Artists continue to explore beyond the familiar paint and canvas to express themselves. This is what Threads and Fabrics, the new exhibit at UPLB’s Sining Makiling Gallery, is all about.

The Office of Initiatives for Culture and the Arts (OICA) formally opened Threads and Fabrics, featuring the works of Melissa Yeung Yap and Richard La Torre Perez, to the public on Aug. 9.

Both artists added texture to their artworks, reflecting their willingness to explore other materials as forms of artistic expression.

Yap wished to bridge the past and the present by using indigenous and local crafts in her modern art pieces.

An exhibitor for more than a decade to both local and international audiences, Yap displayed acrylic pieces infused with Philippine indigenous materials and fabrics like T’nalak, a sacred cloth that was woven by the T’boli in the communities around Lake Sebu in Mindanao, and Hinabol weave, a hand-woven fabric made by the ethnic tribe, Higanon, in northern Mindanao. Her textured and sculpted work or art has shown that the artists can work with other possible materials that can contribute greatly to creating emergent art forms.

A Bicol-based award-winning visual artist, Perez incorporated the use of threads and nails in her art pieces.

Known for using this medium, his recent discovery of using acrylic paint over thread textured canvas, he created a rendition of nature and natural spaces through his mosaic-like creations on canvas.

Threads and Fabrics will run from Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm until Sept. 9. It can be viewed online through UPLB OICA’s Facebook Page. Yap and Perez’s art pieces are available as individual paintings and as a set. Interested art buyers may contact UPLB OICA for pricing and details. (KEAraguas with reports from UPLB OICA)