Collage Artist / Photographer: JULIUS CLAR
JULIUS CLAR never dreamed of becoming an artist. after graduating from high school in north-eastern mindanao he caught an Inter-island boat which headed to Manila. The first thing he saw there was an art exhibit at the Cultural Center of the Philippines which featured, among others, the torn Philippine Art book scattered around a garbage bin. ( Gerry Tan told him much later that it was an installation piece by Roberto Chabet.) that entered his mind: that art could be an idea on anything. but he willed his mind not to take a college art course because he thought he was alone in manila and an 8 to 5 employment would bring food and pay the boarding house. flash forward. After retiring from an employment in middle east he found himself useless. He had a plan. He would make art. He did some assemblage art in shadow boxes which sold at a gallery in Makati. Then he tried other genres but only in collage making did he found what he was trying to find: Something that is doable with less fuss in materials and preparations which actually coincided with his corporate experience in doing layouts for corporate ads, newsletters & quarterlies.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My art pieces resonate the unfinished business of my creative life. Having delved into b/w darkroom photography and collage/assemblage art for many years, I have not been as creatively prolific as I am at this stage in my life. Though largely professionally untrained in fine-art methods, this raw energy led to a series of work with an underlying commonality: detailed gestural strokes in subtle, almost monochromatic color palette which depict action, movement. I feel that, in every piece, there are degrees of turmoil and calmness happening at the same time. Turmoil, perhaps, because there is a need to tame the action into some form of composition. Calmness, because there has been oneness of concept realized in every piece. The “under-laidout” feel, or the seemingly “unfinished” look of each piece, however, challenges me, but eventually leaving me with more optimism and possibilities—both for me, and for my audience. Largely, my work is reflection of man’s daily grind—the act of surviving, and surviving it right.
Exhibitions
2020 The Quintet (Group Exhibition) ABS-CBN Compound, Quezon City
2020 Beyond Imagination (Group Show) Kidney Institute of the Philippines, Quezon City
2020 Beyond Imagination (Group Exhibit), Project 20 Gallery, Quezon City
2019 Valid Until Yesterday (Two-Person Exhibit), Quezon City
2018 Position Paper (Group Exhibition), Galerie Stephanie, Mandaluyong City
2014 Cool Memories, (Group Exhibit), Planet Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
2014 Cool Memories (Group Exhibit), Light & Space Contemporary, Fairview, Quezon City
2014 Across Borders (mixed media assemblage- group show) Light & Space Contemporary, FGC
2013 Not Here Anymore (assemblage, collage work) Light & Space Contemporary, Quezon City
2011 Project 3: Assemblage (assemblage work), 20 Square Gallery, Makati City
2009 Things You Don’t Already Have, (assemblage work), 20 Square Gallery, Makati City
2009 Sun Dance, (Vandyke Prints- Group show), Silverlens Gallery, Makati City
2008 Assemblage, (assemblage work), 20 Square Gallery, Makati City
2006 Sunprints, (Vandyke Prints- Two-Person Show), Art Center Mega Mall, Pasig City
1999 Untitled Discomforts, (gelatin silver prints), Ayala Museum, Makati City
1998 A River of Light, (gelatin silver prints), Lopez Memorial Museum, Pasig City
1998 Personal Visions (gelatin silver prints- group show), Ayala Museum, Makati City
1997 Light Among The Ruins, (gelatin silver prints), Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila City