Artistic Pursuits: How Tarzeer Pictures beautifully integrated art to Solaire Resort North

Mohnani and his co-founders—which include creative director Enzo Razon, photography curator Gio Panlilio, art consultant and visual arts practitioner Bambina Jacinto Aseron and architect Anna Cabasan—were very excited over their first time curating on such a large scale. The project allowed them to find art pieces suitable for various spaces, including restaurants of different cuisines, lobbies, restrooms, suites and gaming facilities.

“It’s a huge undertaking, with a lot at stake,” quips Mohnani. But looking at how everything came together, with some 800 pieces left waiting to find their proper places, is also satisfying. Aiming for the visitors to feel that it is a collection built over time and veering away from merely decorative items, the team was all hands on deck, from visiting galleries and art fairs for possible acquisitions to getting to know certain artists and their oeuvre and commissioning large-scale pieces here and abroad.

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“We all made an effort to see as much as we could, and we’ve had these conversations together that I’ll always cherish,” says Aseron. She looks back at the research stage when the team exchanged thoughts and recommendations to meet the client’s aesthetic and size requirements.

Except for Nikolas Weinstein’s massive glass sculptural installation that welcomes the visitors as they enter Solaire Resort North, the Tarzeer team worked with Filipino contemporary artists, both locally and internationally based, and even infused some photography works made by artists they promote in their space at Pasong Tamo.

“The art [collection] gives the location a sense of place, where one would know easily that this is in the Philippines,” says Mohnani, speaking about the apparent colours, textures and materials Philippine art is mainly associated with, aside from the Filipino artists’ signature styles that a foreign visitor might be unfamiliar with. Another consideration made by the team in curating the collection is thinking of guests’ experiences in each space, which vary in functions. One thing the team realised in the process is how rich and dynamic our local art scene is as well as how detailed and organised visual artists are.

At the lobby, Nicole Coson’s oil on canvas diptych stands prominently behind the reception desk, complemented by Therese Nicole Reyes’s Fissure series, a mixture of geometric and organic forms, with one of autumnal colours and the other inspired by the coast. In the patisserie, the oil on canvas abstract painting of Iloilo-based prominent artist Rock Drilon shakes up the neutrality of the lobby’s colours, showcasing warm and cool tones with this gestural abstract piece.

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Patterns are highlighted in the L1 function lift lobby with Raffy Napay’s thread-on-canvas works, Sunset and Sunrise, and Maria Cruz’s eyecatching oil-on-canvas work inspired by the bright and colourful palette of a tolda (tent).

Lucky Noodles, one of Solaire Resort North’s dining venues, specialises in traditional Asian comfort food. Its mural, Daydreaming of Noodles, was created by Philippines-based Japanese-American artist Kelli Maeshiro. It highlights the artist’s penchant for animation, showing a character engrossed in the fantasy of eating and making food.

Jono Pisano’s oil on canvas welcomes dining patrons at the Filipino restaurant Manyaman. It shows a barely clothed man and woman with Filipino facial features by the riverbank. The team finds this artwork with clear figurations offers the eyes some rest after the numerous abstract works abound on the floor. Its aesthetic appeal and Filipino element were also apt for this particular space. The buffet restaurant Fresh’s resort-like ambience, as it wraps around the swimming pool area and overlooks the city, seemed perfect for Italyborn Siquijor-based artist Viviana Ricelli’s abstraction work of striking colours and organic form as well as Jem Magbanua’s acrylic on canvas showcasing a mountainous, lush landscape and clear blue sky.

Read more: 40 other important Filipino visual artists who are not yet National Artists

Inside the private rooms of the Japanese restaurant Yakumi, Jessica De Leon’s acrylic on canvas diptych features pattern details that add a silky texture to the space’s prominently wooden interiors. Motion in textures and light hues are also evident in Aya Cabauatan’s archival pigment print on Hahnemühle found in Solaire’s food court. These exquisite photography works shine in the dimly lit section of the generally neutral-coloured space.

Lastly, Geraldine Javier’s found flora series of monoprints on Hahnemühle inkjet and watercolour complement Italian restaurant Finestra’s massive bonsai that welcomes dining patrons, reminding them of the city’s rich biodiversity while having an unobstructed view of the Sierra Madre mountains.

Read more: Markus Jentes on pushing the boundaries of his artistic style

These as well as John Pettyjohn’s ceramics and Jonathan Dangue’s metallic sculptures are just some of the over 2,000 works inside and outside Solaire Resort North. Tarzeer Pictures did an incredible job of planning and putting them together down to the most minute details.

“The gaming floor is also an example,” adds Panlilio. “It’s a bustling space, and from afar, you would see these works by Markus Jentes, Binong Javier and more that are bright and colourful. But as people walk around the perimeter, its texture reveals something more. It’s all about understanding each space’s tone and function and finding artworks that lean into that.”

Tarzeer Picture’s curation is usually not done in most places in Metro Manila, where hotels and office buildings resort to decorating with abstraction works, giclée prints and other art. “It’s not that we want to impact change in terms of art curating for this kind of venue. We just want to be an example of how you can present a collection of artworks for people to enjoy. Hopefully, projects and properties of this scale will be able to invest in that way in the future,” says Razon.

Will this be the first and last large-scale curation for the team? “It’s not often that you get a client with this much requirement. We’ve been doing other similar projects, albeit on a small scale, like restaurants and offices, which we will continue to do. But if the opportunity presents itself, we will think about it,” Mohnani says.

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