BROODING ABOUT SARGENT

Darby Alcoseba debuts as a young realist painter of note in his first ever solo exhibition at Altro Mondo Creative Space. The young painter comes from a family of renowned artists from Cebu. His uncle from his mother side, Romulo Galicano, is the most prominent of this artistic family that is known for their traditional and academic approach to painting.

In “Brooding about Sargent,” Alcoseba depended on his emphatic vision to extraordinarily translate his aesthetic perceptions into distinctive, pleasant pictorial compositions that echo the visual eloquence of his idolised artist, John Singer Sargent. In particular, Alcoseba admired Sargent’s preponderance for portraiture and his faculty of taking fresh, direct, independent, unborrowed impressions from nature. Darby’s technique, just like his revered master, is virtuosic evidencing a slick craftsman in the control of his brushwork that reflects an innovative creator. Much like his inspiration, Alcoseba is both an enthusiast and an adroit performer who is at home with both oil and water colour mediums.

In this maiden solo exhibition, Alcoseba displayed his dexterous handling of texture as well as the inventiveness of Sargent’s sense of realism. He makes a case for a show that attempts to reveal all of Sargent’s range not only through the portraits on display but also via his landscapes and seascapes that are virtual feasts for the eyes. In Alcoseba’s mature approach to his painting style, he consciously and stubbornly directed his artistic energies to realism, subconsciously mixing influences from Van Dyck, Velásquez, Reynolds and Gainsborough into dialogues with Monet and Manet using visual echoes to create classic and modern technique with contemporary subjects and perspectives. His body of work with its distinctive quality of light sees deep into his subjects, undergoes it, absorbs it, becomes patient with it, and, almost reverently, enlarges and humanises the challenge of creating visually compelling compositions.

Darby is an Art Petron Hall of Famer having been a two-time Grand Prize winner of Art Petron National Competition. He is also the Grand Winner in the water colour category of the Metrobank Arts and Design Competition in 2013.

-Remigio David, Artistic Director