Lubay opens rich world to art lovers in ‘Nursery of Curiosities’
Seven years after becoming a finalist at a prestigious international art competition in Germany, artist Nasser Lubay is set to open his first solo exhibit, Nursery of Curiosities, at the Arte Pintura Gallery in Mandaluyong City on Sunday.
Presented by the Artist Playground, Arte Pintura and Talent Factory Inc., and curated by Philip Almazan Paraan, Nursery of Curiosities will not only introduce the 34-year-old Lubay’s paintings to a larger audience, but also unveil an original composition titled “Nursery of Curiosities—The Theme” by award-winning composer Jesse Lucas and a catalogue of the exhibit.
In a statement, the exhibit’s organizers said Nursery of Curiosities “marks an important point in Lubay’s artmaking practice as he puts together a seminal collection, a survey reflecting his development as an artist throughout the years.”
“In this suite of works, he foments the idea of irreversible growth and germination. Intently, he underlines such beginnings in the history of life, such as formative stages and the natural process of growing, of being and becoming. In this instance, art, like in nature, ripens or demonstrates fruition over necessary periods of time,” they added.
The organizers described Lubay’s works as “often billowing vistas of narrative-laden, layered images, if not singularly amorphous images that bloom with flourishing details and other suggestive elements.”
For his part, Lubay called his exhibit “an introduction to my imaginary world as a visual poet of my time.”
“We all have these little stories that have powerful meanings. Through these, I try to capture and embrace the feelings and ideas, so that I may be able to share to everyone the experience. In most cases, it heals me and I hope it does the same with everyone else,” Lubay said.
“In this installment are my pieces being born, to somehow share a lighter perspective about life. To hopefully inspire us to explore more possibilities and to drive our soul from what it is not and believe that this is where it should be,” he added.
Of his art, Lubay remarked that his “reflections in canvas reveal some imaginings and ruminations, which meld with reality triggered by my past and ongoing experiences, and they have such personal weight that I hope can affect others who encounter my works.”
“I am inclined to paint my perpetually evolving encounters and reimagined moments, frustrations, exaggerations that I try to compress and expand in my reflexively conjured images,” the artist said.
“My art is a new semi-abstraction created through psychedelic processes, but as I explore my skills and sensibilities, I am interested in the melding of traditional aesthetics and contemporary visual outcomes. I allow my mind to wander freely and unceasingly, even to get lost in the moment, flux of imagination and small epiphanies until they produce visual marks that yield their own resonance and sense of meaning,” he added.
A mechanical engineering and multimedia arts graduate of Mapua Institute of Technology in Intramuros, Manila, the Candelaria town, Quezon province-born Lubay earned second-best-work honors from the Celeste International Art Prize in Berlin in 2009 for his painting “Rebirth,” which was exhibited at the 2nd Animamix Biennial at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, Taiwan.
Lubay is a co-founder of arts-and-performance company Artist Playground and the creative services manager of entertainment firm Talent Factory Inc. TMM
Nursery of Curiosities runs until May 31 at the Arte Pintura Gallery, G/F The Address at Wack Wack, Wack Wack Road, Mandaluyong City. For more information, call 0915-5610987 or visit www.nasserlubay.com or www.artistplayground.ph.
