Singer-actor Miguel Castro has just opened his exhibit in Australia. Billed as “Life Expressions in Papercuts,” the exhibit at The Concourse in Chatswood showcases Miguel’s current works until May 20th.
“Paper cutting is very much like drawing, but instead of using a pencil, my tool is a scalpel. What makes it fun is the process of choosing what is retained and what gets discarded. What remains is the final image,” he explained during an encounter a few days before he flew to the Land Down Under.
The 1920 poem “Desiderata” by Max Ehrmann has served as Miguel’s personal and professional inspiration for many years now.
“Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence…” he recited, knowing the lines by heart, adding, “It’s all about personal peace and happiness. In all my years as a singer, performer, and now a visual artist, I almost always trusted my gut feel, and every time I make a decision, I make sure there’s no room for regrets. I just follow my heart.”
When he graduated from high school, he wanted to pursue fine arts, but did not have the means to support his studies. “I became independent quite early in life, and I didn’t have much money at the time—that’s why pursuing a course was not feasible.”
He added, “I was already leaning toward the arts during my teen years, so the next best thing was to get connected to theater. I was learning a lot about the performing arts while being paid, at the same time, for doing what I love doing. Although theater still doesn’t pay well in the Philippines, it was something that kept me going all those years.”
Challenge has always been part of Miguel’s creative process. “I always work with what is readily available and accessible. In 2007 I remember that I had access to cheap acid-free black paper and a good supply of surgical blades. The cost-free way of creating something out of this was, easily, paper cutting. Admittedly, at first it was just for the heck of doing something. I didn’t expect I would be discovering so many hidden abilities through the different techniques.” Miguel’s hobby slowly turned into a parallel career and he welcomed it with an open mind. “Translating images in papercuts has many challenges. It’s like one needs a bit of engineering to plan out a piece. I have to take into account how the whole artwork will be able to be in place without falling when I hang it.”
Miguel added that he’s certainly in a happy place at the moment.
“I can combine singing with my art and that makes me happiest. I don’t have to perform in a large venue; equally rewarding is the connection I have with my audience, especially if it’s an intimate audience. Like my art, if it connects with the one who looks at it, or buys it, then I’m good.”
Miguel told us that for four nights, the gallery in suburban Chatswood will also serve as a venue for his miniconcert, where he will sing kundimans for the expected mix of both Filipino and Australian guests.
NASSER LUBAY’S ‘NURSERY OF CURIOSITIES’
AFTER making significant strides in the international art scene, highlighted by his winning at the Celeste International Art Prize competition, contemporary artist Nasser Lubay has found the perfect time to present a cohesive array of his latest works in a special exhibit, titled “Nursery of Curiosities.”
This solo exhibit marks an important point in Nasser’s young career, as he puts together a seminal collection, a survey reflecting his development as an artist. In this suite, he underlines the beginnings in the history of life, such as the formative stages and the natural process of growing, being and becoming.
Art curator Philip Paraan describes Nasser’s images as “billowing vistas of narrative laden with layered images, if not singularly amorphous images that bloom with flourishing details and other suggestive elements.”
Nasser’s subjects and themes are vast but equally interesting, and all find a certain connection in nature and natural processes. His intuitive creativity is the wisdom of this engagement and his art pieces conjured and visually phrased in images that can be fantastical and patently surreal as pastiche and veiled interpretations of reality, partly guided in form by intellect and deep feelings.
“We all live in a new world where experiences can get surreal, and where dreams and fantasies are the reality. I almost always adhere to the thought that everything is as what we imagine it to be. My reflections in canvas reveal some imaginings and ruminations, which meld with reality triggered by my colorful past and ongoing experiences, and these have such personal weight that I hope can affect others who encounter my work,” Nasser said. Coming from interesting beginnings, Nasser pursued what his heart and mind dictated and continues to fly high with every single journey.
“I have always been open to possibilities. Aside from my artistic pursuits, I excelled in sports when I was young and have even dabbled in acting recently. I’m certainly interested in the different expressions of art.”
Immediately, Nasser shows interest in growing things and the biotic process as he proffers the idea of a sense of growth, creative commitment, promise and potential, beginnings and man’s inborn and inherent instincts to ensure his survival. For this particular exhibit, Nasser not just tackles and frames this reality, but at some point, they do reflect on things created in the past, and modern constructs, inanimate objects and man-made realities, perhaps, created now or earlier that continue to form and inform our environment and dictate our lives.
“My paintings are stories me, other people and our environment, the longings and aspirations with such hope and intent that they create magic and fruitful engagement in this dazed, often conflicted human environment suffused with suffering, agony, as well as love,” he added.
“Nursery of Curiosities” is an introduction to Nasser’s imaginary world as a visual poet of my time. “We all have these little stories that have powerful meanings or souls, and through these I try to capture and embrace the feelings and ideas, so that I may be able to share to everyone the experience.”
Nasser’s art has been exhibited in Taiwan, Mexico, Germany and Malaysia, and now it is finally in Manila, supported by Artist Playground and the Michel Lhuillier Wine Collection.
Nasser Lubay’s “Nursery of Curiosities” is on view until May 31 at the Arte Pintura Gallery at the posh The Address at Wack-Wack in Mandaluyong City.