ORIGEN at the Galleria Duemila

March 6 - April 25, 2010                   

With the year having just begun, Roberto Robles rehashes what has been left behind. 

Opening in the Galleria Duemila this March 2010, Origen is an exhibition of the artist's most recent paintings and sculptures that root themselves in the artist's Felipinas show back in 2008. Ever since his first show at Duemila in 1997, Robles has continued to mount stunningly introspective exhibitions that encapsulate a universality that resonates in the viewer. 

Bringing about the intimacies of history, culture and the experiential, Robles paints canvasses that echo his environment- its immediacy, its constant presence and its significance to find union between the subtle and magnanimous. Robles pushes further the concept of environment from the tangible to the intangible. His abstractions nestle themselves in powerful figurations that touch on religion and retrospection - a man's arm aside the words 'libertad de los mares' ('freedom of the seas) is a poetic portrayal of the country's past and her struggle for emancipation. History influences everything and integrates itself to the physical world that we live in. The insight of being freed from the past is an ironic one as Robles purposefully steers the focus of his works to these periods that have been somewhat forgotten. 

A plaster sculpture of a man that is lacking parts to the head and shoulders is not so much a commentary on the incompleteness of man, but perhaps on how history has been so potent that it has caused part of man's identity to be anchored to a certain moment. Somehow, we are never quite complete: parts of ourselves are posited to be transcended, and this is why it is natural, if not human, to look back into the origins and states. 

Origen shows Robles masterfully deviating from the clamor of postmodern conceptual art and simply cradling the silence that emanates from the past. In doing this, the artist brings universal thoughts and sentiments into a new threshold. Every stroke and every shape molded is a call to witness the luminosity of something at the point of beginning once again.

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Based in Batangas, Roberto M.A. Robles has served as Dean of the College of Fine Arts in the University of The East of which he is an alumnus. In addition to this, he has been part of the Department of Studio Arts in the University of The Philippines. In 2000, he represented the country in the Symposium on International Sculpture in Busan, South Korea. Robles has also been a recipient to the Vermont Residency in 2004. His works have been exhibited extensively abroad and was part of exhibitions at the CCP, the Ayala Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Manila.  

Origen runs from March 6 to April 25, 2010 at the Galleria Duemila, Pasay City, Manila, Philippines. We look forward to seeing everyone at this unforgettable exhibition. For more information, please contact, Ms. Catherine Huit of Galleria Duemila through Tel. No. (+632) 831-9990 or Telefax (+632) 8339815, e-mail: duemila@mydestiny.net The gallery is located at 210 Loring Street, Pasay City.