Exhibitions

‘Among the good wishes’ by Allan Balisi – Silverlens Galleries

Silverlens Galleries, Manila

Aug 24 - Sep 23, 2023

^{Please send applause and some good advice, 2023, oil on canvas, H137.16 × W172.72cm
All images by courtesy of Silverlens Galleries}

For Allan Balisi’s third solo exhibition titled Among the good wishes, paintings dwell in this space of interval–between a precious attempt and a possible outcome. In one work, a pair of dancers grasp each other by their arms, a tense tableau. Their bodies are depicted as if the slightest shift of weight would end in collapse. In another, a figure is about to pry open a locked gate with a crowbar. A taxi just passed us by. In one of the works, flames burst, engulfing structures in its vicinity. Wishes are cultivated in these intervening moments. Balisi’s works draw out situations into scenographies, gestures into entire events. A wish is never a promise as it is a configuration of time and space where all troubles and their fixes are imminent, and finitude comes with grace.
In the works for Among the good wishes, we see events about to transpire or worlds about to collapse into themselves, and within these intervals we catch glimpses of a world hopeful to recompose itself.

About the Artist

Allan Balisi’s (b. 1982, Isabela, Philippines; lives and works in Manila) work has a very strong narrative undercurrent despite its fragmentary albeit figural nature. Recent solo exhibitions include Always Keep in Touch, Golden Cargo Gallery, Manila (2022); To Our Friends, Blanc Gallery, Manila (2021), and; Pathfinder, Pablo Gallery, Manila (2020).
He was shortlisted for the 2009 and 2013 Ateneo Art Awards and is a recipient of the CCP Thirteen Artists Award in 2021.