“…The same sense of moral violation is expressed in Roy Veneracion’s ‘Mutya ng Pag-ibig’. The central image is that of a poor Filipino family, the woman looking anxiously to the future while sheltering her child with her arms, and the father crying out and raising his flayed and bleeding arms in protest. They are flanked by the two contrasting figures of the beautiful female nude on the left, symbolizing the Filipina, and the robot at the right against a background of factories spewi...

BY ALICE GUILLERMO “…Some of the most striking paintings reflecting the temper of the times came from a former abstractionist, Roy Veneracion. In unusual and visually arresting works, such as ‘Panaginip and Pangarap (Ika-12 Pangitain ni Juan),” the artist deals with the end of the Marcos rule and reveals an accomplished figurative style. Deviating from the traditional illustrative approach to history painting, the works are surrealist, combining recognizable public figures with symbols...

BY ALICE GUILLERMO One of the most striking paintings in “Piglas” is that of Roy Veneracion entitled "Paulit-ulit ang mga pangyayari noong Pebrero sa gunita ni Ferdinand samantalang siya’y hele-hele sa awiting Dahil sa Iyo", in oil on acrylic in enamel. The colors, while vivid and in unusual combinations, do not have a decorative effect, but instead have the intensity of a dream or a lingering after-image that haunts the mind. The scarlet and golden hues mold the figures and lend them an ...

BY CID REYES Roy Veneracion …has taken a rather oblique approach, switching between pure abstraction and unabashed figuration or, as often, merging the two idioms, with results that invite polarizing opinions. Veneracion himself has been directly reproached for this duality of artmaking. The artist recalls being admonished – but gently, of course – by at least two influential critics, namely, the late Leonides Benesa and Alice Guillermo, both of whom preferred that the artist focus his en...

One of the undisputed doyens of modern abstract art in the country, Roy Veneracion literally goes to town with the most disarming use of color in a show of his latest works at the newest gallery in town (mag:net +, until Oct. 12). While other abstractionists of his generation have predictably gone minimalist or unabashedly expressionist, Veneracion, the ever-fervid colorist par excellence, has chosen to let loose a torrent of tones and colors that, by their very essence, are of the neutral or n...