Miel Cabañes once again reveals her penchant for naive art with the expressive and bold-colored flowers featured in her exhibit, “Thereness - The Flowers Are Falling”.

Most of the flowers are painted mid-fall, with defiant petals straining against gravity as they brace for impact. Although some flowers appear to be weeping with grief, Cabañes’ formidable impasto technique emphasizes the flowers’ strength within this cathartic momentum.

Included in the exhibit are gently crumpled flower sculptures made of clay, as well as a lively wood-carved bouquet which are both frozen in a time and form where they will never succumb to the earth.

The physical strength and vibrancy of the work, paired with its emotional vulnerability, make each piece an exemplary reflection of the internal conflict between sorrow and release that we experience when we leave a long-beloved time or place.

The exhibition is set at the location that inspired Cabañes’ work: her childhood home. Miel Cabañes is a proud graduate of the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines. “Thereness” is her first solo exhibition.

- Gabbi Buencamino