FILIPINO ARTISTS SHINE AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY ETHICAL FASHION, ART SHOW

By Bisai Ya

Select Filipino artists will debut in a group exhibition at the prestigious Cambridge University Ballroom in the city of Cambridge, England on November 21.

Razel Gonzales Gstrein, a Filipina artist based in Spain and Austria, organized the art exhibition and fashion show entitled "Art Relieves Poverty" for the benefit of underprivileged children in the Philippines and in Vietnam.

A self-taught artist with very humble origins, Gstrein who prefers to be known as Razel Gonzales, aims to help the less fortunate but talented and deserving children succeed in life through learning how to rely on their talent as artists.

Her organization, the International Self-Taught Artists Association, is making baby steps towards the realization of this dream of building a children's artists village where the beneficiaries can learn how to express themselves through various art workshops and exhibitions in a venue that will be established from the proceeds of this charity show.

The Filipino artists she has chosen to exhibit with her are likewise self-taught artists because she believes that experience is the best teacher and she has seen from the works of the artists she has chosen the power of expression only the heart can discern. They are Vincent Christopher Gonzales, Joan Honoridez, Fritz Silorio, and Bisai Ya.

Meanwhile the fashion show will feature Cambridge University students modelling the dresses created by Gonzales under her signature brand Immortality. This project is in collaboration with a Vietnam-based charity worker for the benefit of physically impaired women trained to sew quality apparel for the European market.

"This is not just the usual art exhibition, Gonzales explained. "This is a real promotion of the Philippine arts to the world." She happily disclosed that the Cambridge University Society will sponsor the show which will also be touring other major cities in Europe such as Madrid and Vienna. She said that "this event is yet to be the closest any Filipino group of artists can get to the Queen of England."

Gonzales was born in Sagay City, Negros Occidental where she spent her early childhood drawing and daydreaming. She later went to Cebu and married at an early age. Fate brought her to Europe where her exposure in the art world inspired her to develop her own signature style, PureStrokes a powerful and rapid abstractionism of pure and brilliant colors inspired from Edvard Munch, Wassily Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock, Marc Chagall and Mark Rothko.

She said that her patrons are amazed at her use of colours as being so complex and intricate, saying, "I am fascinated with the speed of futurism and rayonism and that is how I define my personality, the modern woman, rebellious but loyal, impatient, ambitious stubborn, fast and brilliant."