Worth of Things

About the Artists.

Bembol dela Cruz is a Filipino contemporary artist who holds a degree in Fine Arts (major Painting) from the University of the Philippines Diliman. He has had numerous solo shows in notable galleries in Metro Manila. He is a recipient of various awards including the 8th Ateneo Art Awards and received an artist residency and exhibition grant at Liverpool Hope University and the Cornerstone Gallery in the United Kingdom. He also received two residency grants from the Berkshire Residency Exchange in West Massachusetts and the Art of OMI International Artists Residency in Ghent, New York.

As much as art is often perceived as a way of detachment from reality, a key to unlocking some hidden meaning in the world that surrounds us, certain genres like hyperrealism blurs the line between reality and art and is practically erased in paintings and sculptures. Filipino contemporary artist, Bembol dela Cruz, focuses on stylized hyperrealistic paintings as an effective advancement of his ideas. As he develops ways to include a narrative, charm, and emotion into his work, he never leaves it bereft of personality.

Dela Cruz is captivated by the concept of tattoos and various surfaces such as skin and signs. He takes it a step further and creates a more definitive and detailed rendering to arrive at a different pictorial design. While incorporating elements that might not be there in reality, he consciously allows for a softer and much more complex focus on the depicted subject to create an illusion of new reality not seen in his original references. He may be intentionally veering away from being surreal, but his displayed illusions still encapsulate depictions of reality subtly enhanced with a fresh layer of vision.

Ranelle Dial is a visual artist and freelance art instructor. Her work continually transitions between various materials, processes and conceptual concerns, all linked by the production of multiple or serial works.

Dial graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts with a Bachelor Fine Arts (major in Visual Communication) in 2003.

She started joining group exhibitions in 2005 and held her first solo exhibition, titled Cube Uncubed, a year after at Mag:net Gallery. Her 6th solo exhibition, titled Redefined Signals, was held at Finale Art File in 2009.

She continues to hold annual or bi-annual solo exhibits to date and has completed artist residencies at the Project Space Pilipinas in Manila (2011) Liverpool Hope University in the United Kingdom (2012) Eastside International in Los Angeles (2014).

"In my work path, there is a strand, which correlates the concept of time, restraint, processing and cognition.

Throughout the memory of existence, I am fascinated with man’s capability to abandon or adapt within the parameters of particular life, concept and space. Upon observing family, friends, the news and the paths that people take within our society, I am emphatic to a particular subjective concept of time, change, preservation and its relationship to the objective sense of adaptability and technology.

While I use a variety of materials and processes in each of my projects, my methodology is consistent. Although there are may not always be material similarities between the different projects, they are linked by recurring formal concerns and through subject matter. The subject matter of each body of work determines the materials and the form of the work. Each project consists of multiple works, in a range of different media- paintings, assemblage and installation around specific themes and meanings. During research and production, new areas arise and lead to new body of work."

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