He makes all things new

Of all the public art I managed to see last year, it's Leeroy New's installation of a multi-color fly at the fountain of the Ayala Museum that struck me as most interesting, most inexpensive and most environmentally friendly. Look closely and find out why. May we see more such works this year. Leeroy's the boy for that. We're heavily counting on him and his wild mind.

Photos by Babeth Lolarga

It's a jolly holiday with Gilda

"Time for lunch. Waiting na kami," the SMS from Gilda Cordero Fernando went. The summons came while I was in a cab with a driver-road warrior who knew how to navigate the mean streets of Metro Manila to get me to Panay Avenue on time.

In time to find the hostess and her other guest, art organizer Trickie C. Lopa, enjoying a meal of fresh fruit salad, soup steeped in slices of chicken galantina, clam spaghetti, fish croquettes. They were midway, and I caught up in good time while GCF and I mapped out our art hop itinerary. The OC in her likes to write things down to make sure she doesn't forget. I take photos for the same reason.

We traveled in an old van that could fit Gilda's "stroller" from Quezon City to Makati. All for art! No wonder artists old, middle aged, young and still studying alike, love you, Gilda.

The most unique gate along the stretch of Panay Avenue features these images, not aliens, insects actually, painted by Dexter Fernandez.

The back of the gate that faces the inside of the compound

The Leandro Locsin-designed Cordero-Fernando art house with a lush garden planted and tended by Gilda's late husband Marcelo

Trickie and Gilda look at an image of the latest Gabby Barredo sculpture in the former's phone.


First stop: Four simultaneous solo shows at West Gallery. Aiko, Gilda's sidekick, and Gilda prepare the latter's "stroller"-cum-wheelchair

"Nestled in Love," oil on buffalo horn and skull by Henry Royales

Viewing Alwin Reamillo's "Mise en (matched) scene"

Details from one of Reamillo's Chinese scroll paintings. Could those be Bonifacio and Aguinaldo?

Reading a wall essay about Louie Cordero's art at Finale Art File

Studying Cordero's "Pattern for life's never-ending search for utopia"

"Ba't maganda ito? Cordero ito!" She holds up one half of a bookend (designed in the shape of a lamb or cordero) while waiting for another art show, Leeroy New's, to open in Greenbelt 5.

New's installation "Garden of Earthly Delights" at posh Greenbelt 5, an Altro Mondo-organized affair

Dr. Joven Cuanang, another passionate lover of art, tells us to hold each other for this photo with Gilda and art's darling Leeroy New.

Photos, except for the last, by Babeth Lolarga

Not for grandma and grandpa only

Announcement from the excellent brewer of ideas herself who loves a jam of creative people, Gilda Cordero Fernando, in her Inquirer column today:

Parade of grandmas and grandpas
The Grandma and Grandpa Club of the Geriatric Center and the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of St. Luke’s Medical Center, Global City will hold a parade of the art wheelchairs with Grandmas and Grandpas riding them. This will be on Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 10 a.m., and will be followed immediately after by the raffle of wheelchairs to its donors. Everyone is warmly invited.

The art wheelchairs will be on display at the lobby of the St. Luke’s Medical Center, Global City until Aug. 6. (If you ask me, I sincerely like all the chairs. All are equally beautiful, and I wouldn’t mind getting any of them as one of the sponsors.)
The remaining chairs will be on auction at a date to be later announced.

Read more: http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/117929/the-revolt-of-the-cheese-curls#ixzz2axHRW4x6

Robert Alejandro's "The Silver Chariot"

Birds and other fauna on a wheel

Mr. Alejandro signs the work that resulted in bleeding hands.

"Citigram," a collaboration of students from the Philippine High School for the Arts

Lower half of Gerry Leonardo's "Therapeutic Rolling Vehicle"

That's the chair's back plus other colorful details put together by Leonardo.

Imagine hanging your caps or hats or chokers or necklaces on Leeroy New's "Temple of Healing."

You can sit on everyone else's wheelchair, but Aba Dalena installed this mortally hurt but still peaceful-looking angel on hers. It's pure sculpture.

These rubber silicon protrusions on Agnes Arellano's "Anti-Stress Wheelchair" work like a shiatsu massage.

Noel Cuizon and Karen Flores's "Primera, Segunda, Tercera" is guaranteed to make a seated couple feel like a king and a queen "in sickness and in health."

Cat clinging on the wheel of Wendy Regalado's "Beast Friends Forever"

Io Regalado's "Ibong Malaya" gives a wheelchair-bound patient the illusion of freedom.

Io's wheels even has claws to protect the rider.

Nona Garcia's "Dextrose Art" looks simply elegant in an exhibition setting.

A rare occasion it is when Gilda grants an interview to broadcast media (Associated Press). Here she throws her arms high to show what a high she got when three hunks from Palma Hall at UP Diliman carried her on her wheelchair to a theater. That was how the idea of an art wheelchair clicked in her mind. Dr. Joven Cuanang got into the picture along with Gilda's BFF Manuel Chaves as production manager, and the public enjoyed another good ride!                               Photos by Babeth Lolarga

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