By WINNIE VELASQUEZ
CRISTINA Grisar Brias blew into town from the old country on a quiet, cold day. Like a gust of wind flinging shutters open then settling to a momentary calm, she set up huge canvases glowing with light and photographs of what she describes as “impossible landscapes and fantastic realms,” as well as armor-like pieces of art jewelry.
Madrid-born Grisar made her debut in Manila with her first solo exhibit “The Bejewelled Cosmos” at 6 p.m. on Friday, February 12 at the Artist’s Space, on the second floor of the Ayala Museum’s Glass Wing. This first outing in her mother Sylvia’s country of birth runs until February 28.
Grisar is not new to the modern art scene. She has exhibited her works in various group shows in Chile, where she was based for more than a decade and where she received her Master in Advanced Design at the Universidad Catolica in Santiago. She has also been cited for her work, including a “Distinguished Mention” at the Third National Contemporary Jewelry Contest (“One Artist! One Jewel”) in Santiago.
“I have been professionally devoted to the art scene for seven years now. I first set my artistic roots in Chile, my father’s home country because it was where I experienced exponential growth as an artist and built my network of mentors and friends in the art world. But when I started gaining more confidence in my career, I always imagined my solo debut to be in Manila,” she said.
The decision is both a sentimental and artistic one. Grisar grew up listening to her mother’s stories of a happy and idyllic girlhood in Manila and learning about colors and light hanging out in her grandmother Betsy Westendorp Brias’s painting school in Madrid. Regular visits to Lola Betsy, who has made Manila her home since 2009, reinforced the decision. “That’s how we’ve always called her, the Filipino way,” Grisar said.
But although she was born to a family of artists — her mother, aunt and grandmother are all gifted artists and her father is an art collector — Grisar’s journey to becoming an artist was not an easy one. “I had to go through a personal crisis in order to discover my vocation. For my university studies, I chose literature then journalism. Art was nowhere near my options for it was too familiar and I wanted to have my own identity. I found work in a magazine in Chile but I couldn’t see myself as a journalist for the rest of my life. I wanted to do something I can call my own, something unique, something I was passionate about,” she said.
Then she went to a fine arts academy in Santiago where she sharpened her drawing skills and learned sculpture. She enrolled in jewelry-making classes, learned traditional and new techniques and started developing her own ideas, eventually deciding to focus on industrial design, “as it aligns with my personal philosophy of creating practical art,” she revealed.
She spent a year building her portfolio, applied to the Pratt Institute in New York and got accepted. “I thought finally everything was going smoothly until I learned that I didn’t win a scholarship, the ticket that I felt I so badly deserved. I was devastated,” Grisar said.
Amid her sorrow, she immersed herself in painting and jewelry. “I worked like mad, trying to find myself. Rage is indeed a potent motor and during this period of abandonment to work, quite interesting art arose. It was authentic, pure, a very decisive expression of myself, portraits of my emotions, my states of mind, of me. And in art I found myself, finally. Art saved me. I just needed time and experience to know it.” Grisar said.
And in art she found her voice. “Art was and is a part of my daily language, a communicative manner as natural as speaking,” she said.
A lover of nature, Grisar finds inspiration mainly from the natural world as well as her grandmother’s works. “Her aerial landscapes and ‘atmospherographies’ have influenced me most for their vaporous and mysterious qualities charged with life hidden from the eyes of the viewer. Her paintings seem to be filled with so many secrets, stimulating one’s imagination,” she said.
Grisar’s beiliefs also find expression in her art. “For me painting, jewelry, and photography are sibling mediums that contain magic transmission powers, like doorways to other dimensions. My works have their own personality, their own internal life and it is fundamental to be able to give birth to art and let art live on its own. In this sense, the Spanish term for giving birth is most appropriate: ‘dar a la luz’ which means to ‘deliver to the light’,” she said.
Her exhibit “The Bejewelled Cosmos” will also feature pieces from all her. Jewelry collections “Afterlife,” “Super Pro,” “Be,” and “Bridal.”
“My jewels are born within the framework of contemporary jewelry also known as art jewelry or designer jewelry. Contemporary jewels are deeply connected to emotions and the symbolic realm within the very essence of jewelry as ornament in its meaningful implications to the user. Their value is tied to the concept of ‘treasure’, which goes beyond the material and therefore have metaphysical qualities,” Grisar explained.
Finally, she said, “My Lola Betsy’s happiness and fulfillment in Manila as the great artist and persona that she is, and the wonderful feedback from the Filipino people who have been very supportive of her art, have always been very important for me as well as being hugely uplifting and motivating. So, in the end, it’s an emotional matter, and I guess a destiny thing, too. Isn’t it amazing when your dreams come true? For me this moment is absolutely precious. I feel very fortunate to be here and gratitude is a wonderful feeling to experience.”