EXHIBITION DATE
DECEMBER 8, 2022 - JANUARY 8, 2023
Cartoons, animated characters, and other forms of children’s entertainment have formed a significant chunk of our childhood. As we fully transition into the often tumultuous and distressing stages of adulthood and maturity, oftentimes we step back a bit, empty our minds, and turn to our favorite cartoon characters for various reasons, including escape from life’s vicissitudes or simply nostalgia.
The enduring love of cartoons forms the cornerstone of micro artist Ian Anderson’s creative praxis. At his core, Anderson is a gifted character creator and maze maker. As a certified 90s kid, Anderson grew up watching Cartoon Network, saying he was a big fan of the iconic children’s channel. Anderson was raised in Antipolo City, Rizal, and had his primary education at the Waldorf School. That academic institution shaped Anderson’s formative years since the school emphasized holistic education, focusing on play and creative learning. As a Waldorf student, Anderson could not play video games on weekdays due to school policies, so he created his own “games,” likely inspired by the cartoon shows he fondly watched back then. From the young Anderson’s creative mind sprang an exuberant iconography consisting of wildly fanciful animated figures, comical doodles, and convoluted mazes characterized by perplexing tangles, twists and turns, and loops and hoops, all of which he dubbed as the “DNA” of his works.
For the year-end offering of Leon Gallery International and DF Art Agency, Anderson once again invites the viewers to venture into his whimsical cast of characters. As Anderson once stated, his works are “calculated and controlled.” The intricacy of each piece is achieved through Anderson’s painstaking process, employing his signature duo of pen and ink to create dynamic and vibrantly colored compositions that playfully tickle our fancies and reveries.
Influenced by Cy Twombly’s gestural dynamism and Paul Klee’s highly imaginative, often strange, and playful style, Anderson weaves images from both popular culture and his own imagination, lending his works that wildly colorful and eccentric character. Through the sheer maximalism of his works, Anderson invites us to look closer into each piece, revealing bits and pieces of our youthful effervescence that are often concealed in the subconscious depths of the mind. Thus, the works in this exhibition lend visual engagement to the audience, as Anderson’s end goal is to create art that is “fun, engaging, and playful.”
Beyond the extraordinary intricacy of his oeuvre, Anderson’s is a body of work that resonates deeply into the inner child in each one of us. Meeting at the intersection of art and nostalgia for days gone by, Anderson’s creations serve as odes to rediscovering our (long lost) childlike playfulness, naivety, and innocence. His is a body of work that encourages us to traverse, explore, and expand the limits of our imaginative faculty, like what we always did as a kid while delightfully watching the cartoons we once loved.
Words by Adrian Maranan
Beautiful Room Is Empty”
pen and ink on paper 24" x 16 1/2" (60 cm x 42 cm)
Work
Again”
“Character
pen and ink on paper 40" x 30" (102 cm x 76 cm)
“Character
Log” 2022pen and ink on paper 40" x 30" (102 cm x 76 cm)
“Very Difficult Maze
2022
pen and ink on paper 60" x 39" (152 cm x 99 cm)
2”
pen and ink on paper 60" x 39" (152 cm x 99 cm)
• “Noses In Roses” , Leon Gallery International, Makati City, Philippines
• “There's No Place Like Home” , Secret Fresh Gallery, San Juan City, Philippines
• “Art Moments Jakarta Online 2” Group Exhibition , Art Moments / DF Art Agency, Jakarta, Indonesia
• “In The Near Distance” Group Exhibition , Leon Gallery International, Makati City, Philippines
• “Make Up Your Mind” , Wieden Kennedy Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• “Too Much Is Never Enough” , Cartoon Network Studios, Los Angeles, California, USA
A Joint Project of León Gallery International and DF Art Agency
León Gallery International
Address G/F Corinthian Plaza, 121 Paseo de Roxas, Legazpi Village, Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines
Contact info@leon-gallery.com
(02) 846 7416
(02) 856 2781
DF Art Agency
Address
UG 24 Star Centrum
317 Sen. Gil Puyat Ave. Cor. Malugay St. Bel-Air, Makati City, 1209
Contact
artagencydf@gmail.com
(+63) 915 216 3684
Website www.leongalleryinternational.com www.leon-gallery.com
@leongallerymakati
@leongallerymakati
Website www.df-artagency.com
@df_artagency
@df_artagency
G/F Corinthian Plaza, 121 Paseo de Roxas, Legazpi Village, Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines