bloom

Jackie Hontiveros Lozano

July 10-31, 2022
Manila House BGC
Viewing hours: 10AM-4PM

BLOOM

I am here—as if the artist was saying. I am stripped down, unfurled and open. In silent jubilation in a peaceful reverie, there I am; there, I am going.

Bloom is Ikaj’s fourth solo exhibition and is the follow up to Marigold Summer in 2021, where we see the artist grow more graceful in healing, coming from a reclaimed past. The fourteen paintings in the series present beauty through the heart of a younger Ikaj, with the eyes and hands of who she is now: beauty that bares itself incomplete, and beauty that isn’t afraid to dream.

Just like how buds wait for seasons and take their time to bloom, the paintings allude to memories that Ikaj one by one, owned back and rediscovered through her process of healing. They are also futures still only imagined, that bring joy and peace in the artist’s mindful journey moving forward.

Although still pensive and melancholic in mood, the new series is a testament to the artist’s gentler, brighter ideals of tomorrow; we forget that the proof of sunshine is bloom.

PAINTINGS

Fourteen works that alternate between past and future coming together to depict the beauty in the present is the theme of Bloom. The artist intentionally put subjects in focus, painting backgrounds almost blurred insignificant. Ikaj zeroes in on the women—as an extension of her own past and identity—who are painted offstage. This is where they can be their own humanity as opposed to being a spectacle. Ikaj wants to show that beauty is your own, and that your beauty is flawed; it can be unflattering. It becomes more obvious in her purposefully unfinished painting style, now almost associated with the artist’s name.

All works were done with oil paint and oil sticks to create the patches of color, rough lines and dream-like quality. The recurring color pink, a signature of Ikaj’s pieces, and now also the color of a hope revolution, is more assertive and valiant on the canvas for Bloom.

Written by Kit Singson

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manila House