Provenance: Provenance: Pinto Art Museum, Antipolo City

ABOUT THE WORK

A native of Baguio City, Nona Garcia’s artistic practice is one concerned with the dichotomy and synthesis of opposing variables and themes. Through her multidisciplinary approach, she is able to tackle these themes through a variety of methods such as transparency, concealment, and framing. Though she has produced more traditional works in the form of large scale photorealistic landscapes and surrealist figurative paintings, Nona Garcia’s claim to fame is undoubtedly her novel experiments with xray and light. Her use of unconventional technology when it comes to image-making allows her to explore new ways of seeing and understanding. Her first international show, she presented a number of x-ray-based works that featured popular religious icons and figures. By doing so, Garcia is able to deconstruct long-held beliefs and ideologies, especially those witnessed and dealt with first hand. Since then, Garcia has expanded her artistic imagery to include common ephemera and found objects. In this piece entitled Revelation (17) Garcia utilizes a popular Catholic figure in order to deconstruct the various aspects of faith and belief. The title itself is explicitly revelatory, guiding the viewer to understand the piece in a segmented and investigative manner, similar to how one would read an actual x-ray film. But instead of scrutinizing a medical anomaly, the viewer is tasked with exploring the metaphysical implications of a much more subjective phenomenon; effectively bridging the gap between the visible and invisible.