No Hate Just Love Painting

In the 90’s WILFREDO ALICDAN has come up with his distinct figurative style in representing the humanity as folk in a context that is more rural than urban. His narratives that begin with courting and proceed to raising a family and living the simple life of the folk are told from the male point of view, but one which is childlike and tender and one which is yet untouched by the new, still predominantly urban, gender issues. In his subject of the folk, he has developed a fitting style: simple figures with rounded limbs, disciplined by straight lines, parallel or forming right angles. The figures, in the basic solid hues, are clearly defined in terms of colors not gaudy, however, but tempered, with light and consistent modeling to bring out volume and mass, at the same time that there is an interaction between the colors of figures and those of the plain background. Living in the rapidly industrializing province of Cavite, which has lost some of its rural character to smoke-belching factories and ever-expanding housing complexes, Alicdan’s art is not immune to these changes. From his first exhibition where his style of figuration was evocative of a social context that was distinctly rural, he has since added to his visual representation a style that is undeniably urban. As time progress, however, there are more visible developments in the works of Alicdan. For this time he draws out more fully the lucid character of his work as a peculiar visual game. Using his painting as mirrors in which we view familiar symbolisms and imageries in which we all could relate to, his works are basically in a surreal placement of elements, almost like a dream, providing a certain atmosphere of relaxation that veils the heavy material that rest beneath his works. More development comes when he started his Detour series in early 2020. This time his works was completely in surreal plane, mutating his signature heads into an eyes - "the heads becomes the eyes" so to speak. His theme – a visual analogy of our present time and his personal experiences as a single Dad. In an age when everyone has succumbed to the new world order dictated by globalization, information technology and never-ending scientific discoveries, another phase emerged in his works- showcasing the latest “evolution” of his style in a new series dubbed by the artist as – “Portal View“. In portal viewing, no direct images are visible. Imagery are transform into letters to read.