Boho Chic : A One-Woman Show of Ginny Guanco
Artists who stand out will always have a distinct touch seen on their work that define them. This is exactly what I realized when I first saw one of Ginny Guanco‘s finished works shared in social media. A self-confessed full-bloomed flower child of the 70s, Ginny’s art stays true to an era that sought to bring the message of peace, love, joy, and happiness against a backdrop of rock music and hippie art and her unwavering partiality to bohemian fashion.
Ginny Guanco the Artist
This is the artwork shared by Ginny that caught the attention of many of her online friends and associates, including myself. So who is Ginny Guanco? Ginny’s inclination to art was already very evident even in her growing up years. In school, she participated in art contests. It was no surprise that after graduating high school from the College of the Holy Spirit in Mendiola, Fine Arts was the course she chose at the University of Sto. Tomas.
Boho Chic: A One-Woman Show
The solo exhibit took a long time in coming, as Ginny took a 15-year hiatus from painting, pursuing a career, first in the media, and later on as a public relations professional. It took the passing of her favorite ginger cat, Simba and a few art materials lying around to get her back to art. A post of her finished figure on social media garnered a lot of interest from friends to convince her to take up the brush again. A chance meeting with Galerie Y owner Rollie Yusi, who viewed her works with interest, set the exhibit in motion. Ginny’s boho-inspired pieces join the gallery’s carefully-curated works by established and emerging Filipino artists as it works toward the enrichment of contemporary Philippine art.
Her 26 muses are clad in similar fashion, in flowy and flowery creations and are labeled, alphabetically, after hippie names that derive inspiration from the elements. Among the collection, exhibit guests would meet Aura, Freedom, Lilac, Seagull, Meadow, and Ocean, all hand-drawn in acrylic, in a style which Ginny describes as a fusion of fashion and art illustration. This effect is a direct result of her training as an artist both in the UST and in the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C., along with fashion illustration lessons from no less than the doyenne of Slim’s Fashion and Arts School, the late Salvacion “Slim” Lim Higgins. “I would describe my drawings as a mix of the two drawing disciplines where one features elongated figures for fashion and the other shows a more sinewy effect as in the fine arts,” she says.
Paintings number 27 to 32 is her homage to the strong women in the comicverse, featuring pop culture heroines from Marvel and DC franchises – Black Widow, Elektra, and the two main incarnations of Wonder Woman. Ginny added “I have always been attracted to strong female characters, as I was also very much into women’s rights in the 70s. I have always believed that women should be empowered, that regardless whether you are a career woman, a CEO, a homemaker, you should know how you are as a person, knowing your worth, a human being to be respected and not looked down upon. And one who is secure in who she is.”
My Say
I congratulate Ginny in this latest milestone in her life. It may have taken a long time but it sure was worth the wait. I am certainly looking forward to more exhibits of Ginny Guanco’s art.
Ginny Guanco’s Boho Chic exhibit will be on view at Galerie Y from September 15 to 24. Opening cocktails are provided by; Chef Jojo Javier’s SWEETIELICIOUS, Chef Greggie Mercado of AGING’S FOOD DELIGHT, WINE DEPOT, NESTEA AND KITKAT Strategic Works, Inc. and Ginny Guanco. The gallery is located at the 4th floor of the SM Megamall, Bldg A. For more information, contact Galerie Y, open from Mondays to Sundays, 10 AM – 10 PM, or call 634- 2704. Visit also the artist’s website, artbyginny.net or FB page Art by Ginny.
