“Temporary homecomings are bittersweet.  Sometimes  it’s better not to go back at all than to have to leave again.” – Amanda Bouchet, “A Promise of Fire”

            Over a decade ago, artist Cobie Cruz – like so many thousands of Filipinos arriving at critical crossroads in their lives - made a wrenching but necessary decision :  to make a new and better life for himself and his family in Canada. Not surprisingly, at the family’s initial stage of expatriation, not everything was roses for Cobie. Again like his other kababayans who have struck out in a foreign territory, he had his fair share of struggles and travails, but always the priority was the material well-being of the family. Perforce,  Cobie’s art had to take a back-seat in his mind’s attention – but in due course, properly settled and employed, he slowly made up for lost time. 

Turning Point

            A turning point was the health condition of Cobie’s  father, Cris Cruz,  who, unfortunately, had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Cobie came home to Manila to be with his father, and one can only imagine what transpired in the talks between father and son in such a painful station situation. But the subject of art was of  was always there, and especially during  his father’s last remaining days, Cris Cruz always encouraged Cobie to pick up the brush, counselling him of “all the possibilities” that lie ahead of his son. It was then that Cobie  had promised his father that he will never give up on his painting.

           Thus, the title of Cobie’s homecoming show , “All The Possibilities,” now on view at the Saturday Group Gallery, on the east wing of the Shangri-la Plaza. The choice of venue is all the more meaningful,  since Cris Cruz was once a pillar of this esteemed artists’ group, together with the late, great Malang.

Impressive Credentials

            Indeed, Cobie comes home armed, as it were, with impressive credentials; foremost, being in the stable of two reputable galleries in Toronto, who have steadily been finding a lucrative market for Cobie’s works. It is commonplace to say that finding a gallery abroad to represent your work is no walk in the park, what with the daunting competition of hundreds of other talented artists of various nationalities. Still, Cobie, during his Manila years prior to his expatriation, had been honing his art – his metier is abstraction,  in an interesting contrast with his father’s works, which are among the finest lyrical expressions of floral arts hereabouts. True: we  know  of the saying - attributed to the Romanian sculptor Brancusi referring to his mentor, the master Rodin – that “Nothing grows under the shelter of a great oak tree.” But it is undeniable that talent is as thick as blood that courses from the family patriarch down to his progeny. In Cobie’s veins and artistic cells can be found the DNA derived from the late master Cris Cruz.

            Indeed, this writer has been been privileged to have witnessed the development of Cobie’s works, and to have written about them in the past. One can in fact declare that Cobie has been exploring all the possibilities that abstraction can open up to him. While abstraction has as often been proclaimed dead, and as many times resurrected, this non-representational idiom surely  lives and dies and is ultimately reborn in the hands of its most ardent local practitioners, two of which are, incidentally,  Cobie’s personal friends, namely Edwin Wilwayco and Rico Lascano. 

Lyrical Passages

            And thus at the Saturday  Group Gallery now hang  the many splendid works of Cobie, blooming in a colorful and  radiant way, that may subconsciously allude to Cris Cruz’s floral blossoms. After all, Cobie’s forms may be likened to an unfolding of petals, rich with lyrical passages that converge and then disperse, though some may likely equate them with floating islands of deeply stained hues, in the high saturated keys of reds, orange, yellows, and purples – this last shade being seemingly sensitive and responsive to Cobie’s chromatic chords. Worthy of admiration too are the works in monochromes of blacks, whites, and grays, as well as the soothing and calm vibrations of the cool colors of blues and greens. Done in refined good taste, these works are especially convivial in the airy and light space of Cobie’s modulated spaces, with a kind of an unconscious  glamorous presence.   

Fulfillment

            When Cobie left Manila over a decade ago, he had wondered whether the art scene will remember him at all. Well, this present show is worth remembering, and assures him that the name Cobie Cruz will be not be forgotten. His late father Cris Cruz, up in artists’ heaven , must be beaming down with pride. Indeed, his son’s promise to him has been fulfilled.

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Cid Reyes is the author of choice of National Artists Arturo Luz, BenCab,  Elizalde Navarro, and Napoleon Abueva. He has written over forty art books and hundreds of art reviews and exhibition notes. Reyes received a “Best in Criticism” Award from the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP).