To the unschooled in the realm of visual arts, a painting could be beautiful, delicate, soft-colored flowers in full bloom; aesthetically pleasing arrangements of fruits, other food items, dining utensils, and flowers in decorative vases; picturesque landscapes or waterscapes; impressionist depictions of romanticized rural life and stylized figures of days gone by; and sometimes haunting portraits of Jesus on the cross or long-dead saints that could compel one to run to the nearest church and confess one’s sins.

There are no such paintings at Breaking Ground: The UPLB Abstract Show, an exhibition that features the works of eight Filipino abstract painters—Binong Javier, Lara Latosa, Herbert Pajarito, Michael Pastorizo, Jay Ragma, Beatrix Syjuco, Valen Valero, and Meneline Wong. There are no human or animal figures, no serene scenes of nature. What will greet the eager viewers instead are vibrant colors, perfectly straight lines, dancing swirls, and shapes and figures that can only be seen and juxtaposed in the mind’s eye.

The exhibit, which runs from September 3 to October 3 at the Sining Makiling Gallery inside the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) campus in Laguna, hopes to foster “better appreciation of abstraction as a major force in art production and sensing reality in more nuanced terms,” according to Jerry R. Yapo, director of the UPLB Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts.

Abstract art challenges one’s perception and interpretation of reality. It demands one to see beyond and ponder on the organized chaos of lines, shapes, and colors. It takes some getting used to, to not expect to find some semblance of reality in such works, though some pieces are actually inspired by nature like Latosa’s wave series, Pajarito’s Imaginature series, Pastorizo’s red florals, and Wong’s pieces that look like cross-sections of metamorphic rocks. Unlike most photographs and classical paintings where there is not that much room for interpretation, abstract artworks—especially those that fall under abstract expressionism—can be interpreted by viewers however which way they want and can draw varying emotional responses. There is no limit.