Empowering nostalgia

Almer Moneda puts a spotlight on the past in order to move forward.

Some people believe there is no reason for us to look back on the past in order to move forward and brave what lies ahead. But this is what exactly artist Almer Moneda wants to debunk in his latest exhibition “Empowering Nostalgia.” 

Almer Moneda

Through his works, Moneda reminds his viewers about the beauty of life’s simplicity and the happiness it gives to people who value it. 

“My deepest inspiration is the life of the past,” he says. “My latest exhibit entitled ‘Empowering Nostalgia’ depicts how life is about going back to these slower, more meaningful activities that remind us of the good, old days. My past exhibition, held last March 2022 at Galerie Raphael UP Town Center, was about the memories of the street. That’s why it was entitled ‘Calles y Memorias.’” 

Through colorful backgrounds and black and white subjects in “Nostalgia,” he also highlighted some of the forgotten cultures and practices of Filipinos. In Travelers on Horse, he brings back his viewers to the years before cars were invented, where people traveled riding a kalesa or a horse-drawn carriage while enjoying the fresh air and the warm breeze. 

‘Spurious Approval,’ acrylic on canvas, 2023

Meanwhile, young people will appreciate the hard work behind every rice grain with Rice Pounders, as it shows how women of the past, before rice milling machines were invented, were doing the hard labor, pounding tirelessly, in order to separate the chaff from the grain. And there’s also Delicate Ambition, depicting the capacity of a mother to juggle the tasks of mothering and homemaking. These are just some of Moneda’s works that could invoke nostalgia in the viewer. 

‘Rice Pounders,’ acrylic on canvas, 2023

“I do a study first, research, before I paint on a canvas. My process is the same with the traditional painting,” he says. “It’s a juxtaposition of old and new. My concept is old and the approach is new, as I make contemporary colors of background.”

‘Travelers on Horse,’ acrylic on canvas, 2023

He has been in the artistic field for more than a decade, but Moneda still wants to continuously use his art and his platform to tell stories. He believes that being an artist is his life’s calling. “Art for me is an expression of feelings and emotions, also a vehicle to the memories I want to go back to,” he says. “I want the viewer to feel what I feel, that every time I look at my work, it makes me reminisce how good it was to live in the past. Moreover, it helps us appreciate the simple pleasures of life that have been replaced or forgotten in current times.” — Jessica Pag-iwayan

“Empowering Nostalgia” has been launched at Galerie Joaquin Rockwell.

Credit belongs to : www.mb.com.ph