SCRATCH TO AN ITCH by Galleria Duemila Art

SCRATCH TO AN ITCH SCRATCH TO AN ITCH

13 September – 11 October 2025

Art Director

Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz

Exhibition Team

Thess Ponce

Sarah Jean Ruales

Roy Abrenica

Gabriel Abalos

Jose Joeffrey Baba

Mariela Araza

Patrocinio Aguirre Jr.

Franco Zuñiga

Graphic Designer

Gerome Soriano

Jean Isabel Magcamit

Exhibition Notes

Jonathan T. Olazo

Curator

Raul G. Rodriguez

EXHIBITION NOTES

by Jonathan Olazo

Peter made an album called Scratch My Back

“Scratch to an Itch” is a catchphrase culled out by artist RM de Leon from collegial conversations. In his recollection, it was said to allude to the necessity of Modern painting at a point in time where theoretical and stylistic currents were changing course. Here, it is a perfect cover for a host of expressions, and the ideal allusion for a painter’s intrinsic compulsion to paint: the raison d’être of the artistic life. The congregated expressions in the exhibition is multifarious in range and sensibilities, but, the observed eclecticism has one center: painting is the proverbial muse and the undeniable phantom pain, albeit persisting as a plain and two-dimensional, flat object.

Painting’s history is a vast territory, and it is essential to pick a few turning points that lead to the artistic breakthroughs in the past millennium. Breaking out of its mold as a highly sophisticated tool for the making of mimetic pictures, it assumed the role of being its own entity - a tangible and malleable thing that increased in autonomy alongside the innovative designs of its progenitor-painter. Picasso’s 1912 collage/painting utilizing chair caning materials is a valuable case in point.

This outward-the-canvas trajectory culminates in Minimalism in the 1960s with the divesting of painting into austere object-hood that extends to sculpture and installation. Raising red flags, critical opinions saw the declared end of painting and art practitioners adamantly rallying to offer revivalist theories and practices. Visibly sprouting from the impasse were the “appropriative” Postmodernist styles espoused in architecture and industrial design, one of its proponents the celebrated figure Ettore Sottsass; and the pastiche-driven TransAvantguardia in America and Europe in the 1990s. These sought to transfuse new blood to painting.

This may very well be the backdrop of any contemporary practice. One may have a decided disregard for such canonical tracking, but, at this point, it is increasingly moot. Artistic reactions to this end-of-painting moment have evidently overcome the debacle. As art-making has become global and overlapping, bodies and entities providing judgements on aesthetics have moved away from the said Grand Narrative. Decentralized, art fractures constantly open to accommodate and further localized avenues of artistic learning and exploration. As such, seizing the moment, artists who have capitalized on such post-modernistic advances posit the inquiry: is it a return to modern painting or merely extending it?

This exhibition may well have found its backdrop in the aforementioned chronology of shifting upheavals, and the consolidation of its vertebrae must be traced to these momentous shifts. Curated by artist Raul Rodriguez, Scratch To An Itch comes after the heels of Brand X, an exhibition that could be seen as a sequel to the vaunted and well received exhibition Free Fall, that brought together artists with similar approaches and measurably unorthodox techniques.

Though it may pigeonhole a viewer’s response, providing a few broad strokes that describe each of the participating artists’ working attitudes might come in handy. Highlighting these noticeable operations provides a workable framework and consolidates the thesis of the exhibition. One of the perceived strategies that comes to fore is: the use of material as form and critique.

Cryptic Vessels

acrylic on wood assemblage

quadriptych

178.00 x 105.00 cm / 70.13 x 41.37 in. 2025

COP-20584

DAN RARALIO

In a recent series of paintings, artist Dan Raralio utilizes wood, texture and color in making bas-relief constructions that result in a cross-hybrid: art object and painting are one and the same. Understanding its tactile and aesthetic qualities in allowing for varying depths and recesses that enhance the paintings’ object-ness, Raralio’s organic compositions of angular and geometric forms allude to sacred structures and places of sacrosanct worship. Open to interpretation, does the alluded narrative ask: what is the dynamic relationship between modernity, or modern living, with visceral intuition and spiritual faith? Having taught at the UP College of Fine Arts and highly versed in painting and sculpture techniques, an aspect of the artist’s body of work consists of sculptures wherein its materials play the pun: an example is a lifelike pillow sculpted out of marble; and in another, a massive and realistic rendition of a pedestrian sidewalk is anchored and hanged on a wall. The said works are trompe l’oeil objects that fool and challenge the mind.

JOE BAUTISTA

The conceptual inquiry by Joe Bautista objectifies painting to its utmost polarity. In his recent series, paintings are composed of modular planar surfaces evoking horizontals and verticals, base squares and rectangular formats. Typically placed on the exhibition walls, the painting units are released with experimental risqué across the gallery floor. A unique feature of the paintings is its relational aspect: it invites the participation of the viewer to arrange and compose within the work transparent sheets that have the artist’s gestural markings. To surmise, the artist’s inquiry posits: Is painting in a state of influx? Is it the artist’s intention to demystify the purity of painting and subvert a class elitism attached to its advanced explorations which, most of the time, leaves audiences out in the cold? However, it can be opined the participatory aspect of the paintings is a didactic experience, and in the bigger picture, offers an opportunity to understand such difficult art formats. The most seasoned practitioner in the exhibition, “Sir JoeBau,” a fondly known monicker, was part of the fabled conceptual art group Shop 6 in the 1960s, alongside artists Roberto Chabet, Fernando Modesto, Yolanda Laodico, and Danilo Dalena.

COP - 20586

Two in One Structural Form No. 1

acrylic, ink, plastic, wood and paper on canvas

122.50 x 183.00 cm / 48.27 x 72.30 in. 2025

COP - 20585

Check Shop 6 acrylic, ink, plastic, wood and paper on canvas

132.10 x 102.00 cm / 52.05 x 40.19 in. 2025

COP - 20587

Two in One Structural Form No. 2

acrylic, ink, plastic, wood and paper on canvas

138.00 x 140.00 cm / 54.37 x 48.07 in. 2025

Balancing H2O No. 2

mixed media (wood, cement, water in plastic ziplock, ink, and acrylic paints)

186.00 x 32.50 x 17.80 cm / 73.28 x 12.81 in. 2025

Balancing H2O No. 1

mixed media (wood, cement, water in plastic ziplock, ink, and acrylic paints)

146.50 x 35.00 x 18.00 cm / 57.72 x 13.79 in. 2025

COS-20603

COS-20604

COS-20605

Signal 1234

mixed media (water in plastic ziplock, hanger, clips, and craft board) size variable

2025

COP-20608

Sole of Mount Pinatubo

shoes soles and water in plastic ziplock (25 pieces) size variable 2025

COP - 20596

Red Painting with Hector acrylic on paper

139.60 x 151.50 cm / 55.00 x 59.69 in.

RAMON MANUEL “RM” DE LEON

A prolific and stylish artist at drawing/painting, RM de Leon’s recent works on paper optimize found images from magazines, books, printed cardboard and tablecloths, to congealed and sloppy paint slabs on a mixing palette and other vernacular materials. The juxtaposition and superimposition of the artist’s paint gesticulations on the sourced grounds arrive at mesmerizing collages; and suggestively disclose the artist’s witty attestations about painting, its internal loves, ironies and external misgivings and vanities. At the crux of the matter, the artist’s end goal is to get to an image that stands on its own with no resolute meaning. Appearing diverse to the point of incoherence, the push and pull of interpretations reverberates like an echo chamber for modern thought and approaches. De Leon is a cognoscenti in his own right. One of the important painters emerging in the 1980s, his brand of painting is analogous to the twin towers of American painting in Rauschenberg and Twombly, and has been an aspirational figure to a younger generation of artists.

And, bundled together, another perceived strategy is: a move towards a subtle iconoclasm—perhaps a gentleman’s provocation, and the appropriation of image-pictures from low-brow culture that exalts the commonplace.

ERIK SAUSA

Filled with minimalist grace and elegant restraint, Erik Sausa’s paintings are covert haikus. A recent series of paintings sees the artist’s shrewd use of mundane marking instruments - stencils, spray paint, writing inks, and other paraphernalia. In a particular work, stamps were used to obliterate the horror vacui of pictorial space and, thus, producing a scintillating, overall image. In one very resonant work, the artist employs flash powder to deliver an image, cleverly juxtaposed with an iconic image from art history - thus

imbibing the potency of materials in redirecting connotations associated with a given image. Well mannered and outspoken, the artist is brilliant in coaxing ordinary items and articles to an extraordinary plane. The shrewd forays challenge the common notions of traditional painting. Finishing his studies in UP College of Fine Arts in the 1990s, Sausa progresses as one of the most active in his group, producing gripping and thought-provoking exhibitions in recent years.

DON DJERASSI DALMACIO

The ingenious paintings of Don Dalmacio are a profuse mashup of artistic styles, a glorious cesspool blurring the line between abstraction and figuration. Like a music DJ with the world as his oyster, sampling and sourcing are the artist’s vital tools in quarrying the collateral effects of an unforgiving modern society. Portrayed in luscious and carnal paint applications is the artist’s personal discourse on a perceived wasteland in the wake of the unsympathetic trudge of industrialization and commerce. In a specific work, a commanding abstract field is surprisingly given an incoherent counterpoint using a pop image of an apple in the foreground. In another painting, a beguiling human face merges with a monotone geometric field overtaken with distortion, perhaps resembling a messianic AI cyborg calibrating itself. The artist is a scavenger, and the object of his hunt lies in the entropic, urban cityscape. A recipient of the 13 Artists Awards in 2009, Dalmacio’s aesthetic sense thrives on unpredictability. His is a tendency inclined to ride the maximal and unfiltered, and a permissiveness to move about high and low-brow connotations. For the artist, divulging the duplicity of images is a point of entry to bring awareness of societal ills to a viewer.

COP - 20602 T Here acrylic and spray paint on canvas

152.50 x 243.84 cm / 60.09 x 96.07 in.

AL CRUZ

In general, conceptual art practices move away from the hands-on trappings of making an actual painting. Focusing on painting’s peripheries, like the exhibition wall, the gallery, and actual sites beyond exhibition spaces, the work is done based on ideas and procedures, a set of instructions, and tools for documentation and investigation. Al Cruz’s artistic practice thrives in reconnoitering the dichotomy of painting and conceptual art. It makes for a perfect example for the propositions in this writing. In the artist’s recent paintings, he chooses doodles on paper, quick sketches on notepads and other mental notes jotted down on quotidian materials as models and maquette. It is deducible the critique here has many levels: to make a painting about everyday objects exalts the commonplace, an aesthetic that negates the arcane mystique of painting as a product of an artist-genius, which, in contemporary scenarios, is propagated by an artistic oligarchy in a commerce-driven market. In another take, the incidental materials that find the artist’s attention offer an option on aesthetics versus the formulaic procedure of well-organized images that, at times, border on blasé and contrivance. But, on its own, the series is a masterful discourse, playing on the witty ironies of reversals involving the modes of production (is it gestural or un-gestural?); and the value placed on sourcing inspiration to produce a palpable outcome. Finishing his studies at the UP College of Fine Arts in 1990s, Cruz’s early exhibitions were curated by artist and teacher Roberto Chabet, and proved to be early and progressive grounds for the artist’s conceptual stance.

COP - 20592 Infinite Dualities oil on canvas

168 x 121.92 cm / 66.19 x 44.49 in.

COP - 20606

oil and acrylic on canvas

248.10 x 127.00 cm / 97.75 x 50.4 in.

2025

COP - 20607

oil and acrylic on canvas

239.00 x 65.50 cm / 94.17 x 25.81 in.

2025

Triage

Saturnian

diptych

ARGIE BANDOY

It is easy to peg artist Argie Bandoy as the stalwart artist-provocateur and in the classical mold of an iconoclast. His recent abstractions are images loaded with wit, evocative of humor and even light-heartedness, and certainly, critical edge. An aspect of the artist’s recent works has the artist breaking up shapes and configured forms with his cunning use of diptych formats and duplicitous formations. Thus, abstraction is demystified, diminishing its high-minded aspirations. A multi-skilled painter who can transition from one style to another in the spectrum of visual representation, the artist’s representational and figurative work are stylish images riddled with hidden puns and visual jokes.

His projected works for the exhibition are commentaries on traditional painting genres like portraiture and still life painting. An artist working in Manila, Bandoy has held exhibitions here and abroad, and figured prominently in a series of survey exhibitions held in Europe curated by internationally renowned artist Manuel Ocampo.

RAUL RODRIGUEZ

A very gifted painter and a knowledgeable one to boot, artist/curator Raul Rodriguez is very adept in painting the perfect storm. His pictures, traversing the scale of polarities of figurative and abstract painting with aplomb, are like condensed narratives—graphic novel panels if you will, that incorporate suggestive inclusions of sidebars telling a simultaneous story. All of these images, abstract and representation, are likened to filed stock images in a rolodex, and referred to at will when necessary. These are sourced from anywhere and everywhere, positively without remorse, from the commonplace detritus, to the elevated annals of art history and art theory. The pictures, edgy and political, can be read as teleological images—they seek to explain why we are who we are, and theological in aura, as they seem to give reason why we devote ourselves to the selected faith we act on. Embracing a number of advocacies in the art community, Rodriguez has organized talks and exchanges between artists and is a university professor in different school departments. Having studied at the UP College of Fine Arts in the early 1980s, the artist was also part of an exchange program in Berlin with artists Dan Raralio, RM De Leon, and Marcel Antonio.

COP - 20595

National Recliner Watches the Bigger Fuzz oil on canvas

122.20 x 152.50 cm / 48.15 x 60.09 in.

- 20597

91.50 x 61.00 cm / 36.05 x 24.03 in.

2025

COP - 20600

90.50 x 60.50 cm / 35.66 x 23.84 in.

2025

COP - 20601

90.50 x 61.00 cm / 35.66 x 24.03 in. 2025

COP

Ghost stripes I oil on canvas

Ghost stripes II oil on canvas

Ghost stripes III oil on canvas

ALVIN VILLARUEL

A consummate painter with a conceptual attitude, Alvin Villaruel’s consistent body of work are meticulous photo-realistic paintings. It departs, however, from the photorealism style, as the artist’s paintings are infused with nostalgia. Photorealism, which emerged in western art in the 1960s, had an air of pervading detachment. Villaruel’s method is exacting and meticulous, opting to copy a photograph like a map by scoping its territory grid-by-grid. But, something goes awry in his translation of visual data from the photograph to the painting. Perhaps, and in a good way, the information is interpreted and biased. As such, it touches on the pronouncements of simulacra: is a reproduced image deceitful? Or truer, as it embodies its manipulator’s point of view, feelings and sentiments? It carries weight, all the more, as most images are artistically framed not far from absolute abstraction. The choosing of images offers a personal narrative: a blurred figure in a sea of books, or stars and lights exploding in the night sky; to magnified molecular organisms unseen by the naked eye; to borrowed pictures of artist-friends studios, and photographs of the earth taken from the moon. Seemingly, the camera and the photograph is the umbrella theme for the artist, for without such technological innovations none of these images would be possible. Possibly, the fragmented nature of the artist’s image compendium attest to the fact that in surveillance there is power. Graduating from the UP College of Fine Arts in the late 1990s, Villaruel was part of an important batch of artists that was mentored by artist and teacher Roberto Chabet.

Lastly, it is: a move to adapting modernistic idioms that reflect personal narratives and constructs, and/or advocacies.

182.80 x 119.40 cm / 72.02 x 48.04 in.

COP - 20598

A blank canvas is not always empty oil on canvas

COP - 20599 Safehaven oil on canvas

JOSE GUILLERMO NAVAL

An adept gestural painter, yet methodical and deliberate, Jose Naval is a compelling study for an artist using painting idioms for advocacy. Running the gamut of Surrealistic techniques like spontaneous paint gestures, childlike markings and collage, the artist deploys each deftly in his image-palimpsest. For Naval, to surmise, the act of erasing evokes a subconscious tick that taps one’s ability to self-examine, which, in turn, after looking inside one’s self and accepting innate frailties, a highroad is taken in understanding, without judgement, the way of life of other groups of people. Referencing the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas and his writings on the theme of erasures in writing, Naval recognizes the possible linkage and rationale between his chosen artistic method and a natural disposition to look for the Other, or cultures outside his own. Drawing on archaeological references, the artist’s work for the exhibition depicts the norms and beliefs of native people groups in the Philippines, using elements in painting’s language game as symbolic indexes. To make a conjecture, the regard for the exotic Other brings with it the curious fear associated with the desire to conquer the unknown; a subliminal feeling that modern painting is about. A self-taught artist, Naval studied Anthropology at the University of the Philippines. Taking on the cudgels of painting in the early 2000s, he has consistently built a body of work and has held solo exhibitions in recent years.

COP - 20591

Soul Boats

acrylic and paper on canvas

145.00 x 215.00 cm / 57.13 x 84.56 in. 2022

COP - 20588

Skin Angel Shadow acrylic on canvas

101.60 x 76.20 cm / 40.03 x 30.02 in. 2025

COP - 20589

Blue Rider pen and ink, watercolor and acrylic on canvas

76.5 x 102.00 cm / 30.14 x 62.5 in. 2025

JONATHAN OLAZO

A painter who also proverbially runs the gamut of applying surrealistic techniques, Jonathan Olazo finds home in using automatic gestures as starting points and proceeds to build the layers of paint surfaces in his paintings. The artist’s recent paintings appear hermetic yet expressive, and constantly refers to the Abstract Expressionism school of the last century. The artist hints the said influence on his work is a chosen construct for him in exploring familial connections, especially with his father. Enjoying his art practice focused on looking for sublime beauty in painting, an aspect of it involves stepping into the shoes of a fictional Prodigal Son, a selfimposed strategy that finds the artist gathering clues and tracing his steps back. Olazo was a lecturer at the UP College of Fine Arts ‘till 2015. He has written notes for artist-friends and curated exhibitions. His recent solo exhibition was at the BenCab Museum in 2023.

RONALD ACHACOSO

Alluding to cartography and the practice of marking territories, a considerably entry point to get behind the veil, Ronald Achacoso’s paintings are emblazoned with mythical and archetypal images, symbols that intimate his range of interests in realm of sciences: from astronomy to botany, and to pragmatic naturalism to evolution studies. Simultaneously involved in institutional and civic groups on plant life in the country, it reflects the artist’s conscientious and moral stance to inform and preserve the natural resources in the Philippines. The artist’s recent paintings are predominantly painted in earthy tones and highlighted by fluorescent bands of color, reminiscent of a lizard’s skin or the seductive lights in the Arctic sky. These merge with selected forms and shapes derived from plant life, and combined with iconic diagrams that illustrate concepts and theoretical investigations, to proven scientific phenomena. Having won a number of awards for Art Criticism, Achacoso was a lecturer at the UP College of Fine Arts and was a recipient of the 13 Artists Awards in 1998.

COP-20611

Hunters and Collectors I oil on canvas

122.00 x 91.50 cm / 48.07 x 36.05 in. 2025

COP-20612

Hunters and Collectors II oil on canvas

122.50 x 91.50 cm / 48.27 x 36.05 in. 2025

Definitely not set in stone, the aforementioned artistic strategies and its designations overlap, and are interchangeable in describing all of the artists represented in Scratch to an Itch. The quote below is an interesting close for the notes on hand:

“Modern art is a religion assembled from the fragments of our daily life.” — John Updike

Galleria Duemila was established in 1975 by Italian born Silvana Ancellotti-Diaz. Duemila means “twentieth century” and it was this vision that inspired the gallery’s advocacy in promoting and preserving Philippine contemporary art. To date, it is the longest-standing commercial art gallery in the Philippines maintaining a strong international profile.

Galleria Duemila takes pride in being the only local gallery to publish and mount retrospectives of artists as part of its advocacy in pursuing art historical research and scholarship.

210 Loring Street

1300 Pasay City, Metro Manila

+63 908 307 9972

+63 2 8831 9990

+63 2 8833 9815

gduemila@gmail.com art@galleriaduemila.com www.galleriaduemila.com

With the collaboration of institutions, Galleria Duemila has mounted the retrospectives of Roberto M. A. Robles (Ateneo Art Gallery, 2011), Duddley Diaz (Vargas Museum, 2009), and Julie Lluch Dalena (Cultural Center of the Philippines, 2008). It has also published a book on Diosdado Magno Lorenzo (National Library of the Philippines, 2009) and produced a major Pacita Abad exhibition at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2004.

Galleria Duemila is a presumed important cultural property through Article III of the National Heritage Act of 2009 (R.A. 10066) and is listed as a local cultural property of Pasay under City Ordinance No. 4624 series of 2019.

Gawad Parangal para sa mga Alagad ng Sining ng Pasay (2023) Plaque of Local Cultural Property (2023)