Some of Dennis Montera's works in "Haptic Perception." 

In "Haptic Perception," which opened July 7 at Artes Orientes at Serendra in Taguig, Cebu artist-pedagogue Dennis "Sio" Montera junks the abstractionist's brush and palette knife and uses his hands to paint his visions or emotions on canvas. 

Like Michelangelo's God the Father (and Creator) endowing life to the first man with the touch of his forefinger, Montera gives his works the electric touch of life, abstraction becoming creation, non-objective art becoming objective.

The hand-painted acrylic colors are mainly soft and calm pastels—salmon pink, old rose, pastel red, bleu-celeste, light-cyan, and lavender. Since Montera also uses watercolor pencils, the masses of pleasant-looking pastels are puttered with colored lines or curves looking like a kid’s doodling or playful pencil-pushing, adding to the intensity of the colors and the canvas’s surface texture, if not the work's sense of daydream.

The titles of the 16 paintings in the exhibit play up the "touching" theme of the series—"Intimacy's Touch Points," "Touch What Makes Your Heart Bloom," "The Way You Have Touched My Life," "The Warmth of Your Caress Melts Away My Guarded Heart," "Can We Just Seize the Moment and Hold Hands?", and "Everybody Becomes a Poet at the Touch of Love."

While in his previous exhibitions, titles often highlighted the duality of meaning in both production and context, Montera explains that "hapticity" in the new series literally refers to the ability to touch or grasp something. From an artist's perspective, haptic perception is achieved through actively exploring the picture plane by moving pigments by hand, rather than using tools as an extension of the hand.

"Intimacy's Touch Points" by Dennis Montera 

Lara Boquiren, curator of the exhibit, further explains that Montera’s works embody "hapticity," a "phenomenological approach" that transcends visual perception and engages the senses for a deeper understanding of art. His layered compositions stimulate intellectual and sensory responses, evoking memories and emotions like desire and healing, she adds.

A full professor at the fine arts program of the University of the Philippines Cebu, Montera in his abstracts departs from the mainly representational idiom that most art observers have come to associate with Cebuano art generally.

Moreover their soft, muted colors and the relaxed intensity of their action painting appear to depart, albeit quietly and without any hint of confrontation, with the frenzied intensity of abstract expressionism. The paintings’ titles, suggesting sensitive but ample expressions of love (of nature, of someone, of virtues like kindness), likewise reveal a romanticist bent.

Although abstract and non-objective, his works conjure if not objectify deeply held personal longings and experiences.

"As an artist with a specialization in painterly abstraction," he explains, "I rely on intuitive movement and experience on technical art production processes to create the actual work; however this is only the surface."

"On a more abstract level, my works' conceptual development looks to the inward self as a source for deep personal experiences and significant contextual narratives as a way to provide a logical connection to life during the act of painting.

"This is necessary in my process because of the conviction to paint for myself. The solo exhibitions of the past two decades are visual memoirs of a life lived in different phases however romantic or completely otherwise."

"The Way You Have Touched My Life" by Dennis Montera 

In their ethereal if not trancelike evocations of sensitive emotions, Montera's abstracts bring art-goers to a deeply felt and very palpable connection with a world of throbbing reality.

"Haptic Perception" provides a two-way connection between artist and viewer; the works in the series enables both to be in touch with, if not to touch, each other.

Growing up in Cebu

Born in 1972, Montera started informal art training in the second grade: his late mother hired an art instructor to give him weekend lessons. 

Early on, he developed a passion for drawing and painting in the naturalistic style. In college, he was influenced by his mentor, Mariano Vidal, a UP Cebu fine arts alumnus who studied under Prof. Martino Abellana, the father of Cebuano realism.

He has always held an affection for representational art but in college, he was captivated by expressionist artists like Paul Klee, Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Edvard Munch, and Wassily Kandinsky during his Fine Arts studies. 

A significant shift in his artistic direction occurred during his MFA at UP Diliman, where he moved from figuration to non-objective art. He immersed himself in Abstract Expressionism, drawing inspiration from artists such as Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, and Helen Frankenthaler. He also admired the abstract works of Filipino artists Fernando Zóbel, José Joya, and Lao Lianben.

For his MFA thesis, Montera investigated surface texture build-up to create foreground-background ambiguity in non-figurative compositions. His thesis project, "Penitensya," a 20-piece wood panel mural, explored the use of oxidized asphalt and industrial texturizers, establishing a formalistic approach combined with alternative materials that shaped his subsequent work. It was later exhibited at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Montera took up a Ph.D. in Creative Industries Design at the College of Urban Planning and Design of the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan. Without a regular studio, he adapted by developing textural techniques using acrylic on canvas, inspired by the aged aesthetics of temples and alleys in Tainan, ancient capital of old Formosa, which continue to influence his recent works.

 "Nature's Touch Has Never Failed to Heal Me" by Dennis Montera 

More or less, Montera combines the traditional and the experimental from his art training in his latest series. The traditional aspect lies in the form of painting, while the mixed-media methodology fosters unpremeditated abstractions.

His process is adventurous, allowing the interplay between medium and techniques to reveal nuances and surprising discoveries within the picture plane.

Cebu school of painting

Cebu has produced artists such as Romulo Galicano, Sym Mendoza, Jun Impas, and Orly Ypon who have become known in the "metropole." How does Montera situate himself in such a gallery of practitioners. Is there such a thing as a Cebu School of Visual Arts?

"In the Cebu art scene, I consider myself as a third-generation artist that came out from the Fine Arts program of UP Cebu in the 1990s," he states. 

"In all honesty, I do not aspire to be compared with renowned artists from Cebu who have found acceptance in the mainstream art scene of Manila. I am comfortable in my own skin because I know my purpose as an artist, educator, and cultural worker. I tend to believe that mainstream acceptance comes with a perceived value proposition and marketability in the artist’s work and presence."

"I Let the Sand Be My Seat When the Waves Hit My Feet" by Dennis Montera 

Montera explains that the "Cebu school of visual arts" is closely related to the Abellana school of realism. Martino "Tinong" Abellana, regarded as the Dean of Cebuano painters and a student of Amorsolo at the UP School of Fine Arts, founded the UP Cebu fine arts program in 1975. He mentored a generation of students in his evolved academic style of realist painting until his death in 1988. Many acclaimed Cebu artists have been influenced by Abellana's techniques.

Today, UP Cebu's fine arts curriculum still incorporates Abellana's methods but also embraces new and emerging forms in studio art production, Montera says.

The current Cebu art scene is diverse, with self-taught artists often engaging in portraiture, genre scenes, and plein-air painting reminiscent of Abellana's style, the artist explains.

Meanwhile, a new generation of artists skilled in both digital art and traditional painting is contributing a fresh aesthetic to the Cebu art scene, gaining opportunities for exhibitions in Manila. The dynamic between traditional and contemporary expressions fosters a vibrant art environment outside Manila.

No less than the head of the National Committee for the Visual Arts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Montera has promoted artists from the regions while sustaining his art practice.

"I am a staunch supporter of artists from the province who gain recognition in the capital and would often study their best practices for research and teaching purposes,” he said . "As for my art practice as part of the commercial aspect of the ecosystem, I can say with humility that the market has afforded me enough to continue having exhibitions regularly without being dictated by forces on what to create."

"From my perspective," Montera declared, "I am living out a dream of an artistic life despite being geographically based outside the center. I always tell my students that no matter where you are, if your work is good enough and created for the right reasons, the value will always grow, symbolically and financially."

Montera's "Haptic Perception" runs from July 21 to 31 at Artes Orientes at the 2nd level of The Shops at Serendra at 11th Avenue, Taguig. For more details, call Rio Ambrosio at 0917-523087 or email rio_ambrosio@yahoo.com.