"Fortuna: Imperatrix Mundi" at ArtisCorpus Gallery (Feb 13-Mar 8, 2010)

* click the image for larger view *

Artis Corpus Gallery presents its first group show in 2010 ushering the coincidentally auspicious Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day. Entitled FORTUNA: IMPERATRIX MUNDI, this exhibition of paintings based on the Major Arcana of the Tarot features Filipino artists interpreting the 22 cards in the context of contemporary Filipino themes. Artists featured are Arnica Acantilado, Honesto Guiruela III, Ronald Jeresano, Dominador Laroza, Rommel Ramota, Jeffrey Salon, and Julmard Vicente. The show opens 6pm on Saturday 13 February and runs sill 8 March 2010. Artis Corpus Gallery is located at 303 Haig Street, Bagong Silang, Mandaluyong City. Please call (632) 7174619 or text +63.920-9537426 for further details.

Fortune, Empress of the World,

I humbly lay down my Life

entirely at your precious feet.

This statement of acceptance of everything that befalls on any human being is the greatest act of surrender. It may sound like total abandon, but this is exactly what gratitude is all about. When the Self is at ease, it allows the forces of the Universe to act upon what needs to be effected on. When the Ego is laid to rest, then Nature is left to take its course.

In August 2008, a group of associates decided to put in resources to incorporate what is now known as Artis Corpus Gallery. Fifteen months and twenty exhibitions thereafter, awakening creeps in to remind everyone of the reality that surrounds everything. The visual art world is a microcosm of the society that it portrays. Times have changed and the phrase “Art for Art’s Sake” may appear not to have any relevance at the moment. Artificially induced demands, hypes, invented preferences, cartels, and a systematized art production process pre-programmed for investment marketing all at once characterize this once pure and absolutely noble arena of one’s culture. One must necessarily fit in to survive.

Meager resources and a stout heart for the arts definitely do not suffice to support a newborn art enterprise. Hints from supporters, both from the giving and the receiving ends, remained in the air, and Nature flushed out its excess water and submerged a personal collection intended to finance the production and promotion of new art. The Law of Cause and Effect may never be altered. Giving up means hibernating and reevaluating the givens versus what are desired.

Early in 2003, I had stretched and primed a set of twenty-two canvasses to be reserved wholly for a series of paintings based on the Major Arcana of the Tarot. The project never took flight as the artists chosen to paint the series took on different paths. I included took on an entrepreneurial path that eventually led to the establishment of a gallery. Another became a fashion designer, while the third decided on a fate entirely her own.

In late 2009, a group of seven artists wanting to do a meaningful show took on the role and divided the twenty-two canvasses among them. The Major Arcana simply served as their starting block. Interpretation was set loose as each artist was allowed to contemporize the concepts expressed in the middle ages in a place totally apart from the Orient, yet with the same amount of mystery, cloud, and occult.

I dedicate this exhibition to the turning of the wheel of fortune, as well as whatever consequences it brings forth to the lives of the whole of humanity.

ENRICO J. L. MANLAPAZ

President, Artis Corpus Gallery

Exhibition Curator, Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi

* click the image for larger view *