Of late the burgeoning and bustling art scene in the metropolis has become unusually obsessed with painting masters of bygone art movements and realist modes of painting. Igniting with the Renaissance, gearing up to the Baroque period, it is dominated by a younger set of urban contemporary artists, unearthing visual styles from the dustbin of oblivion. 

There are, however few exceptional contemporary artists like Melvin Guirhem who continue to churn out artworks with their own visual style. Using their own materiality like thread and fabric, for his seventh solo exhibition at the Eskinita Art Gallery, Guirhem presents Salimuot, digging deeper and expanding wider his visual language further and extending his artistic range. For his creative output, Guirhem does six paintings on acrylic and six artworks on thread.

Although mostly versed in figurative representation, Guirhem’s realism has always constricted and countered the traditional genres for it to redefine itself into new actualities in its own right. Often rejecting the banal and sacred, it defies fixation with the tested norm. In its proximity to the art center, being based in Oton, Iloilo practicing in the peripheries has taught him new and fresh perspectives he has conceptualized his own distinct and evocative expressions. Salimuot is striking for its diversity and richness. It has no shared style or desired intentions yet a common thread persists that individually they are capable of imagination and commitment to the creative craft.

-Jay Bautista