Wayne Lacson Forte: “The Eloquence of Common Objects”

CEBU, Philippines — The still-life genre in the arts is widely considered to be among the earliest in art’s chronologic hierarchy, with raw origins dating back to the Ancient Greek and Roman period. It is a visual art form wherein narrative concerns take a back seat to raw aesthetic predispositions. The style is typified in having inanimate objects pose as the primary subject of a work – made complete by an amalgamation of technical skill and the artist’s eye for decorative styling and arrangements.

Attributed to have had its formal formation in the 16^th and 17^th Centuries in the Netherlands, the term “still-life” stems from the Dutch “still-even.”

It gained a solid following throughout the Renaissance period in Europe for its elemental approach in framing beauty as it is perceived, and has since had its share of progressive shifts and evolutions; the telling of “hidden narratives” told by way of symbolic infusions in compositions being one of many.

This “telling” approach in the still-life genre is the nucleus of an exhibit that’s currently on display at the 856G Gallery in AS Fortuna, Banilad.

Titled “Still-Life: The Eloquence of Common Objects” and ongoing until March 15, the show features artworks by Filipino-American painter Wayne Lacson Forte.

Essentially a reprisal of the thematic scope of Forte’s first solo exhibit in Cebu in 2015, “The Eloquence of Common Objects” zeroes in on the artist’s ongoing creative evolution by way of still-lifes that are more than eye candy.

From guitars painted next to roosters to exotic fishes rendered with fruit baskets and flower vases, the show’s featured works challenges viewers to look beyond the illustrative points of structure in drawing or painting – tasking the mind to single out the connections that bring various objects together in canvas-bound tableaus.

Equal parts decorative and thought-provoking, the show breathes a living flair to the static implications that are often banded with still-life paintings.

In a way, Forte’s “Eloquence of Common Objects” reflects art and its connection with mitered narrative juxtapositions – a hard-linier that speaks of life’s symmetry with objects and possessions as the storytellers of a tale.