Solo Art Show 'Beautiful Monsters'
“Beautiful Monsters” is the second solo exhibit of artist John Magnus. The exhibit consists of the artist’s signature aesthetic of abstracted, expressionistic, hybridized collage, mixed media, with nods to the street arts and the contemporaries, on canvas, and wood. The show features paintings of different scales, collages, and an 8x8ft pyramid that serves as a cleansing chamber where the audience can enter and be bathed with 528hz healing frequency.
“I wanted to have a long-winded and pretentious description for this show that classically justifies the sometimes meaningless impulsions that actually comprise the majority of art-making, however, to be completely honest, I just wanted to have some fun, put out work that was fun to create, not bogged down with some sort of social narrative or cause. I guess my cause for this show was to remind myself and other artists to Have Fun. Don’t take yourselves too seriously. My hope is that the viewers see the art from a distance and up close, weaving in and out. There many things to see and not see. Life is too short and too weird. I say live! Be unapologetically yourself. Be child-like, in wonder, and in spirit. Love, Joy, and Gratitude.”
-John Magnus
Tap to see the catalogue of this show.
Solo Art Show ‘set the weirdos free’
“Set the Weirdos Free” is the first solo exhibition of Filipino-American visual artist John Magnus in the Philippines. The exhibition features a curation of expressionistic, hybridized collage, with references to street art, on wooden panels and canvas that illustrates the artist’s musings on the theory of the universe through interpretations of Hermetica or ancient texts on the relationship between human beings, the cosmos, and God, a subject matter that has taken the artist by obsession.
His first ever solo exhibition is also autobiographical, revealing multifaceted imagery referencing urban life, socio-cultural dynamics, and the esoteric; and in the process, presenting truths that he has discovered through a layering of images and sometimes text, on canvas or wood. Also unique to his paintings are verses repeatedly hand-drawn on his works – like the magical chants of a healer found on an artwork that he calls a sensory-deprivation chamber for healing.
On top of everything, “Set the Weirdos Free” is Magnus’ way of embracing the strange and beautiful parts of his self, of all the questions and feelings that he has inside, which ultimately gives him a feeling of emancipation.
— by Lorraine Datuin