From September 7 to 30, 2024, Bicol artist Harold Gomez presents his works in “HOME: Exploring the notions of home and belonging,” his 5th solo art exhibit, at the Jesse Robredo Museum, Naga City. The exhibit theme is “Home” or “Tahanan” as a symbol of identity, comfort, and belonging. Gomez is the founding President of Kintab Artists Group Inc., a non-profit group of visual artists, writers, musicians, and other art mediums who express their different identities through their art works.
We thank Rogger Basco Rabu, art curator and digital artist, for allowing us to feature excerpts of the curatorial notes he wrote for this art exhibition. The header image was derived from Harold Gomez’s painting titled “Symphony” (actual measurements 48″ x 60″). All images were provided by the artist.
HOME: Curatorial Notes
“Each day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”
– Matsuo Bashō, greatest haiku master from the Edo period of Japan
In 2005, Harold Gomez started depicting the dichotomy between the tangible structure of a house and the intangible sense of belonging. His beliefs. in artmaking have changed how he thinks about the meaning of this sacred space. This is where he enshrines his history of experiences from varied locations and emotions of different impacts like the calamities that drenched their house and relocations thereby affecting him physically and psychologically.
As a child, he already owned a concept of stability and reliability. In his early sketches, instead of a head, his human figure has a wooden post planted from its shoulder as he tries to visualize a solid foundation, a manifestation of the emergence of a strong person in him and a stronger home for him.
Then in 2015, he adopted his iconic four-walled house because he strongly believes in Bashō’s words that any “journey itself is home.” Wherever our heart or our mind brings us, it is still home. His remarkable piece “Dream House” is a blueprint of a very simple structure that he dreams of living in when he leaves this material world.
For nine years now, Gomez has read and explored varied cues of life as his nonverbal signals for interpersonal communications. Self-effacing as he is, he feels confident when his artworks speak of their contextual information. Journey with him until you find your home in this exhibition.
HOME: Art Sampler
Social Surrealism: The Art of Harold Gomez
Harold Gomez was among the Filipino artists showcased in the art magazine titled GLORIOUS of Visual Central and VAM International Art Gallery. A Singapore Publication. It was launched in Manila Art 2023 on October 12, 2023. With permission from the artist and Ging Tolentino, the author, we feature excerpts from the curatorial notes written about Harold Gomez’s art.
Harold Gomez looks up to European surrealist master Salvador Dali and artist Rene Magritte, poet and art critic Andre Breton and seasoned local masters Manny Garibay and Elmer Borlongan for inspiration.
A leading exponent of social surrealism, Harold Gomez plays with real life images and paints them with his signature surrealist twist. Instead of a human head, his figures have houses, and other similarly related images as heads. Motivated by a deep love for family and home, he takes his creative spirits to new frontiers by bending traditions to create a visual spectacle that is once breathtaking and unsettling.
Gomez presents different characters, most of them in a state of contemplative or dreamy action, and all of the figures have a house instead of a head. He theories that we only need a few things for us to be happy in life, and that one precious thing is a house where we can feel safe and find solace amidst a world that is seemingly spinning out of control. Harold keeps it basic but interesting with a design vison and signature surrealistic style that results in an art piece that surprises, excites, intrigues and ultimately satisfies the viewer.
Artistry is the mastery of a skill to a level that you don’t have to think about it. It is almost like that kind of work or career path that you so love, doing it hardly seems work at all. It is the bridge between concept and craft. Mastery is what separates the gifted virtuoso from the skilled technician This is best exemplified by Harold Gomez’s Celeste Prize entry, his “Beyond Horizon” masterpiece in 2016, and the 3rd Place at the prestigious 13th GSIS National Art Competition in 2017 with his sculptural piece “The Plight of the Maliputo.”
It takes something extra, an unknown inner spark, that most vaunted “X-factor” that allows a person to make something special with a certain voice, style, originality and authenticity. This is the power to make the ordinary extraordinary. With a distinct style that nimbly merges a mastery of surrealism, stylized figuration, and a vivid and high contrast palette of cyans, pinks, yellows and oranges, contrasted against earth tones of grays, browns and olive green; Harold Gomez, with his clever mix of tasteful contrasts is destined to beguile audiences and make a lasting impression among art aficionados.
Pinta.co: Art Sampler
About the Artist
HAROLD BALATINSAYO GOMEZ, in the inset photo with his wife Cris, is a leading art and cultural advocate from Pili, Camarines Sur. As a budding artist, he joined the “Pandayan Art Workshop” which was sponsored by Philip Morris Group of Companies. This provided him with formal training and discipline in art. Since 1992, he has participated in more than 100 group shows in Bicol and Manila, including an online international exhibit titled “Hope.”
As he continued journey in the arts, he organized his fellow art enthusiasts in Bicol as an art collective called Kintab Artists Group Inc. Now on its 10th year from its founding, this non-profit group of visual artists, writers, musicians, and other art mediums express their different identities through their art works. He continues to encourage and inspire them to preserve, promote and develop the Bicol Region’s arts, culture, and tradition.