On gardens and graveyards

At the industrial chicness of Karrivin Plaza, Artinformal recently unveiled a formidable quartet of solo exhibitions, proving once again that the most profound dialogues are often those spoken in the hushed, sophisticated tones of high art. Last 16 April was a curated journey through the human psyche. Angel Ulama’s Walk in the Path invited guests into a sanctuary of spiritual stillness, where the canvas becomes a portal to the unseen, while Jan Sunday’s Secret Garden whispered a poetic plea for the cultivation of the inner landscape — a tender, meditative contrast to the visceral narratives that occupied the surrounding space.

Against this backdrop of spiritual seeking, a darker, more provocative energy pulsed through the gallery’s core. Geremy Samala’s A Verdant Perpetual Mass shattered the conventionality of botanical beauty, transforming the floral into something grotesque yet undeniably sublime, a violent celebration of life’s messy mortality.

Nearby, Ian Fabro, commanded the floor with Monolith of the Profane. His haunting sculptures of concrete, wax, and industrial rebar — challenged the very notion of the heroic, offering instead a new, post-apocalyptic reverence for the abandoned and the beautifully broken. It was a night where raw industrialism met ethereal introspection, defining the pulse of the contemporary Filipino scene.