Camille Ver (b. 1980) is one of the foremost contemporary abstractionists in the Philippines of her generation. In recent years, Ver’s oeuvre has been primarily concerned with architectural abstraction. Abstracting the lines and forms of cityscapes, Ver captures the verve of the city in her abstraction, through continuous lines which mimic the city’s own, and through the evocative use of color in her practice, creating believable, harmonious compositions akin to fantastical, and otherworldly realms alive with color and a most natural rhythm. With more than 10 solo and countless group exhibits, Ver continues to reimagine and rediscover what is known and seen through her vivid compositions.

Ver took up painting at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in 1998. She later took a special course in Interior Design at the Philippine Institute of Interior Design, which undoubtedly laid the foundation of her future interest in abstracting the built environment. Her influences include Russian abstract art pioneer Wassily Kandinsky, as well as members of New York School of Abstract Expressionism, such as Willem de Kooning, Helen Franenthaler, Franz Klein, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly; and the minimalists Frank Stella, Lucio Fontana and Agnes Martin. Her first influences, however, were from the 19th century European expressionists — Van Gogh and Gauguin among them — for her sense of color and dynamism at a very young age.

Ver’s relationship with color surfaces in her art by surveying works from the Rococo and the Renaissance period, paying attention to the favored hues of that time. This informs her use of soft hues referencing the Rococo period which she injects with earthy tones from the Renaissance. Ver’s chosen medium of enamel and acrylic paints, whether painted on canvas or acrylic sheet, allows her to appreciate the fragility of the paint’s texture on a surface.

This reactive approach becomes the amplifying factor in her oeuvre, resulting in an astonishingly varied body of work that skillfully blends the viewpoints of her diverse references.

Ver has been teaching painting and drawing to preschool up to high school students in Homeschool Global since 2006. She has had 16 solo shows and has participated in numerous group exhibitions. She is also active in community organizing, being one of the co-founders of the Master’s Art Workshop — an art initiative that helps underprivileged children.

In her 10th year as an artist exhibiting with Galerie Joaquin, Ver integrates the various aspects of her art for the first time: her own sixteen-year personal journey into abstraction, her vocation in teaching art to children, and her faith which informs her practice and her life. Entitled “Lights in the World,” this exhibition highlights the recent breakthroughs Ver has had in her use of color, line, and space, in her abstraction, which has become bolder, livelier, and have intuitively lessened the likeness of real cities and took on freer, fantastical, flowing form; and also the role of each artist, specially the children with whom she works, to bring color and light into the world, through their art, and more importantly, their being.

Galerie Joaquin is proud to present Ver’s 10th Anniversary solo exhibition with the help of her students. “Lights in the World,” affirms Galerie Joaquin’s position that through her growing two decades body of work, Ver is one of the foremost artists of her generation, and whose oeuvre contributes greatly to shaping abstract expressionism in the country’s contemporary visual art scene.

The exhibition will run from June 17 to 26 at Galerie Joaquin Rockwell. The gallery is located at R3 Level, Powerplant Mall, Rockwell Center, Makati City.

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