Monograph on artist Pow Martinez released

Writer Tony Godfrey uses conversations on movies and music to make the art accessible

By Brontë H. Lacsamana, Reporter

ASIDE from ongoing exhibits at the Silverlens Gallery and MO_Space, Filipino artist Pow Martinez is the subject of a newly released eponymous monograph on his works spanning from 2009 to 2023.

Written by contemporary art writer Tony Godfrey, the book is more than just a catalogue, going over Mr. Martinez’ works as well as the inspirations behind them, be it music or movies. Its essays are based on conversations between the writer and the artist.

The monograph is the second in a trilogy on contemporary Filipino art by publisher ArtAsiaPacific, the first, which was centered on Bernardo Pacquing, released a few months prior. The subject of the third and final one has yet to be announced.

Mr. Martinez, known for an expressionistic, dreamlike style, usually paints scenes and caricatures of people using bold colors, distinct light patterns, and unique shapes and perspectives. His works, akin to beautiful nightmares, blend the absurdities of everyday life with pop culture elements.

At the monograph launch held at Silverlens Gallery on Aug. 7, Mr. Godfrey noted that he is interested in new things, his age gap from his subject — Godfrey was born in 1951 while Martinez was born in 1983 — leading to a fascination born from differing sensibilities.

“The first chapter is about paintings; the second chapter we just talk about his favorite films; later on we talk a lot about music,” he said, making it easy to provide a very Filipino context. “The way people react to things tells a lot about them. Pow is very passionate.”

It was also an approach welcomed by the artist himself. “Tony is a bit of an outsider to us, being a foreigner, and I like that because it means he has no bias. I like that distance,” he said.

POP CULTURE AND ART
Mr. Martinez’s paintings, with their own vocabulary of highbrow and lowbrow elements mixed together, easily catch the eye. Discussing their meaning is a whole other challenge.

Conceptual art is “a notoriously very difficult subject,” according to Mr. Godfrey, which drove him to make the book accessible. “A lot of people get put off by too much theory, so I tried to make it simple. I would hope young art students, anyone interested in art, and collectors would read it.”

Isa Lorenzo, co-director of the Silverlens Gallery, added that it made sense that a book with a biographical, almost conversational structure could best explain the artist’s unique style. “It tells stories through other stories,” she said.

The likes of the movies The Thing and No Country for Old Men fuel Mr. Martinez’s imagination. In his ongoing exhibit at Silverlens, which explores an unsettling and surreal world derived from the current digital landscape, his oil on canvas painting boss fight evokes the drama and action of a scene from a movie. So does clandestine operations, one of his works being displayed in MO_Space for a show on the medieval-like barbarity of today’s society.

He describes his practice as “what a nature painter might do in a digital landscape,” revealing the ugliness and beauty of modern times.

For Ms. Lorenzo, having a monograph on Mr. Martinez’s distinctive body of work is like having “a resource for what life is like now for people living 50 years in the future.”

“It talks about movies, music, and art, all in the lens of Pow’s paintings. It’s not academic at all,” she said. “Once you see his work, you don’t forget it.”

Copies of Pow Martinez are available at the Silverlens Gallery. His exhibition of the same name will be there until Aug. 17, while his exhibition “Look, but don’t touch. Touch, but don’t taste. Taste, but don’t swallow” at MO_Space runs until Sept. 8.

Silverlens Gallery’s address is 2263 Don Chino Roces Ave. Ext., Makati, while Mo_Space is on the third floor of the Mos Design Bldg., B2 9^th Ave., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.