Jason Montinola

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ARTIST STATEMENT

For two decades, Jason Montinola has bridged the gap between fine art and myth-making, building a pseudo-history grounded in reality. In “F-Holes”, he takes us back to the character that started it all in 2006. This mysterious sentinel of music began with unknown origins back when it was initially introduced and is now reintroduced through visual cues and layers of her own story.

History may have been written with words, but it is also chronicled by the ephemeral sounds and voices that evolved through the airwaves—the silence of a vacuum, the beauty and wretchedness of thundering nature, the wails of woe and adoration to the gods, the battle cries of wars, and the unending transfiguration of music around the world. F-Holes is the embodiment of everything we perceive as sound from past to present; the sentinel who is ever-present, yet untethered and ever-adapting with changes.

Shrouded with much mystery, what is known about F-Holes is that her physical appearances come with various iterations. Her different portraits are emblematic of the state she is in and the sound and music she currently reflects and absorbs. Viewers are invited to create their own interpretation with the clues presented in Montinola’s paintings.

Written by Lec Cruz

ARTIST STATEMENT

“I paint what I see in visions.  Not all of it, but whatever equivalent we have within our level of experience” says Jason Montinola whose oeuvre is built around love, death, sin, and salvation.  For him, painting is not just a creative expression, but a means of opening up consciousness, sharing hidden realities, and revealing surprising connections; without the use of cumbersome and confining words, to aid us in elevating our humanity.  Art has always served a spiritual purpose.  From the first cave paintings, to the adornment of places of worship, art has aided us in imagining the spiritual, and to help us live lives in congruence with the greater order.  Montinola’s paintings appear to be from this vein as well.

An excerpt from Ricky Francisco’s curatorial statement

BIOGRAPHY

Jason Montinola (b.1979) is a Manila-based Filipino contemporary painter and artist known for blending classical, Renaissance-inspired techniques with surreal, otherworldly, and often dark imagery. His work explores themes of existential tension, the human condition and spirituality.

 

Education Technological University of the Philippines, 2003

 

Solo exhibition

2025 TEMPORAL, West Gallery, Philippines

2024  Harbingers, The Drawing Room, Philippines

 2023  Love, Sin, Salvation & Death, Finale Art File, (Tall Gallery), Philippines

2023  Exit Light, Art Informal, Philippines

2022  Beast Buster 70s: Shadows of The Future, Underground Gallery, Philippines

2019  Through The Depths of Space, Bencab Museum, Philippines

2018 The Fall of the Old god, Provenance Gallery, Philippines

2016  In the Absence of Struggles, Art Informal, Philippines

2015 Absent, West Gallery, Philippines 

2015  Jogja Art Moments, Jogja National Museum, Jogjakarta Indonesia

2014 The Sensational Painter, Secret Fresh Gallery, Philippines

2013  Infamous, Artesan Gallery + Studio, Singapore

2013  Theatre of Absurditiles, OUR Art Projects, MIA Art Centre, KL, Malaysia

 2012   Sinister, West Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines

2011   Here Lies the Painter, West Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines

 

Selected local group exhibitions

2023  Un/Happy Endings , Drawing Room, Curated by Lec Cruz, Philippines

2022 In Between Cosmos, Alliance France de Manille, Philippines

2021  MUTE Space, Mo Space. Philippines

2016   Drawings + Sketches, (with Kaloy Sanchez) West Gallery, Philippines

2014  Relative Realities, presented by Samsung, Yuchengco Museum, Philippines

2013   Masterpieces Asian Digital Art, presented by Samsung, Ayala Museum, Philippines

2012   Painting the Sublime, Manila Contemporary, Philippines

2011    Boycotter of Beauty and the Theoretical Steroid Defiled Modernist Chicken,       

           West Gallery, Philippines

 

Selected International Group Exhibitions

2025 Phantoms and Glitches, (with Valerie Chua) Gallery KOGURE, Tokyo, Japan

2025  Langit at Lupa, Gallery KOGURE | VINYL TAPE. Kyoto, Japan

2024  Light in The Shadow of Terror, Gallery KOGURE, Kanazawa, Japan

2020  SEDEKAD 10, G13 Gallery, Kula Lumpur, Malaysia

2020  Displacement, LaLanta Fine Art, Bangkok Thailand

2018  Obscene Presence of Absence, OUR Art Projects, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2018  The Way of The Flesh, G13 Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2016   2664 km – 5 Filipino Contemporary Artist, YOD Gallery, Osaka, Japan

2016   WASAK! Filipino Art Today, Arndt Singapore

2012   Anomalies, Copro Nason Gallery, Santa Monica, California, USA

2012   Taetrum et Dulce; Lux in Tenebris, Distinction Gallery, California, USA

2012   Taboo, Last Rites Gallery, New York City, USA

2012   Secret Rooms and Hidden Motives, ( with Kaloy Sanchez)  Valentine Willie Fine Art, KL Malaysia       

2012    HeadLights 2012, Valentine Willie Fine Art, KL Malaysia