Exhibition

previous

diaryofthemouth

Dennis Gonzales

July 19 - August 6, 2012

Gallery 2

In his latest one-man exhibit, diaryofthemouth, Dennis Gonzales verbalizes his ideas in “one word,” not in the strictest sense but in stringing together phrases as “one-word” titles in his new works. Gonzales compares it to judging one’s character: We don’t really get to know one person with just one glance, as appearances and speech patterns can usually mask one’s true self. We need to dig deeper and spend more time before we can see what a person is really like. In the same vein, Gonzales explores “hidden” words/meanings within his “one-word” titled works. “I can play around the imagery suggested by the words as well as with the minds of the people seeing my works, as they evolve into multiple dimensions.” To Gonzales, the mouth is one of the most powerfully expressive parts of the human body. Whether it is trembling in sorrow, murmuring mouthful lamentations, pursing into a silent smile, or exclaiming glee or horror, it tells others how we are at first glance. Gonzales masterfully captures such a wide range of emotions as seen, heard, smelled, touched, and tasted in different periods of one’s life, ranging from desire and ambition through victorious or losing moments. His subjects are lightly textured yet imbued with life in their frozenness, with colorful orbs and patterns surrounding his composition, guiding the eyes either into a free, spirited journey that flows from one detail to another, or jarring the memory through flashes of the past. Luxury and celebrity are shown hand in hand with life and death, symbiosis and isolation, beauty and the macabre, and the squeaky clean and the tainted, as life itself is full of contradictions.A fine arts graduate from the University of the Philippines, Dennis Gonzales’s artistic achievements include winning the Metrobank Foundation’s Awards for Continuing Excellence and Service (ACES) award in 2009, being a finalist at the Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards and at the Shell National Art Competition, and receiving the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Award in 2003. In 2004, he mounted a solo exhibition at the Red Mill Gallery as part of his residency in the Freeman Asian Artist Fellowships in Vermont Studio Center in the US. Aside from shows in local museums and galleries, he has presented his paintings in Taiwan 101 Tower in Taipei, Vietnam Fine Art Museum in Hanoi, Malaysia National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, Thailand’s Chulalung Korn University Museum in Bangkok, the Singapore Art Museum, and the General Hardware Contemporary Gallery in Canada.