“I find my work constantly evolving as I age, for they are mostly driven by my life experiences,” the artist says. “The relationships and feelings I invest on a person, thing or idea is where I find inspiration.” The creative artist of the Pampanga-based Jay Torres (b. 1986) is rooted in this conceptual approach, and buoyed by an aesthetic adherence to surrealism. The difference of Torres’ practice from other surrealists is his avoidance of negativity in his works. “I try to depict a positive message,” the artist says.

Surrealist ideologue Andre Breton wrote of the movement: “The imaginary is what tends to become real.” In Jay Torres’ new show, “Moments of Uncertainties,” it is these ungraspable emotional interludes that provides fodder for a rich artistic practice. The artist, a product of the Fine Arts program of the Far Eastern University, uses a thoroughly surrealist aesthetic in large pieces that melds a cacophony of different references that take into account the artist’s experiences in his young life.