Abstract art is often a subliminal experience -- from works that originate from the artist’s stream of consciousness, to the meditative state that exhibits the interplay of color, lines, and forms, to the cerebral, where consciousness takes over as the technical skill is applied. Essentially, abstract art takes the viewer into a space unlike the world he sees around him.
Now on exhibit are works by seasoned Filipino abstractionists Antonio Daroy, Rock Drilon, and Roy Veneracion titled, "Encounters Beyond the Surface" on view until September 30 at Gallery BiG in Shangri-La Plaza, Mandaluyong City.
Roy Veneration, Syncretic Gestures, 2024 36" x 36" Acrylic on canvas
In Roy Veneracion's (b. 1947) work, "Syncretic Gestures," the artist presents a composition dominated by a color-field of warm salmon-pink that evokes an otherworldly landscape. To put some weight and energy into the composition, the artist applies heavily textured, gestural strokes in grey and cobalt blue at the top left and lower right of the canvas. Both are joined by an L-shape blackline and for grace, a swirling cobalt blue is dropped from the upper left "block", falling into an endless space.
Veneracion displays a deliberate combination of techniques – contrasting the raw application of paint with highly structured, calculated compositional elements that invite the viewer to look past immediate visual forms and connect with deeper, universal rhythms. Ultimately, the arrangement balances the weightlessness of wide, open spaces with dense pockets of expressive visual friction that explicitly capture the artist's philosophy of Aesthetic Syncretism.
During Veneracion’s five-decades-long artistic career, the artist has come up with a personal philosophy of "Syncretism Art" which he developed in the mid-1980s. It is the result of his explorations into dualities as a philosophy as well as as an artistic approach.
Syncretism is firmly rooted in pluralism, pragmatism, and universalism. Today, this artistic attitude is prevalent in artistic expression due to mass migration, digital connectivity, and the decentralized global art market. It is a thought system that assumes that no single culture, tradition, or artistic school holds a monopoly on truth which is built entirely on cross-cultural synthesis.
In this show, Veneracion frequently utilizes raw, negative space to let the individual competing elements to balance and breathe. In short, his style is a deliberate balancing act that harmonizes the chaotic energy of abstract expressionism with a precise intellectual approach.
In the early 20th-century abstract artists such as Wassily Kandinsky who is generally credited with painting some of the earliest pure abstractions around 1911, merged Theosophy with neuroscience to express music alongside spiritual energy as he transformed abstract geometry into a universal cosmic language. He used the concepts of music with esoteric mysticism as he treated colors as musical notes and utilized geometric shapes to represent cosmic energy.
Rock Drilon, Yellow Line, 2024 Mixed Media on Canvas
Drilon’s "Yellow Line" becomes a visual dialogue between the conscious and raw impulses. On a field of cement lies three distinct flat surfaces that represent hard surfaces -- a grey tilted plane to the left, a terracotta rectangle at the center, and a thin black slab at the bottom of the frame. On the right side of the composition is a blue textured S-shaped form and on the upper left is Drilon's iconic tangled string in gold. These are all held together by a 90-degree thin yellow line.
In this work, the rigid geometric planes represent the shifting, vulnerable structures of the conscious mind striving for stability. This appears disrupted by the raw unconscious impulses seen in the chaotic gold tangle and the fluid blue S-shaped form. The sharp 90-degree yellow line becomes a psychological mediator that imposes willpower and boundaries. These elements create a tense balance of the human struggle to organize internal chaos into conscious order.
Rock Drilon’s style strongly embodies the principles of Art Brut ("raw art"), a concept created by French artist and writer Jean Dubuffet in 1945 – art possessed a purity and raw passion.
Antonio Daroy, Feathered Nocturne 2025, Mixed Media on acrylic pad
Antonio Daroy’s (b. 1948) representational abstraction exhibits sheer technical acumen in its heavily patterned and colorful work. He graduated from the University of the Philippines in the late 1960s or early 1970s. He was part of a student collective known as "4Sight" alongside fellow artists Alfredo Liongoren, Nestor Vinluan, and Norberto Carating.
In contrast to the above artists who draw from the spirit and the emotions, Daroy’s work stems from a philosophy that imagination fuels creation. In sheer mechanical and technical concentration, Feathered Nocturne is a free-form playful composition that is highly structured in its rhythmic pattern work.
Daroy, who pursued further studies in Graphic Design in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is evident in this dense, meticulous line work -- almost every block of color is filled with sub-patterns radiating concentric scales, fine dots, and zig-zags in dense, textile-like patterns.
In the work, "Feathered Nocturne," the artist projects animalistic traits onto a human framework creating a complex hybrid character. It centers on a stylized, therianthropic figure that elegantly fuses zoomorphic and anthropomorphic imagery into a single cohesive form. This chimerical subject creates a striking dynamic that elevates the piece from a simple character illustration into a study of rhythm, form, and texture that sits between modern abstract expressionism and folk-art.
"Encounters Beyond the Surface" is on view until September 30 at Gallery BiG in Shangri-La Plaza, Mandaluyong City.