RAMON ORLINA’S “LUMINOSITY” OPENS 5TH OF JUNE 2008
Ramon Orlina, the sculptor famous for creating Quintessence, the 75-sq. foot glass and bronze installation done in 1995 that is a centerpiece at the Singapore Art Museum comes back this year to Singapore for a very special exhibit. Titled “Luminosity (The Colors of Orlina)”, the show opens June 5, 2008 at the SMU Art Gallery and will showcase 18 major pieces by the artist done specially for the occasion.
These pieces include “Intimacy-II”, “Celebration of Love”, “8”, “Cosmos”, “Stargazer-08”, “Holy Family-08”, “Venus III-08”, “In Mother’s Embrace” and the 80 kg. 5-piece sculptures “Skyscrapers” and “Garden City”. Aside from works in emerald colored glass, in Luminosity, Orlina presents sculptures in other colors such as azure blue, amber and in lime green.
Luminosity is the opening exhibit for Art Trek, a series of art events in the month of June in celebration of the Philippine National Day. Presented by the Philippine Embassy, Galerie Joaquin and Utterly Art, the exhibition will be held at SMU Art Gallery, Level 1, School of Economics and Social Sciences, 90 Stamford Road. It will commence on Thursday 5th of June at 7pm and continue to Friday the 13th of June. Opening hours will be 11am to 7pm from the 6th of June. For more information, call (65) 67253113 or (65) 90057410 or (65) 96972950. Visit www.galeriejoaquin.com.sg. Orlina’s works are favorites at international auctions. In Christie’s last November 2007, his work “Venus V” sold for HK$ 247,500 or approximately S$ 46,306. Just last May 24 also at Christie’s, the works “Michaels’ Martial Arts V & VI” sold at HK$ 162,500 or approximately S$ 30,403.
While most glass sculptures are heated and blown in order to form shapes while the medium is still malleable, Orlina’s style is creatively different. Art historian Dr. Rod Paras-Perez in an article written for the Asia Times titled “Heart of Glass” notes that what Orlina does is that he “molds the glass as a sculptor would a piece of marble or any stone. Often by painstakingly guiding each work into the shape or form he wants.”
Glass is usually thought of as a cold or hard medium but under Orlina’s artistic sensitivity, they are transformed into abstract emeralds. Orlina successfully brings forth an unparalleled dynamism in his sculptures utilizing the sheen of the medium and encouraging interesting variations of light and color with his interventions.
Orlina has several major public art in Singapore. Aside from the artwork at the Singapore Art Museum, his Fertile Crescent stands at the Marina Park of the Singapore Indoor Stadium. In 1986, Orlina did a 67- piece work of birds in flight titled The Wings of Victory at the WISMA ATRIAS on Orchard Road. His New Horizon adorns the China Hotel in Guangzhou. Several other glass sculptures welcome visitors to the Hakataka Museum and Theatre in Japan. Oneness, an eight meter high sculpture in glass, stainless steel and concrete is at the Liwasang ASEAN at the Cultural Center of the Philippines complex while Arcanum XIX; Paradise Gained, a giant sculpture measuring six feet by nine feet and weighing three tons is at the lobby of the Silahis International Hotel.
Among Orlina’s international recognitions and awards is his being awarded Winner in 1999 at the Toyamura International Sculpture Biennial in Japan. In the Year 2000, he won First Prize in the Sculpture Category in a biennial in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain. He was a finalist in numerous biennials and triennials including the Osaka Triennials in Japan in 1992 as well in the Fifth International Exhibition of Glass in Kanaza at the Ishikawa prefecture in Japan as well as in the New Glass Competition of the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. Ramon Orlina is an internationally acclaimed artist for his sculptures in carved glass, a technique the artist developed all on his own. An architect by training, Orlina became a full time artist in the mid 1970’s. Orlina introduced his new medium in glass in 1976 with mural creation in glass and steel called ARCANUM IX: Paradise Gained (1.8 x 3.2 x 0.6 mtrs.). Alice Guillermo in “Thirty Years of Dazzling with Glass” writes “From this auspicious beginning up to the present, Orlina has explored and realized the potentials of glass, achieving an integral form but opening up to reveal the dynamics of clearly-defined surface versus mysterious, elusive depths, of structural tease the eye and mind. The artist’s initial affinities with paintings were carried over to glass sculpture in his working vis-à-vis maze-like articulations within, of cerebral versus emotional allusions, and of tricky Escher-like forms that with lines, tones and textures that now intimate or reveal spaces within spaces in a breathless unfolding.”
The artist has had 28 one-man shows in a stellar career that has taken him to leading galleries in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong and the United States. He has also participated in group shows in Sweden, Australia, Japan, Norway, Italy, China, Czechoslovakia and Monaco. Luminosity is a wistful and much awaited return for a Orlina who was last in Singapore for a show titled Forms of Light in 1991 at the then National Museum Art Gallery (now Singapore Art Museum). |
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Michael's Martial Arts
Carved Asahi Glass 29 x 32x 18 cm
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08-08
Carved Amber Crystal 9 x 29 x 12 cm
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Venus III
Carved Asahi Glass 40 x 23 x 26 cm
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Stargazer
Carved Amber Crystal 34.5 x 20 x 18 cm
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A Mother's Love
Carved Blue Green Crystal 41 x 26 x 24 cm
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In Mother's Embrace
Carved Moss Green Crystal 29 x 21 x 20 cm
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Cosmos
Carved Lime Green Crystal 33 x 32 x 16 cm
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Wishing Well
Carved Amber Crystal 32 x 28 x 22 cm
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Samurai Fighter
Carved Aqua Blue Crystal 44 x 27 x 12 cm
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Intimacy II
Carved Lime Green Crystal 28 x 21 x 14 cm
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