Leeroy New's interventions on the CCP's main staircase
I decided to come early this time around, and felt amply rewarded for my efforts. There is much to recommend the 2012 Thirteen Artists Awards exhibit, and I wanted the opportunity to savor it on my own pace. Continue reading
Kaloy Sanchez, "Flightless"
It must be the season for group shows. The third one I’ve seen this month, Hate Mail, at Manila Contemporary, is the second in a series of exhibits that, per the wall text, “…looks at visual linguistics in relation to communicating fundamental human emotions…” It comes after Love Letters, which the gallery, fittingly enough, mounted close to Valentine’s Day. Continue reading
Robert Langenegger, "President of Heaven", lightbox, 17.5x11 3/4 in
We welcome 2011 with the crass, the crude, the inimitable Robert Langenegger. Love him or hate him, whether his pieces make you laugh out loud or cringe in disgust, you have to admit that Robert’s work is certainly distinct. He has claimed the cartoon-like renditions of the most coarse and vulgar–injected with a twisted sense of humor–as his very own. This purveyor of the perverse has brought his narratives to Paris, for an exhibit at Talmart Galerie in 2009, and will be headed to Austria, for a residency with the Galerie Zimmermann Krachtochwill this September. Continue reading
Three years ago, Ambeth Ocampo arranged for the
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