Art Review: The Strange Beasts: An Art Toy Show

Last October 25, 2014, Streetkonect presented an art toy show entitled, “The Strange Beasts”. Streetkonect is headed by Peter Corazo.

The toy art exhibit asks the artist to explore the strange places of their minds, the macabre, the dark, or just the plain weird. This show targeted to bring to life the strange beasts that Cebuano artists have been playing around in their sketchbooks and in their minds.

The exhibit included artists who did small scale sculptures in Cebu such as Mona Alcudia, Uzi Emperado, Happy Garaje, Peter Corazo, Jethro Estimo, Mano, Bart Bombs Leandro Almendras and Carlo Rodriguez workers and artisans.

It also had a paper toy playshop by StephaniTudtud and monster themed board games by Folk Fiction.

So far, this is one of the unique exhibits I have been able to cover since I started writing for Metro Cebu News. It was indeed refreshing news to know about the toy show. You don’t see a lot of artist-made-toys that are exhibited in the art scene, so the concept alone was truly unique and incredibly cool.

Who would not think that it was not cool? The exhibit roused the inner child in me that it made me want to make my own toys too. It was kind of like watching a Jackie Chan movie that made you want to go learn martial arts after it.

The show also had an underground feel to it. It was not that mainstream so it was also cool like that. However the exhibit also showed potential to achieve mainstream level especially with the coming of new technologies such as the 3D printer. Shows like this in the future would become normal and popular and that also gives another reason to watch the exhibit as it gives a feeling of history or growth of the toy art medium in Cebu and their pioneers.

For the individual works, the toys that stood out for me were from Leandro Almendras, Happy Garaje and Bartbombs.

Almendras’ works were polished and scary. It reminded me a lot of creepy Western movies. Happy Garaje’s work also had the same creepy effect. Both artists successfully achieved what the exhibit wanted to convey and that is to explore the dark, macabre and weird places of the Cebuano artist.

The recycled cans of Bart Bartbombs also caught my attention. His works have always been unique so this time again, he did not disappoint. I know he has a look of his own but to be able to stamp his style on different mediums just like recycled cans is just impressive.

It is also worth mentioning the works of Jethro Estimo and Carlo Rodriguez. If the works of most of the artists somehow reminded us of Western monsters and ghouls, the works of these artists in a way also reminded us of our local monsters. So their works kind of balanced things for us of what is dark, creepy and macabre for the Cebuano artists or even the Filipino people in general.

Again, the exhibit was a success. I hope there will be more shows like this in the future. Congratulations to the organizers!

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.