Images courtesy of Art Lounge Manila and R.C.Ladrido
In his most recent exhibit titled Tadhana at Art Lounge Manila, Janos Delacruz presents over 30 works on canvas, paper, and hand painted reinforced resin centered on the themes of love, longing, and deep connection with each other.
The exhibit is part of his homage to his mother, Marialuz “Marlou” Buenaflor Delacruz, who passed away in January this year.
A visual testament, it is the artist’s process of exploring his own self and roaming into an inner world of thoughts and memories, and finding strength to move on, anchored on a son’s bond to his mother.
It’s complicated
The works contain figurative images of a king, queen, jack, or joker, and other icons (spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs) from a suite of playing cards. Love is complicated, it is a game of chance, of serendipity, of risk-taking; someone wins, another loses, as seen in a series of sculptural works in resin, like giant playing cards, each with a pair of hands holding it, titled Kueen & Qing of Heart.
Dalagita, Syota, Jowa,Ligawan, Bulong-Bulungan, Unawaan, Martir, One Heart, One Love, All Eyes on You, Jagged Bouquet, Aftermath, and Unfinished Symphony— are some of the titles of Delacruz’s works that speak of love in many forms: puppy love, attraction, courtship, togetherness, separation, desire, longing, and the promise of eternal love.
Sacred Heart
The image of the Sacred Heart, depicted as a wounded heart encircled by a crown of thorns, and radiating light that represents the mystical-physical heart of Jesus, remains one icon in Delacruz’s works. It is an object of devotion in Roman Catholicism. Beyond that, it represents compassion and love for all mankind.
Dream journey
In all the works, one can discern traces of faces, floating circles and disks with eyes, dots and pyramids, flowing branches, tentacles, shells, stars, and flowers— a juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated imagery and intricate forms layered upon each other.
Delacruz’s visual style—characterized by muted and pastel colors, fluid forms, and dense images —enhances the sense of a mysterious world that inhabits another realm, an unknown world. His mastery of printmaking shows in each work, a seemingly magical fusion of painting and printmaking on canvas. Viewers embark on a dream journey through a mosaic of surrealistic imagery, overcoming their own sense of loneliness that pervades the digital age.
In black-and-white
In his highly detailed pen-and-ink drawings, Delacruz exhibits 14 of them in Tadhana; some are studies of his acrylic paintings also on exhibit.
It is in black-and-white drawings that reveal the métier of Janos Delacruz, in his relentless energy to use basic lines and forms to create depth and dimension, resulting in a heightened sense of composition.
One simply marvels at the multitude of images drawn on a single sheet of paper. It feels like a thousand pieces of a puzzle simply finding its own perfect place to completion.
In Tadhana, Delacruz embarks on an introspective journey into love in all its complexity, reminding himself (and us) that a better and deeper connection with others is usually rooted in truthfulness.
In creating such an intentional moment of connection, let us recall Alfred Lord Tennyson’s well-known line in a poem, as part of his memoriam to a closest friend: “Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
Janos Delacruz (b. 1985)
A painter and printmaker, he is a graduate of the University of Santo Tomas College of Fine Arts and Design in 2006. Majoring in advertising arts, his thesis received an outstanding thesis award in advertising arts (book illustration). He also attended the Art Students League of New York in 2012.
He is a recipient of the UST Benavides Award for Outstanding Achievement, 2006, one of UST’s highest forms of recognition to its alumni, and the CCP Thirteen Artists Award in 2018.
His work, Hari ng Kamaynilaan, won first prize in the print category of the AAP Annual National Art Competition in 2004; and a finalist in the painting category in 2012. Also in 2004, he won another first prize in the PAP (Philippine Association of Printmakers) Open Fine Prints Competition, with his work, Bulong sa Panaginip. He won second place, Tulog na Nene… in the 38th Shell National Student Art Competition (Digital Category) in 2005.
He was the Philippine Delegate to the 27th Asian International Art Exhibition held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2013 and the KKB Art Festival 2016 in Kuala Kubu Bharu, Malaysia in 2018.
With 19 solo art exhibitions to his name, Delacruz has held exhibitions in the United States, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and United Arab Emirates.
His father, Fil Delacruz (b.1950) is a well-known printmaker and painter, and they share a house and an art studio/gallery called Bahaysining in Muntinlupa City. Father and son have held several exhibits together, presenting their own totally different artistic styles.