For over a decade, the work of Blic has been a constant in the visual landscape of Metro Manila. We have grown accustomed to his signature Humands. These are those clean, almost airbrushed figures that replaced facial ego with the universal gesture of the hand. But at this year’s Art Fair Philippines, held at the new venue in Circuit Makati, a window opened into a dimension of his work that we had not fully accessed before.
The exhibit on the ninth floor was titled Even After. It initially felt like a departure. After five years of moving toward a polished, seamless aesthetic, Blic has reintroduced a deliberate roughness to his canvases. These pieces carry a visible stress and strain. The energy is less about the fluid motion of the street and more about the friction of the interior life. This return to a raw texture is not a regression; it is a calculated choice to bring the vulnerability of his earlier work into the present.
The Weight of the Stress Ball
The key to unlocking this show, and perhaps Blic’s entire decade-long trajectory, lies in a recurring motif: the stress ball. While this object has appeared in his work for years, its significance never fully connected with us until now.
In Even After, both the male and female characters are seen clutching the same stress ball, but they hold them with varying degrees of intensity. It is a subtle, visceral detail that changes the entire frequency of the message. This is not just about urban anxiety or the pressures of the labor force. Through this lens, the paintings reveal a painful kind of love. It is the sort of affection that carries a cost: the kind you did not know you could give until the right moment and the right person asks it of you. We call it forgiveness, but it often feels like it costs us more than just that one word can contain.
Humanity in the Roughness
Blic has noted that this shift in technique was heavily influenced by the personal relationship that inspired the show. By stripping away the airbrushed perfection, he has allowed the stress of the subject matter to manifest in the paint itself. The intentional grit serves as a bridge, allowing us to see the humanity and vulnerability behind the Humand.
Following an artist for ten years provides a rare perspective. We begin to see the evolution not just as a change in style, but as a deepening of a philosophy. In the past, his characters felt like avatars for a collective experience. Now, they feel like mirrors for a deeply personal one.
The Interior Architecture of Endurance
The move of Art Fair Philippines to Circuit Makati provided a new backdrop and mirror for an artist who is also in a state of transition. Even After is a testament to the idea that growth does not always mean smoothing out the edges. Sometimes, it means finding the courage to let the stress show.
By looking back at the roughness of his roots and intersecting them with a new energetic influence in his present, Blic has found a way to move forward. He has taken a symbol as mundane as a stress ball and turned it into a profound meditation on endurance. It is a reminder that the most impactful art is not the kind that is easy to hold, but the kind that reflects the strain of holding on.
