What is human?
Always, this kind of question is apparently the most difficult to answer-the kind, which drove man to faraway quests to search for a substantial answer to the otherwise mundane question.
aaaTo Revo Yanson, who opened Friday “Reflections”, his one-man show at the AAB gallery, finding an answer to the question requires complete surrender of the self, for as an artist searching for that plane where a human belongs, he has attempted to capture the complex facets of humanity in a unidimensional plane.
aaaRevo is not just interested in searching for racial identity – he manage to elevate his search to a higher plane: the search for the “something” which binds humanity altogether.
aaaWhich is why in his one-man exhibit, Revo’s works paint a stark representation of complexities of a human, which is both “mundane and ethereal.”
aaaRevo makes it a point to capture the “miserable conditions of the material world” in his paintings as well as showing the “transcendental not just mundane”, because art is both.
aaaThe artist’s experiences were also captured in his paintings, as Revo himself has been witness to the “exploitation and oppression in the society”.
aaaAnd being once a member of FCAN-Federation of Concerned Artists of Negros and ARMAS Artista’t Manunulat ng Sambayanan certainly helped him elevate his consciousness and be receptive to the “sweet and not-so-sweet realities of life”.
aaaAnd though Revo’s surreal art clearly bespeaks the complexities of human life and the state of corporeal happiness – which is a far-cry from what self-proclaimed artists
are doing – Revo does not demean works which are different from his.
aaa“Visual art depends on the consciousness of the artist,” Revo said, “so there is no correct or incorrect work of art.” Revo has nothing against those who choose to paint trivial subjects – like members of vegetation caught in stationary poses, or croton leaves fixed in a motionless stance – for he believes that the choice of the artists subjects depends on the degree of consciousness in his/her mind.