Spirit of A Place

Words by Siddharta Perez


As much as they are composed out of the streets this time around, Vermont Coronel Jr.'s stencil-employed works on canvas do not lack the grit of the space that informs them. Detailed and controlled, the hyperrealist works are an orchestration of photography, stencil and aerosol. The tenacity of Coronel's practice extends to further multiplicity - each work is composed of stenciled blocks arranged into layers that overlap by gradient and merge to create depth and detail.

Spirit Of A Place is Coronel's first solo exhibition that also stands as a significant juncture to his practice as a street artist. Veiled and branded as 'VR' he treats the urban environment as subject and site of his paintings, pronouncing his commitment to the streets as he reacts to it. However, the event of this exhibition is without a sense of departure of his roots. Through a meticulous program, Coronel applies the artistic format of stencil he has dedicated himself to ever since. Furthermore, images of the urban landscapes continue to emerge in these gallery pieces.

Coronel has suspended tenuous features of the city, all the while casting a ghostly ambience in this process of interrupting the things and facades that are mostly overlooked. Spirit Of A Place is a peculiar sort of intervention. While his VR graffiti jump out from particular settings, the works in the exhibition abstracts places and seemingly orients them as backdrops. Losing their specific localities, these sites emerge as they fade into the pandemonium of their own details.

The Drawing Room opens the exhibition with "An Afternoon With the Artist" on Saturday, 28 April 2012 from 2.00pm to 5.00pm. Spirit Of A Place by Vermont Coronel Jr.  is on view until May 22 2012. The Drawing Room is located at the Ground Floor of Metrostar Building, 1007 Metropolitan Avenue, Makati City. Contact: Gemma Boydon, 632.897-6990 or 897-7877.