I’m currently an intern at the Vargas Museum, and Dave Lock’s solo exhibit, entitled Nameless [in collaboration with 98B], was one of the shows I coordinated and did the notes for.
In his own words, Dave Lock is a painter of the “nightmare-infested creatures,” seen in his obsessive line work that merges portraiture with organic forms. This technique extends into this series of untitled works, aptly called Nameless, as if to acknowledge the contradiction of attempting to name the amorphous.
In embracing the foremost quality of the abstract, he paints a series asking — instead of telling — the viewer what they see. What appears in these canvases are acts, rather than the objects, giving the viewer forms of encroaching, crawling, and clawing. This demonstrates how even that which is without a name can leave an indelible mark.
It is a mark that poetry responds to, crafted by a collective that may also remain nameless. Text and image gather to contrive the reality that can only be faced, flimsily and in creative confusion.
The exhibition opens on the 31st of May, 2013 at the 3rd floor galleries. It is recommended, but not required, that guests RSVP through facebook.
For more information, please contact Vargas Museum at (+632) 928-1927 (direct line), (+632) 981-8500 loc. 4024 (UP trunkline), (+632) 928-1925 (fax) or send an e-mail to vargasmuseum@gmail.com. You may also check our website at http://vargasmuseum.upd.edu.ph or like us at http://www.facebook.com/vargasmuseum.upd.
Alice Sarmiento 