Dusk & Grime: A Solo Exhibit 

At once shaken by poverty and runaway consumption, the Philippines shocks outsiders with its chaos and appeases with its unexpected charms. 

From the perspective of a young professional who has lived there all her life, the contradictions of everyday pile up: workers push into its boulevards clogged with vehicles while they rue the failures of public transport.

Pasig River Fantasy (56×44) acrylic on canvas

Commercial complexes and skyscrapers dominate the horizon as ambulant vendors hawk their wares in the streets. Construction projects are never finished.

The real estate industry has, until recently, reveled in aggressive building, defying economic doomsayers. At any moment a high-rise could shoot up from the edges of informal settlements, and for many aspirational citizens, this signals a comfortable future. 

Petsa de Peligro (night shift) approximately 2.5×1.5 feet watercolor on paper

But urban dwellers have always known better: here, hard work and retreat are the twin elements of building a tolerable way of life. City inhabitants have been taught, or hardened, to ignore stress, and they swing between following rules and improvisations to see through hopes and dreams. 

Work from Home (40×30) acrylic on canvas

Through this exhibit, the artist highlights a demographic frequently ignored by studies and discourses on poverty: the youth and professionals of Philippine metropolises, who are easy preys to the conflicting conditions of urban life.

Torn between economic survival and the quest for wellbeing and growth, this class could be easily seduced by vice, the “gifts” of globalization, and consumption trends. They frequently balance work and life by reaching for the first tools of distraction and relaxation.

Works in Progress (2019) 5×3 acrylic on canvas

When working life fails to satisfy, they find solace in the escape routes: bars, restaurants, and little corners of amusement in the underbelly of a metropolis. 

This exhibit is a scroll through middle class loneliness and a kind of poverty that doesn’t feel like it—one that is materially provisioned by excesses and indulgences but urged by burnout and a metropolis’ intellectual limits. 

Poblacion I (2019) 12.5×16 watercolor on paper

The “Dusk and Grime: Solo Art Exhibit” opens on Sunday, October 20, 2024 at 3:00 p.m. at the Vernissage Gallery, 2/F Pwesto Community Mall, Holy Spirit Drive, Commonwealth, Quezon City.

About the Artist 

Frances Mae Ramos is a writer. She has previously worked in the fields of agriculture, digital marketing, French language instruction, and editorial. She has both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Anthropology from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Her preferred painting mediums are oil and watercolor. 

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