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When he is not busy with TV or theater work, writer-director Floy Quintos can be found in Ermita, where he runs Gallery Deus, a shop specializing in antique religious icons and tribal art pieces.
Gallery Deus has been there for five years, a quiet little shop that can easily be missed by those who have no interest in buying or selling antiques.
But those who appreciate such objects (especially Scandinavian poets recently shortlisted in the Nobel, such as a guest we bumped into) will find Floy’s old carvings, costumes, accessories, weapons, and chests from the tribes of Northern Cordillera and Southern Mindanao interesting. Santos (saints) from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries are also sold or bought there.
(Spare yourself the trouble and never stop by to sell a brass sarimanok. Floy is kind enough to refer the lost to other antique dealers down the street.)
The religious icons are brought to the shop by families that used to own them and do not come from churches (in which case they were probably stolen). Floy says it’s difficult to find tribal carvings that are of good condition, and those available today are mere “latak” [dregs].
Gallery Deus is fittingly located at the ground floor of the art-deco-style Marilo Building, which is one of the oldest structures in Ermita.
Visit the shop’s Website.
Gallery Deus
1219 A. Mabini Street
Marilo Building
Ermita, Manila 1000
Phone: +63 2 521 7518
Mobile: +63 917 8434 996
Floy Quintos is featured in this Saturday’s Theater Talk, organized by PinoyCentric, Manila Gay Guy, and Gibbs Cadiz.
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All Things Brown and Beautiful
Mr. Floy Quintos,
I believe it was more than a month ago that I happened to come across an item on the newspaper about your Deus Gallery. I noted down your name and the shop.
In the middle 50s, my father was offered an old violin by someone who was in need. He bought it and looked for someone who could teach me how to play said violin.
I was told to stop playing other stringed instruments, since my brother was then a member of a Rondalla and I was exposed to, and was tinkering with, all the instruments. To make a long story short, I learned but up the 5th position only. But almost every night since then, I play it with him my tutor using another violin, and we were accompanied by the other members of the rondalla.
After graduation from collage, I worked as a Geologist in the mountains of Mindanao and I could not bring the instrument with me. Again to cut a long story short, I just started 'reviewing' again, on my own a few months back. One day though, I noted something inside the violin. It says that it is a Copy of the Antonius Stradivarius. There was a date that is no longer discernible, but there was a time I noted the numbers 6 or 8 and a 7.
I like its sound, swabe, and reading from items on the internet, they say it is the wood that differentiates one violin from others. You believe so ? How much does an instrument like this cost nowadays ?
Carlos Mendoza