds of Blackness" Exhibit (Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Taguig City, Metro Manila)

 

The "Sounds of Blackness" Exhibit

The powerful group exhibition “Sounds of Blackness,” opened last March 14 at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila and curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah, brings together a diverse group of visual artists from the African Diaspora whose practices articulate a multiplicity of ideas and perspectives through various mediums. 

Check out “Metropolitan Museum of Manila”

 

The "Sounds of Blackness" Exhibit

The exhibition, showcasing artworks that stimulate the senses (similar to how music’s vibratory capacity impacts its listeners), features works evoke expressions of joy, pain, beauty, and the complexities of Black life around the globe, and highlighting a range of styles from emerging to established artists, many of whom will be exhibiting in the Philippines for the first time. 

 

Ancestral Whisper (Wahab Saheed, acrylic, charcoal,
chalk and oil on pastel, 2021)

Draped in Color (David White, mixed velvet tiles, cotton trim, 2021)

Running through June 27, the exhibition includes a carefully selected set of works from the collection of Filipino art patron and enthusiast Timothy Tan plus other pieces from private collectors throughout Asia, offering a holistic perspective and deeper cross-section of both art and artists. Sounds of Blackness also had a walk through, open to the public and free of charge, with Larry Ossei-Mensah himself last March 15, from 11 AM to 12 noon.

 

Beloved Bliss - Big Black Rainbow (Vaughn Spann, polymer paint and
terrycloth on canvas, 2020)

Forthcoming - NYC (Simphiwe Ndzube, oil on canvas and leather, 2021)

The exhibition, inspired by the Grammy Awards-winning and U.S.-based musical ensemble of the same name, aims to stimulate the senses in much the same way that the vibratory capacity of music can impact its listeners. The selection includes paintings, sculptures, a short film on dance and other unique conceptual pieces that pushes the limit of traditional, two-dimensional art. 

 

The Comedian (Nathaniel Mary Quinn, giclee printed
on Hahnemuhle German ecthing, 310 gsm, 2017)

Susan's World (Sesse Elangwe, acrylic on canvas, 2022)

Accompanying the exhibit is a 100-song soundscape (also called “Sounds of Blackness”), celebrating the multiplicity of Black expression and complementing the exhibition’s goal of reflecting and highlighting the depth and breadth of Black creativity, curated by Carolyn “CC” Concepcion of ARTNOIR, a New-York-based global collective.  Closing  the loop between visual art and music, it takes the listener on an auditory journey celebrating the multiplicity of Black expression.

 

Everything We See Hides Another Thing (Hank Willis Thomas, polished bronze, 2020)

Louis XVI, The Sun King (Kehinde Wiley, cast marble dust, powder resin, 2006)

The exhibition was sponsored by Flexiform, Poliform, Sta. Elena Construction& Development Corporation and Ruby Jack’s Steakhouse and Bar.

 

Hello Queen (Izere Antoine, acrylic on canvas, 2022)

Kept Awake (Patrick Eugene, oil on canvas, 2021)

Participating Artists:

• Patrick Alston
• Izere Antoine
• Amoako Boafo
• Kim Dacres
• Delphine Desane
• Sesse Elangwe
• Patrick Eugène
• Ufuoma Essi
• Charles Gaines
• Alex Gardner
• Alteronce Gumby
• Hugh Hayden
• Rashid Johnson
• Tunji Adeniyi-Jones
• Spencer Lewis
• Hugo McCloud
• Simphiwe Ndzube
• Toyin Ojih Odutola
• Nathaniel Mary Quinn
• Wahab Saheed
• Tschabalala Self
• Vaughn Spann
• Hank Willis Thomas
• Bongani Tshabalala
• David “Mr. StarCity” White
• Kehinde Wiley

 

Light on the Path II (Simphiwe Ndzube, acrylic, fabric,
duct tape, resin, shoe and synthetic braids on linen, 2019)

Out of Body (Tschabalal Self, quilted fabric, edition of 30, 2020)

The Ghanaian-American curator Larry Ossei-Mensah, a native of The Bronx a cultural critic and angel investor who uses art as a forum to redefine how we view ourselves and the world, has organized exhibits at global venues like the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Denver, Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong & London, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), and the 7th Athens Biennale in Athens, Greece (which he co-curated with OSMK Social Club).  

 

Jimmy (Kim Dacres, tires, screws, paint, 2017)

Navient (Hugh Hayden, wooden sculpture, 2021)

He has also organized exhibitions and programs at commercial and nonprofit spaces featuring artists such as Firelei Baez, Steve McQueen, Catherine Opie, Nick Cave, Guadalupe  Maravilla, Ebony G. Patterson, Judy Chicago, Stanley Whitney, to name a few. He has also collaborated on several Web3-related projects with creative minds such as Derrick Adams x Jay-Z, Marco Brambilla, and Mikael Owunna. 

 

Nomad (Toyin Ojih Odutola, charcoal, pastel and pencil on paper, 2016)

Untitled (Spencer Lewis, acrylic, oil, enamel and ink on jute, 2021)

Previously the Susanne Feld Hilberry Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAD) Detroit, he now holds the position of Curator-at-Large at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and curated "Soul of Black Folks," the first solo museum exhibition for Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo, at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in 2021, SanFrancisco, and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in 2022..  During the latter part of 2023, upcoming iterations of the show will be on view at the Seattle Art Museum and Denver Art Museum. 

 

Rumors of War (Patrick Alston, acrylic, enamel, goache, oil,
oil on stick and spray paint sewn on fabric, 2021)

Searching for Kirchner (Alteronce Gumby, glass on panel, 2021)

As a co-founder of the nonprofit ARTNOIR, he is committed to promoting racial equity in the art world by supporting and centering creatives, curators, collectors, and communities of color.

 

Red Scarf and Red Nails (Amoako Boafo, oil on canvas, 2020)

Son (Hugo McCloud, plastic merchandise bags on wood panel, 2020)

Sounds of Blackness: 2/F, South Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Mariano K. Tan Centre, 30th St. cor. 9th Ave., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, Metro Manila. Mobile number:: (0917) 160-9667. E-mail: info@metmuseummanila.org. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays (except on public holidays and other special notices). Pre-register a day before your visit. The museum offers free admission on Tuesdays.

“Plazas in the Philippines: Places of Memory, Places of the Heart” Exhibit (Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Taguig City, Metro Manila)

 

The “Plazas in the Philippines: Places of Memory, Places of the Heart” Exhibit

The “Plazas in the Philippines: Places of Memory, Places of the Heart” Exhibit, opened last May 4, 2023 at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, is an ingeniously curated and designed multimedia exhibit on Philippine plazas.  It narrates our contemporary understanding of Urban Heritage in the Philippines harking to this year’s National Heritage Month theme: Heritage: Change and Continuity. Here, award-winning city planner, landscape architect, historian extraordinaire and exhibit curator (among many other hats) Paulo G. Alcazaren highlights a selection of 16 plazas from around the country in celebration of their role as the beating heart of many a town and city. The exhibition runs until June 3, 2023. 

Check out “Metropolitan Museum of Manila”

 

Landscape architect, urban planner and exhibition curator Paulo G. Alcazaren

Paulo packed a wealth of information into a compact space where the unlikely centerpiece is a real basketball half court, representing the modern-day equivalent of the plaza for many Filipino urban dwellers, the type you’ll find in many congested barangays and the de facto plaza today of communities across the land.  The installation, a striking demonstration of the curator’s playful, insightful take on his subject, features several pairs of actual rubber slippers arrayed beneath the backboard, a silent homage to the nation’s countless barefoot players and to our poignant fondness for a tall man’s game.

 

The basket half court

Panoramic black-and-white photos of actual barangay courts, jammed with action (much of it not even basketball-related), illustrate Paulo’s point that these modern-day plazas serve multiple purposes in communities lacking in parks and wide open spaces. Paulo has also been calling out, on social media, the absurdly unpeople-friendly aspects of city life such as the inhumanely steep pedestrian overpass on EDSA nicknamed Mount Kamuning.

 

Basketbol (Emmanuel Garibay, oil on canvas, 1994, the M Collection)

The plazas are featured to show their contexts alongside archival images, interactive artworks, photo collages of Rizal Monuments that form part of the built environment of plazas, and a selection of artworks from The M’s own collection, highlighting the history and trajectory of town and city plazas in the Philippines.

 

Bumnabun (Pablo Baens Santos, oil on canvas, 1997, the M Collection)

Plazas in the Philippines have been central to communal celebrations and other social and political events in over 1,600 towns and cities for hundreds of years. However, it has fallen prey to the pressures of population and economic growth, as well as the attendant consequences of urban densification and commercial real-estate development.

 

L-R: Plaza Roma (Intramuros, Manila) and plazas of the City of Zamboanga and City of Bacolod

As a city planner and landscape architect, Paulo has spent the past 15 years traveling all over the country and taking the opportunity to record the heritage of plazas, their landscapes, and their remaining structures of note.

 

Jose Rizal Monuments in the Philippines

He completed his Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degrees from the University of the Philippines (Diliman) and his Master’s degree in Urban Design from the National University of Singapore. He has taught at the University of the Philippines as well as at the Ateneo de Manila University.

 

Panoramic black-and-white photos of actual barangay courts

Paulo has been a practicing design consultant in planning, urban design and landscape architecture for the last 40 years, with twelve of those spent in Singapore as head of PDAA Design Pte Ltd. He has been principal planner, urban designer or landscape architect in charge of close to two hundred projects in 14 countries and is currently head of PGAA Creative Design, Manila.

 

L-R: Plazas of the cities of Mandaue (Cebu) and Tagbilaran City (Bohol), the municipality of Santa Barbara (Iloilo), Plaza Molo (Iloilo City) and Plaza Libertad (Iloilo City)

PGAA’s portfolio of completed projects in the public realm include the Iloilo Esplanade, the renovation of eight plazas in Iloilo and Pasig City, as well as parks in Manila, Makati, Pasig, San Juan, Quezon City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Singapore.

 

Plaza of the City of Tabaco (Albay)

Paulo is the founder of MADAFAKAS (Metropolitan Alliance for the Development and Fixing of All Kantos and Sidewalks), a faux political party with its own Facebook page.

 

Plaza of the Municipality of Pagsanjan (Laguna)

A co-production of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (The M) and the Filipino Heritage Festival, Inc. (FHFI), it is supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts with partners Security Bank Corporation, Business World and DDB Group Philippines.

 

An indispensible drone

Plazas in the Philippines: Places of Memory, Places of the Heart: 3/F, South Gallery A, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Mariano K. Tan Centre, 30th St. cor. 9th Ave., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, Metro Manila. Mobile number:: (0917) 160-9667. E-mail: info@metmuseummanila.org. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays (except on public holidays and other special notices). Pre-register a day before your visit. The museum offers free admission on Tuesdays.

Anya Resort Tagaytay's Anila Poolside Restaurant Launches New Menu

 

Anila Poolside Restaurant

Last April, a new menu was launched for Anya Resort Tagaytay's Anila Poolside Restaurant which featured Filipino as well international dishes conceptualized by the very friendly Executive Chef Christopher “Chris” A. Leaning and his crew. A native of Grimsby, England, the 58-year old Chris has over 40 years experience in food management operations in hotels and restaurants and is one of a handful of World Master Chefs currently working in the Philippines. 

Check out "Resort Review: Anya Resort Tagaytay"

Anya Executive Chef Chris Leaning and GM Mikel Arriet

He has been in the country for a long time (now residing in Tagaytay with his family) and arrived in Anya Resort in April 2022.  Working with the young, hardworking, always smiling but soft-spoken resort GM (since August 2018) Mikel Arriett, they created a menu that was, in Mikel’s words, “simple but satisfying.” Mikel, himself, is a fellow chef from the Basque Region of Spain whom Chris met when he was working at Taal Vista Hotel).

 

Fried Spring Rolls and Anila Gambas & Chorizo al Ajillo

Prepared for us was a captivating and decadent 9-course meal, as presented by Sous Chef Robee Joy Javier, consisting of three appetizers, four main courses and two desserts.  Each dish, using a variety of local and imported ingredients, was uniquely different from the previous course.  This glimpse provided a perspective of local flavors as interpreted through the palate of a Spaniard and an Englishman who have resided long enough in the country to know the Filipino’s penchant for good food. 

Deep Fried Chopitos

To set the mood for the main courses coming up next, we were first served Anila Gambas & Chorizo Al Ajillo (sautéed shrimps, sliced chorizo, bay onions, garlic chili, virgin olive oil and parsley), Deep Fried Chopitos (tender baby squid coated in Anya’s own seasoning and served with remoulade) and Lumpiang Shanghai (a pork, prawn and vegetable spring roll cigarillos served with a sweet chili dip). All had a hint of spice which made the dishes all the more appetizing.

 

Classic Paella

Of course, the highlight were the four main dishes – Cochinillo Asado (Spanish-style whole roast suckling pig served with its own juices), Classic Paella (Classic Spanish rice cooked with rich stock, sofrito, seafood, chicken and served with lemon and aioli sauce), Grilled Shrimp (char-grilled butterfly shrimp with a touch of brandy and served with lemon wedges) and the Beef Shank Bulalo (a, hearty and filling tender beef shank and bone marrow stew slow braised in beef broth with local vegetables, potatoes and corn).  

Cochinillo Asado

The paella, prepared with much love and care, was deliciously robust.  The Cochinillo Asado, a Spanish-style lechon de leche, was mouthwatering, with a rich and savory flavor.   The crispy skin and tender meat would leave you craving for more.  The Grilled Shrimp was cooked to perfection while the Beef Shank Bulalo was a very tasty and ubiquitous take on Tagaytay’s well-loved and renowned soup.

  

Beef Shank Bulalo

Grilled Shrimp

Equally enticing was the dessert of 5-Layer Jack Daniels Chocolate Fudge Cake (multi-layered choco moist cake flavored with bourbon syrup, layers of chocolate ganache and served with warm, salted caramel sauce) and the Chef Chris Mango TresLeches (chiffon sponge dripping with Anya’s own sweet marinade and topped with fresh mango and caramelized cashew nuts).  What can I say about these two decadent desserts? They’re both to die for. 

5-Layer Jack Daniels Chocolate Fudge Cake

Chef Chris Mango Tres Leches

Anya Resort Tagaytay: Buenavista Hills Rd., Brgy. Mag-asawang Ilat, Tagaytay City, 4120 Cavite. Tel: (02) 8657 1640. Mobile numbers: (0917) 893-8946. E-mail:a sales@anyaresorts.com.  Website: www.anyaresorts.com.