Alvin Villaruel

Visionary

Text by Hannah Jo Uy

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.”- - Jonathan Swift

Art, is never just about seeing the world, it’s about seeing what is not in it. It’s about diagnosing its lack of beauty and understanding of itself and prescribing the remedy on a canvas  in order remember the world in all its fullness. In many aspects, Alvin Villaruel has been seeing the invisible for many years. Even as a young boy, he was not merely content with the sights and sounds that the world had to offer. Instead he saw the world for what it could be, pushing to create beauty and filling the cracks of reality with the images from his exuberant mind, vandalizing newspapers with lines and drawings from parallel to the reality of mere mortals in this world. An example to be followed, Alvin mixes his vision and imagination to make a simple idea into an undeniable work of art.

“Nung nagkamalay na ako nagdrawing na ako eh,” Alvin recollects, laughing at the early beginnings of his artistic evolution. Inspired by his father who is also an artist, his childhood was rich in spontaneous lessons in drawing and painting, whether from his father or from his own hunger to learn as he studies the world around him. After high school, through the support and urgings of his father and sister, the idea of taking a Fine Arts course appealed more and more to Alvin, as, like any youth, he sought to find his place in this world.        

Eventually his destiny led him to the campus of the University of the Philippines where was under the tutelage and expertise of the best crop of visual artists that the country had to offer, studying under the likes of De Piyo, Chabet , Dela Cruz, Vinluan and Cabangis.

However, before even entering college, he had already decided that he wanted to take formal classes in preparation for his studies which brought him under the guidance one the most beloved painting teachers, Fernando Cena. For several years, Alvin spent time honing his composition skills under Cena, and despite already being accepted to the college, still going on to help and participate in their workshops. “Sabi nga ni Sir Cena pag gumawa ka ng painting, dapat pati amoy, kuha mo.” Alvin says, repeating one of the many lessons that he has instilled in his own craft. Slowly but surely, his artistic mind began to form more concretely.

In college his classes under the prestigious university’s faculty only pushed his rapid growth, with an undeniable thirst for knowledge, taking out books of Rembrandt and Turner, a thirst he also accompanied with pragmatism as he also took a job as a portrait artist on the side for extra income. As he excitedly reminisces about his lessons on method and visual perception, intimate conversations with those he admired on theories and techniques he says, “Lahat ng experience ng artmaking, pinaexperience saakin ng UP.”

For the many experiences in art one marks his first entry into building a style of his own, which began upon the introduction of photography in their later years in school. Before the commercialized digital SLRs were dark rooms and the paint staking handling of manual cameras, which, upon first trying through the advice of his teacher to practice, gave way to blurry and out of focus shots. While others might disregard such shots as nothing more than a mistake, Alvin found beauty in these shots, enjoying the aesthetic characteristic of what would normally be discarded, and deciding to render the blurriness on the canvas, imbibing it with his own style of layering and expertise on color, and feathering the edges. “Pag ginawa mong painting, nagiging ibang object siya eh, kasi nga may hand mo na eh.”

His distinctive soft edges, and color layering is not only present in his abstract works, it comes out as well in his images of figures, with the backgrounds and certain elements demonstrating to his unique rendering of the blurry images, truly making the ordinary extraordinary. His manner, though contemporary builds upon the foundation of old masters from the Renaissance in being a study not only of composition but of color, and its reaction to light, a careful management of layering taking into account the natural surroundings of the painting, as it emphasizes his manipulation of paint.

“An artist should always try everything, ayaw ko din kasi maging linear eh,”says Alvin. And in the 24 solo exhibitions he has had to date, linearity is not something that can be used to describe his artistic career. With an extensive body of work that calls to mind not only his immense passion for his craft, and dedication to constantly hone his skill, Alvin’s prolific years between 1999 to 2010 gave way to multiple shows that though demonstrating his distinctive style, still managed to be unique and diverse in the issues and theories that it tackled and the technique in which it was rendered.

Upon graduating, and teaching his own set of workshops for about two years, Alvin delved into the art scene that he was introduced to while he was still a student and carved a name for himself in contemporary art, refusing to submit his portfolio for anything except the pure love of the craft.

His most recent exhibition, entitled “Optics,” once again is a catalogue of Alvin’s fascinating imagery.  A show of 11 pieces, each work is a portrait that is a statement of the constant tension between man and technology in everyday life, an account of the human capacity for living, and how that capacity is extended by the use of the most mundane technologies whether in work or in play. The faces, up close, almost in the style of portraits have their eyes covered by view masters and binoculars, refusing to present any particular persona except that which exists in the imagination of the admirer.

Don’t miss this exhibition of craftsmanship and intellect. “Optics,” is currently on display at the Artistspace at the Ayala Museum.