To discover drawing is to discover the heart of human history. It is the nucleus of human civilization within the wombs of the caves, of etched lines and markings by prehistoric men, which inevitably gave birth to the outlines of our modern-day culture. A Drawing Show, under Nilo Ilarde’s curatorship, attempts to re-acquaint the audience to drawing as an art practice and an end in itself; not just a B-side or a draft to a masterpiece; but the encore to an artist’s conceptual output. A Drawing Show assembles some of today’s contemporary artists from varied genres resulting to a plethora of possibilities and permutations of drawing styles and techniques. In it, figuration coalesce with abstraction and the only limit set to a stroke or a line is the artist’s willingness to push the boundaries of drawing as a concept. Regardless of the medium, each piece serves as a dot that connects an expanding image – a portrait of the potentiality within the landscape of Philippine Art. This exhibition tries to remind us that an artwork’s value lies not in the pigment but in the artist’s vision; that the emancipation of ideas should not be contained in any medium or material; and each scribble or sketch is a grand gesture awaiting to be realized and actualized. 

WRITTEN By Lec Cruz