Manuel Ocampo and His Co-boycotters of Beauty at West Gallery

Installation of Manuel Ocampo's paintings

What would you expect from an exhibit called Boycotter of Beauty and the Theoretical Steroid Defiled Modernist Chicken?   Continue reading


Bad Boys at Manila Contemporary

"Wandbild" by Albert Oehlen

Albert Oehlen, "Wandbild"

First, graffiti in a museum.  Now, tattoos in a gallery.  Witness as Bad Boy art turns legit, and Manila’s welcoming response to this development.  A show that carries a title as provocative as Painting With A Hammer To Nail The Crotch of Civilization with artist Manuel Ocampo as the curator is bound to draw in the art scene denizens.  Throw in work by his colleagues, the likes of international art superstars like Albert Oehlen, plus free tattoo sessions on selected days of the show’s run, then you even get the dwellers of the alternative art scene to trek to Makati.

Manuel Ocampo mural

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Death is Alive at the Art Center

Kiko Escora, "Bungi"

In the absence of any exhibit notes or artists’ statements, it seems safe to assume that The Death of Death (Is Alive and Kicking) is a group show about death.  Simply go by the number of skulls up on the walls of the Art Center at SM Megamall.  It would have been nice to understand what went behind the more subtle, less archetypal works.  But then again, sometimes a piece should just hit you, make an impact on first impression.  After all, art need not always explain the meaning of life.  Or in this case, death. Continue reading


Viewing The Paulino Que Collection of Young Contemporary Artists (aka, The I Wish They Were Mine Show)

Three years ago, Ambeth Ocampo arranged for the

Kim Atienza and Ayala Museum's Ken Esguerra with Jojo Legaspi's "St Thelma"

Kim Atienza and Ayala Museum's Ken Esguerra with Jojo Legaspi's "St Thelma"

Board of Trustees of the Museum Foundation of the Philippines to view Paulino and Hetty Que’s collection of Philippine art and historical objets.  Ambeth, perhaps only half-kidding, dubbed the occasion the tour of the”… real National Gallery”.  As he took us through the assembly of works, from Juan Luna’s canvases, to Fabian dela Rosa’s landscapes, then onto the Amorsolos, and the Thirteen Moderns, from the Ben Cabs to the Ang Kiukoks, we realized what Ambeth meant.  The staggering display covered the whole gamut of Philippine art history from Damian Domingo’s Academia de Dibujo to the 1980s.   Continue reading