Manny M Rubio

Charmaine Carvalho reports on the work of Filipino artist Manuel Rubio living in Hong Kong who, despite the fast pace of city life, have managed to translate his ideas into art 

 

Back to nature

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bold colors, ambiguous shapes and fluid dripping lines of color are the first impressions the viewer of Filipino artist Manuel Rubio’s paintings is confronted with. Step back and abstract work begins to rearrange itself before your eyes and voila! a flaming landscape, ashy mountain or glowing coral reef.

     The Life Beneath series (above) – oblong fingers of red, yellow and green set to an orange background – which were displayed at Estilo, an exhibition of the works of 11 Filipino artists at the Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong, from part of Rubio’s collection that grapples with the theme of global warming. “From the beginning, I always wanted to contribute to the prevention of global warming,” says Rubio, whose ties to nature date back to his childhood on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. “Last year I thought that would be a good subject to start with.”

     The result was an apocalyptic presentation of what the earth will look like if man continues on his path of destruction. Red Earth is a violent blur of red and ochre; “Like a burning star, Earth rushes headlong into self-immolation” is the artist’s description of this work. Yellow Landscape predicts that “unless humankind’s scorched Earth policy of environmental degradation is checked and reversed, pollution will turn our planet into an ashy mount of cinder”. The yellow canvas is seared with a roar of black with smidgens of green hinting at erstwhile pasture and plains. Black Mountain evokes a volcanic eruption in swirling opalescent black and yellow so lurid that it contains hints of green. Probably the least dire of the lot is Red Dragon, where the figure of the dragon blazes out of the canvas in a haze of red, ochre and white.

     “The paintings are beautiful,” says Philippines-based art collector Ophie Bunda. “But it’s a terrifying feeling. The execution is like a peaceful disruption.” This is exactly the reaction Rubio is aiming for. “We must realize that village scenes, flowers and other beautiful things, will soon only be found in paintings and in our imagination due to the negligence of society,” he says. The marine life series, however, point to what could be the last unspoiled frontier and evoke a more positive response from the same art collector: “If the ea work evoked feelings of horror, the Life Beneath series took me to a strangely innocent, wonderful, exciting world. It is profoundly satisfying, perhaps because the colors are much more refreshing – I want to take a plunge!”

     What is unique about Rubio’s work is his medium. He uses enamel, the same material used to paint houses and cars. “The idea of using enamel in art was always at the back of my mind when I was young,” he says. “I was fascinated by the way colors merged when painters mixed paint. You won’t get that kind of effect from another medium.” He creates his works carefully pouring paint onto the canvas and securing a dramatic blend of colours. “The paint cannot be too thick or too thin,” explains Rubio. “If the paint is too thin, the colors will mix well but the shape will soon disappear.” And while one can use any brand of paint, it is important not to mix brands in the same painting.

     Trained in art at the School of Music and Fine Arts of the University of the East, Rubio started his career in visuals arts at a design studio in Manila, becoming art director four years later. After eight years with a commercial design studio in Manila, he found himself in Hong Kong and has since worked on the graphic side of journalism as various publications.

     Caught up in the hectic pace of the city, Rubio says he never got a chance to paint. “Back in the Philippines, I was part of a group of artists who were already famous,” says Rubio. In fact, his uncle is renowned Filipino artist Mauro ‘Malang’ Santos, who initially gained fame as the originator of the comic strip Kosme the Cop, and while he was in art school, he worked in Malang’s studio. “I thought that once I moved to Hong Kong I would have more time to paint,” adds Rubio. “But when I got here, I realized that the situation is quite different. Houses in Hong Kong are small and one has very little   free time.”

     “In any person’s life, their success depends on their stars aligning. There are three stars in my case – talent, inspiration and opportunity,” says Rubio. “The opportunity came last year when I did a series of paintings for the Philippine Arts Festival.” Prior to that exhibition, Rubio had done a number of paintings that he was not entirely satisfied with and had dabbled in different media.

     How he ended up using enamel makes for an interesting story. He was short on time and had to come up with a collection in a rush. He had also not anticipated the art material shops being closed for the Chinese New Year holiday when he had planned to begin painting. “I went to a book shop and was able to purchase three small sized canvasses,” recalls Rubio. He then went to a regular hardware shop and bought cans of paint in different colours. The result was Red Dragon and from there, Rubio had found his metier.

     “If you feel that you have to be an artist, you’ll find a way somehow to make it happen even if it is on weekends or in the middle of the night – any time that you are alone with your imagination and blank canvas,” says Rubio. He adds that the essence of art is sharing the artist’s innermost feelings. “What an artist is trying to do for people is to bring them closer to something, because of course art is sharing. You would not be an artist unless you wanted to share an experience or thought.”

 

Stylized squaring

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Rubio was also part of ‘Drawings on Square’ exhibition at the Fringe Club in which eight Filipino artists based in Hong Kong confined their expression to the square shape of the canvas. The exhibition was an attempt for the artists – many of whom work as graphic designers – to get back to basics, forsaking the computer as a tool in favour of the pen or pencil when doing basic sketches. The result was more refine and gentle than anything that could have been achieved by using modern graphic software.

     For this exhibition, Rubio went back to nature with finely drawn fish and trees whose shape is geometrically retrained but who burst to life in color nevertheless.

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