Allan Balisi’s painterly idiom thrives in deferral: a cinematic sequence interrupted, a series of compositions that dilate a singular action, or a forthcoming gesture captured as it is about to be completed. Contra inertia, the paintings depict imminence–a quick breath before bodies topple, the last grunt before the locked gate is forced open. This imminence is achieved as a painterly effect. In most works, a clear premise for an action is staged and we assume possible outcomes. The paintings ask us to sustain these possibilities, to linger in anticipation.

We are sure that something will happen, or is happening. Some of the works let us know what is most likely to transpire, some works barely allude to what is about to unfold. A miniature Venus de Milo sculpture stands on a shelf. If one looks closely, the sharply delineated shadow beside it and the shelf barely having enough space to support its base tell us a number of possibilities. In this moment, however, we admire how light falls on the cold skin of the replica, the amount of work that went into this reproduction.

For the artist’s solo exhibition titled Among the good wishes, paintings dwell in this space of interval–between a precious attempt and a possible outcome. In one work, a pair of dancers grasp each other by their arms, a tense tableau. Their bodies are depicted as if the slightest shift of weight would end in collapse. In another, a figure is about to pry open a locked gate with a crowbar. A taxi just passed us by. In one of the works, flames burst, engulfing structures in its vicinity. Wishes are cultivated in these intervening moments. Balisi’s works draw out situations into scenographies, gestures into entire events. A wish is never a promise as it is a configuration of time and space where all troubles and their fixes are imminent, and finitude comes with grace.

Throughout these intervening times and spaces, the images undergo a series of translations and transformations: a sheet of white cloth held by an obscured figure in one work becomes a fluttering flag that across a number of canvases is gently lowered in another series of works. And, in one more work: what resembles another reworking of the fabric is in fact petals of a flower about to bloom or slowly wilting away. Even the way surfaces are enlivened by the ways in which they reflect or render light is worth noting, and the absence of background for most of the paintings isolate this vibrant quality. There is a stark illumination that casts objects and figures in sheer or shimmering animated light. Balisi’s rendition of snail eggs offers a cluster of globular forms that warp light, offering in place of its incidence a kaleidoscope of texture and what feels like synthetic skin. A series of works presenting faces of clocks flag our passage in this interruptive, transformative milieu: time has stopped but each hand–hour, minute, second–taunt us with their imminent turning. In the works for Among the good wishes, we see events about to transpire or worlds about to collapse into themselves, and within these intervals we catch glimpses of a world hopeful to recompose itself.

– Carlos Quijon, Jr.

Allan Balisi’s (b. 1982, Isabela, Philippines; lives and works in Manila) work has a very strong narrative undercurrent despite its fragmentary albeit figural nature. Recent solo exhibitions include Always Keep in Touch, Golden Cargo Gallery, Manila (2022); To Our Friends, Blanc Gallery, Manila (2021), and; Pathfinder, Pablo Gallery, Manila (2020).

He was shortlisted for the 2009 and 2013 Ateneo Art Awards and is a recipient of the CCP Thirteen Artists Award in 2021.