Grace Katigbak, artiste extraordinaire, returns to Alliance Française de Manille to kick off the Chinese Year of the Water Dragon.  After a hiatus of four years since her last show at AFM, she comes back with a remarkable exhibition of her deeply personal paintings and sculptures, expressive of life, love, joy, and above all KAIVALYA…..liberation.  

For the opening of her KAIVALYA exhibition, the artist has prepared an extravagant program of dance, poetry, and song performed by her beloved friends and family members.

In her own voice, Grace speaks to us of herself, her life and her art:

“Is an artist’s life inextricably linked to her art?  If so, I won’t need photos, will I ?  to chronicle these last remaining decades of myself as Grace,  or dis-Grace ( as my stepfather once introduced me ).  Now why do I remember that at sixty?  How wonderful it is, how wonderful it all is when seen through the haze or clarity…. of understanding and to have art, to distill and express that understanding.  AND to finally have something to instill:  yes, one cannot help but want to share a happiness so hard won.

So I do not know if this is an autobiography or an artist’s statement.  Because it is true: my statement is MY LIFE…and I am just beginning to express it in my art.  But in effect, life is my real art…experience the brush strokes and the colors, the etched lines not just on my canvases but on my face, not just on my face but in my soul…

But you will see this in this exhibit:  part Hindu temple, ( learning compassion is learning happiness from Amma, my guru ) part dance studio ( the body has always allowed me to soar and still does, this part I dedicate to the love of my dancing life, Antonio Fabella ), yoga asanas ( I thank my teacher, John Scott, for his timeless embrace and unconditional love ) and finally I am beginning to express my life, insights, fears and fantasies in painting.  So, although visually I love the Lao’s, and used to be mistaken for Gus ( well, I did not know how to steal surreptitiously ), now, you will see some paintings I would not hang on my own wall.  

My idea of breath-taking beauty are the crystal dewdrops of Impy and the architecture of Ed Ledesma but there you have it: ME, the years in-between my last exhibit in Paris (also at the Alliance Francaise, thanks to dear friends Ara and Hubert d’Aboville} in  March of 2009 and today February 16,2012.  Not totally distilled, understated, subtle, ( as I would like to be ) minimalist, or enlightened (as I would really like to be)  but certainly:  MYSELF.

The leap of love, the weep of love, and then: KAIVALYA…….liberation

For truly when you have ‘ laughed all of your laughter, and wept all of your tears…’ and you have been cracked open, broken by love:  at last, there is nothing left, but joy.”  

Grace Katigbak’s exhibition “KAIVALYA : liberation” opens on Thursday, February 16, 2012, at the Alliance Française Total Gallery of the Alliance Française de Manille.  The exhibit runs until March 8, 2012.

Alliance Française de Manille is located at 209 Nicanor Garcia St. formerly Reposo St.) Bel-Air 2, Makati City. You can visit their website at www.alliance.ph
for more details.

Gallery days and hours:
Monday to Thursday, 9am to 6pm; Friday and Saturday, 9am to 5pm; and closed on Sundays and Holidays.