Art Review: Street Walker – A Solo Exhibition of Vidal Alcoseba

Qube Gallery presented Street Walker – A Solo Exhibition of Vidal Alcoseba last February 12 to March 10, 2015. The exhibit featured the expressionist style of the artist with prostitution as the main topic of the show.

Making prostitution as the topic of the exhibit was a smart concept for it enabled the artist to explore a lot of things. The first of this was that in portraying prostitution in the expressionist style the artist was able to remind us of great Western artworks like Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and Henri Matisse’s The Dance.

But what made the works different from these Western influences was that Vidal Alcoseba indigenized the paintings with his gloomy and neutral colors making it closer to the Filipino setting.

The next thing the artist was able to capture was when he portrayed prostitution where which he also showed glimpses of social realities in the expressionist style.

The paintings may not be an all – out dip into social realism for the artist but the works showed the uncleanliness and the uneasiness of the city. Even if the works were done in the expressionist style, the paintings still had an, “as real as it gets feel”, to it.

The third thing for this show was that the artist was able to give a suitable example on how an immersion can inspire artist for their works. By infiltrating the environment of the chosen topic, the works of the artist became realistic and gave the audience a different perspective which he may not have achieved if he had not gone to an immersion.

The exhibit showed the importance of immersions. Artists can learn that if they want to choose a topic and know it properly, one sure way this can be done is to go on an immersion.

To conclude, Streetwalker is one of the interesting exhibits Qube gallery has featured this early this year. It showed a lot of facets and compelling ideas that artists together with the audience can both experience and learn from.

Congratulations to the artists, the curators and the gallery for a job well done!

About the author: N.M. CABANGBANG graduated Bachelor of Fine Arts Major in Painting at University of the Philippines Cebu. He is now currently teaching grade 6 – 10 Art at B.R.I.G.H.T. Academy.