And Not a Drop to Drink: Joar Songcuya Continues His Love Letter to the Sea in His Second Solo Show - Arts & Culture

This follows his inaugural exhibit, The History of Water.

We’re entering the Year of the Water Tiger, an element that Joar Songcuya feels at home at.

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The self-taught artist continues his saga at sea with his exciting new works presented by Altro Mondo Creative Space and wonderfully curated by Ricky Francisco.

“Port of Call, Africa,” by Joar Songcuya

The current aesthetic dialogue of the artist with his increasing followers is an extension of Songcuya’s first solo exhibit, entitled “The History of Water” successfully mounted last year in the same art gallery that was curated by Charlie Samuya Veric.

His new works are immersed in the crucible of modernism while also drawing on traditional and classical motifs to create his singular visual image. The works have the aesthetic influences of William Turner, Van Gogh, Sisley, and certainly not to a lesser degree, with that of the Greek, Iannis Tsarouchis, minus the latter’s erotic fantasies.

Obliquely, his subjects, Filipino seamen at work in large ships often appear in allegories. They express anxiety, longing as well as desire.

Evidently, the works in review demonstrate a creative mind at work always looking for existential profundity. He aimed for truth, not just something pleasant, acceptable, entertaining or even macabre.

That suffices to give his work a compelling edge over new artists of his generation for its candidness and social relevance.

Songcuya’s strength is in the way he has convincingly formulated a unique artistic language. His works establish their own symbolic universe, mixing personal memory, loss and desire, pointing to the negotiation and transgression of limits between art and the everyday experience at sea.

The Sea is Not a Quiet Place will be on view at Altro Mondo Creative Space until February 12, 2022. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm. For more information, follow @altromondoart on Instagram and Facebook.

Banner: “Interrogation,” by Joar Songcuya

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