Mario de Rivera, the reclusive Filipino painter who has remained unspoiled by commercial succes will be presenting his latest collection of paintings in Fragments of Incantations, another major solo exhibition which opens on June 8 at the Hiraya Gallery.

Wonderful man and artist that he is, there is no one more sensitive to the innuendos of feelings, exits and entrances into the past and future.  Mario de Rivera is a puzzle even to himself;  but who wants an artist who has resolved everything and has lost the innocence and wonderment of a truly pure and searching heart ?

When he has found something, a vestige of his past, a lingering memory, a glimpse of a beautiful face, he follows it to its end.  Nothing hinders de Rivera. He penetrates deep, will battle the currents of reality and emerges with stronger conviction and more awareness.  Even his technique is lost and found, probing and surfacing constantly in a maze that is at once of myriad images and at the same time one harmonious whole.  Because he loses himself so profoundly in the process, he can only return when he has found himself again.  His art beguiles and enchants and casts its spell.

De Rivera was recently awarded the much coveted Excellence Award at the 2003 Beppu Contemporary Art Exhibition in Japan.  "Nuestra Eden Perdido," a fairly large triptych executed in mixed media, features de Rivera's signature photo-transfer technique. It presents an almost pastoral scene, in mutedly brilliant colors, of a romanticized religious motif that is identifiably Filipino in character. This Beppu prizewinner can be viewed at the Hiraya Gallery where de Rivera, a UST fine arts graduate who first broke into the Manila art scene in 1976, presents his latest collection of paintings in Fragments of Incantations.

 The exhibition runs until June 25. Hiraya Gallery is located at 530 U.N. Avenue, Ermita, Manila. Gallery hours are from 9 to 4, Mondays to Saturdays and by appointment on Sundays. For more information, please call tel# 523-3331 or email at hiraya@info.com.ph or visit the website www.hiraya.com