In the collage series, Whee reassembled the material world of magazine pages through a collage-like composition of feminine and masculine textures. It amalgamates slender, robust, organic, inorganic, sensual, and harsh figures. Pia Tausas, who wrote the exhibition notes for her, described it as “The rise and fall of textures, drawing the viewer in through the merging and emerging of feeling.”

“I’m the art practitioner who likes to try different things,” said Whee. “Whatever I want to do ‘at the moment’—I need to get it out of my system. It was nice to select half of the pieces among many I painted this year and to arrange these in a way that has a cohesive flow. For me, the exhibition’s most challenging and fun process was selecting the pieces to show.”

Meanwhile, the nature series “dissolves the tactile physicality of the material world to penetrate an inner one,” Tiausas wrote. The plants that are central figures in her artworks were dripped, coalesced, melded, and bloomed into a euphoric explosion over them in an expressionistic abstractionist style.

“Each movement is visceral and secretively sensual. From what was once an impossible fantasy in print, desire in this series is turned into a supreme birther of possibilities in a world that is privately one’s own,” Tiausas wrote.

“For the Fanta_collage series, the collage process took place by appropriating the image to convey the work’s narrative,” explained Whee. “The Fanta_nature series was the work inspired by my living in the Philippines. I was immersed in all the lush, abundant, green tropical nature that dwells around us, and I witnessed the plants grow with such visible energy, full of life. I felt that what I tried to express in my work was already in nature, whereas in the Fanta_Collage series, I was looking outwards to find the image that would represent my message. In studying nature, I found simplicity, energy, desire, entanglement and many things one can relate to humans.”

Fantasy is the thread that binds all artworks in Whee’s inaugural solo exhibition. Through it, the artist had merged contrasting textures that presented a movement towards possibilities. And though it can become an avenue for escapism, Whee’s surrealist take in composition juxtaposed with representational figures that partly evoke her personal memories make the exhibition a journey to the inner self.

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“I appreciate artwork that provokes lingering feelings or visually entices interest,” Whee said. “For example, an artwork that makes me gaze upon, follow the path of the line of the brushstrokes or textures, get lost and find some hidden parts here and there. Artwork is, in general, something subjective, and that’s the beauty of art.”

Cool and warm hues brightened by her whimsical musings have conquered the exhibition hall of León Gallery through Whee’s paintings. And yet, she is keen to re-explore sculpture in her next exhibition and other mediums like watercolour.

“Through my work, I am transmitting my energy, and after the work is over, it is the audience’s turn to emit feedback, just like a book. I hope my work somehow can inspire audiences to envision the world from the eyes of an artist or hope it can be simply related to them in some way, opening a way of interpreting the world,” Whee said.

Read also: A look back at Anita Magsaysay-Ho: Her life, art, and philosophies

A day after the exhibition’s opening, National Gallery Singapore’s Gallery Benefit 2023 held an online auction, including Whee’s work, Breathe In and Breathe Out. The piece’s starting bid was USD 5,000, capturing the visceral and sensual aspect of nature employed with dynamic gestural brushstrokes but made with controlled precision. The piece conveys “the energy of living, creating, communicating, and procreating through vivid colours like plants manifesting their radiating life through luscious fruits and stunning colourful flowers,” as written in the auction catalogue. The piece remained exhibited at León Gallery throughout the exhibition’s duration.

“Art defines who I am,” said Whee. “It is a form of expression, communication, and defining my inner self. I think the power of art making comes from constant curiosity, questioning, self-challenging, and diligence.”

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