Step into “Perfecto Deli: A Deli For The Senses” — a display of a hermit-artist’s inner sanctum through abstract expressionist ceramic sculptures.

In this solo exhibition, Jose Solon Perfecto furthers his myth-making approach to pottery with forms that stand in for oral traditions — recipes, superstitions, culture — to sate not merely appetites, but tastes.

Every year, Solon Perfecto retreats to his hermitage, where he forages clay and formulates his own ash glazes. Each of the 25 ceramic pieces in this collection is made of the artist’s signature Terroir Ceramics: seasonal, local, aged. From repetition and technique, the artist has achieved a degree of uniformity in the stoneware blend, but he does so in order for the wildness and volatility of the Terroir Ceramics to reveal themselves. While created on the pottery wheel, these ceramic sculptures submit to the artistic process — not unlike cheese, tobacco, or wine — that transforms vessels into a fine selection of oeuvres. Some, if not most, become exotic, as can be found in any deli, but indeed, here the delights are for the senses.

With the deli as an apothecary, a dispensary of salves for this modern world’s ailments, the artist is first to be poisoned, or to be healed. As an hermitage, he is able to escape the world and draw it in at once — one story to one traveller, one quest at a time.

If you find yourself here, you are on the right path.

Exhibit Text by Aussy A. Perfecto | Curated by Ram Lopez-Vito Bucoy