Virtual ArtistSpace and District Gallery present Shadowplay, an ongoing solo exhibition of Filipino visual artist Nasser Lubay.
Nasser Lubay looks into the allure of transitions, and the play of light and shadow. In Shadowplay, he offers a series composed of clusters of circular patterns that form like busy bubbles, tentacles and other details which form these semi abstract, semi figurative doodles which we already find as composite elements of his more colorful and known paintings.
Riddled with shifts from darkness and luminosity, these recurring patterns framed in stark and solid dark backgrounds overlaid with muted colors activate the optical play. As if the patterns and details continue to form something which at times can be discernible and at times just lead to an interesting pictorial guessing game. They also evoke a sense of transit and movement that can prompt a disorientating gaze.
Lubay who is very much interested in the idea and the acts of creation commits to the theme, and this series certainly provides a conscientious conversation on that. The darkness is Lubay’s metaphor for these trying moments of uncertain times which he uses to create a sense of hope and encouragement. In the context of his time, it is his attempt to collate his thoughts, emotions and memories from this tumultuous year and beyond.
While the maladies of the pandemic have occupied Lubay’s mind just like most of us, this climate of uncertainty has been the moving force behind the inception of these artworks.
Clearly, Lubay is deeply inclined in being held somewhere between thought and image, and being able to create images that are urgent, flexible and becoming.
Shadowplay will be on view till December 24, 2020.
