Architect Dani Yu holds her first exhibit in a hotel in Mandaue City. / Michelle Joy L. Padayhag
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Cebuana Architect Dani Yu uses her freedom as a source of her creativity every time she fills her canvas with colors and emotions.
Yu’s forte is abstract painting.
“I like abstract. I can express more and there is freedom (in abstract painting),” she told Cebu Daily News Digital.
Last February 3, Sunday, the 24-year old Architect opened her first solo exhibit which she called, “Come. Be. Become.” at The Gallery of the Big Hotel in Mandaue City. The exhibit will run until March 3.
Yu’s first exhibit features a total of 25 artworks which she made from 2017 to 2019. These are all acrylic canvas and palette knife painted.
She placed a one-word title or a quote on each of her artworks to help spectators interpret her paintings.
A painting which she called “Gratitude” is her favorite.
“Mura man gud og nag celebrate siya. You know it consolidates the whole theme kay ang title sa exhibit (Calm. Be. Become.),” Yu said.
Her other paintings represent her aspirations in life: “Prolific”, “Courage”, “Fearless”, “Gracious”, and “Impact.”
She looks up to the works of artists Frederick Agustin, Wassily Kandinsky, and Yayoi Kusama.
Yu, who finished architecture at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in 2016, said she decided to have her first exhibit to promote abstract painting in Cebu after she noticed that most of the Cebuano artists patronize surrealism and realism styles in their artworks.
A native of Barangay Guadalupe in Cebu City, she is the eldest of three siblings.
Yu recalled doing her first abstract painting in 2014 after a New York City trip, where she had her first snow experience.
Her first painting show children who were playing in the snow and those who engaged in snowball fight./dcb
