Art Review: SYM Summation

On November 21, 2014, Sofronio Ylanan Mendoza returns to Cebu City to open up his exhibit at the SM City Cebu Art Center. The exhibit is entitled SYM Summation and the exhibit will end at Dec. 21, 2014, so there is still a lot of time to witness it.

Summation is more of a re-introduction of the artists to the Cebu art scene especially to the new art lovers out there who don’t know him yet. It is also as well as a kind of reminder for those art lovers who have forgotten about him. To those two objectives the exhibit has been successful as it showcased the history and present works at SYM.

SYM works are categorized under abstract art, specifically cubism. Cubism, if you don’t know, is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Some famous works that come to mine include Picasso’s, “Guernica” and George Braque’s “Violin”.

I, somehow associate Cubism with shocking and disturbing images as it shows different dimensions of the same figure in one view. The figures are mostly contorted to the point of being controversial sometimes.

The works of SYM though under cubism do not have this shock factor that is in a way associated with the art movement. His cubism is in a way beautiful and organized, the figures in his artworks are arranged properly which results to it being attractive. This type of cubism is what makes his works different.

But though his artworks do not bear this shock factor, the surprise is in the art story of SYM. This is the story about him shifting from realism to cubism.

Young artists are mostly taught to look for your own style. Once you have the style, you wait for the art audience to recognize you, be famous and sell artworks. When the young artist reaches that level, he continues to stick with that art style until he dies.

I was shocked to know his story, it was a risk for him to shift art movements and I admire his courage for taking that risk. Of course, we all know that risks don’t plan out well sometimes but SYM is one of the lucky ones.

So to all of you young artists and art lovers out there, go watch the SYM exhibit and know his story, we will all have something to learn from him.

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.