Multiple Languages Ahmad Fuad Osman Alfredo Esquillo Angki Purbandono
Curated by Leslie de Chavez & Louise Marcelino
Christopher Zamora Dongwook Lee Eric Zamuco Hojin Lee Jaeho Jung
Silverlens, Manila 13 August - 13 September 2014
Jet Pascua Joy Mallari Leslie de Chavez Lorenza Diaz Mariano Ching Mariano Montelibano III Mark Justiniani Michael Mu単oz Osang Gwon Santiago Bose Se Eun An Wire Tuazon
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Multiple Languages by Louise Marcelino
This exhibition interprets the role of language in everyday life. Its various modalities enable individuals to communicate and socialize. While language is dependent on signs, the connection between the latter and meaning often shows incongruence. A linguistic representation, such as a word, broken down into minute components of letters and sounds has properties that show no outright correspondence to the idea being signified. Language has an arbitrary scheme that derives efficacy and validation from social conventions. In A Grammar of the Multitude, Paolo Virno wrote of language as belonging to everybody and nobody. According to Virno, the multitude is a concept that teeters between the individual and the collective. The multitude is bound not only by common places but also by “abstract intellect” or linguistic cognitive abilities unique to human beings. The existence of language presupposes the presence of people. Language is a shared construct essential to survival, understanding, and evolution. Constantly changing, language transcends sheer pragmatics. Grammar and other principles of organization are followed to ensure the optimal transmission of messages. The general rules of engagement are modified to conform to specific individual and group necessities. Literacy becomes a measure of mastery and control. As with other cultural tools, language can also be subject to manipulation and appropriation. The specificity or flexibility of language offers promise for personal expression and style. As a signifier of identity and relations, language creates conditions for solidarity, connectivity, and variations. On the other hand, language can also be a compelling force that disrupts, confuses, and distresses. It is a tool that enables communication on the one hand; and alienates, on the other.
Art speaks in multiple languages. Contemporary artists here explore the limits of intermedia to convey a complex of messages. Ephemera and found objects are assembled so they could be captured permanently via ‘scanography’, a technique the artist coins to refer to a preferred image making apparatus. Glimmering with saturated colors and garish details, Angki Purbandono’s works appear in a light box like carefully crafted advertisement composed actually within the bounds of the detention cell during the period of his incarceration. The sheen on the work of Osang Gwon downplays the patchwork of C-prints assiduously put together to compose an expressive sculptural form. Locked in the safety of a vitrine, Dongwok Lee imagines an environment both horrid and surreal. A pathetic looking creature seems to beckon on top of a translucent golden yellow pile. The artist’s handling of miniature forms and clinical attention to detail reveal an aura of fragility and refinement. The works of Se Eun An captures the streets of Manila teeming with public utility vehicles and kariton, wooden mobile carriers. She composes mundane situations in a painting style that overlays fragmented patterns on solid forms. As a global migrant, the sense of incompleteness and the minimal presence of human figures are telling of the artist’s fleeting encounters. Santiago Bose’s intimation of displacement and longing in the midst of an impersonal subway ride can be felt in NYC Journals. Jaeho Jung’s works convey the transience of experience and likewise foreground the urban life. Privileging marginalized spaces in his paintings such as alleys and corners, Jung paradoxically illustrates aspects of the city’s blight in vivid hues and solid strokes.
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The project of Ahmad Fuad Osman began with a single object: a portrait painting of a controversial Malaysian opposition leader, his face beaten black and blue. Osman converts the image into a poster announcing the search for a missing painting, and documents them as they appear in the streets. Passersby respond to the call perplexingly, disturbed by the violence depicted in the image and lured by the promise of reward indicated in the text. The iconic image encouraged fact-finding and the search for the elusive truth, undermining the fiction spun on the lost object. On the other hand, the video work of Manny Montelibano collapses two sets of recordings that weigh the validity of declaration and interpretation. One video combines interviews of three random individuals focusing on the distorted movement of their lips as they verbalize associations of the Ilonggo word pasaway. The trend of responses ultimately point to politicians and their relentless lip service. Conversing with the video is an archival footage of the first Philippine President, an embodiment of state power, reciting a speech. A critical look into individuals in the position of power is being called for as well in the work of Leslie de Chavez titled 24. The artist repositions the staunch phalanx of men in a circle, activating the shape’s significations. The uniform figures are caught in an endless cycle of beheading or bequeathing; as in the ambiguous inheritance of curse or privilege. The illuminated blocks of text by Michael Muñoz conjure an excerpt from the Nicene Creed, a declaration that lays down the basic tenets of Christianity. Alfredo Esquillo’s painting invokes the crossfire between institutions of the church and the state. Two individuals face each other with their mouths agape, ready to pounce at the moment of heated provocation. The authority of institutions and
belief systems is further complicated by the works of Eric Zamuco. In Sculpture, Zamuco questions the influential role of art institutions and other gatekeeping mechanisms in validating works of art. Inspired by current social networking dynamics, another work titled I Live for Your Likes addresses cogently the issue of validation. Akin to religious devotion, the ‘like’ button functions crucially in the rituals of performative online exchange. In a similar vein, Christopher Zamora’s painting focuses on a gadget that enables virtual connection via the interface of ‘touch’. The gaze of the figures is directed to the tablet, detaching the attention to physical bodies to be substituted by a virtual presence. There are works in the exhibition that harness the written word. Artists demonstrate how texts can be independently regarded. Or how letters or words can shape our reading when it is subsumed within a visual form. Joy Mallari’s work sets the scene for winnowing, a homegrown skill that can be honed through constant practice. Roman letters resembling grains and chaff are found in a bilao, a semi-flat basket-weaved container. Words are configured almost spontaneously by selecting from a pile of letters, essential blocks of language as basic as grains of rice. Mariano Ching’s Get Ready for Love mimics a crescendo and presents the combination of letters as display. Its verso reveals copious details inscribed by burning the wooden surface. Onomatopoeic, the work intimates heated excitement as well as the rise and fall of vigor. Wire Tuazon’s works spell out ‘UNTITLED’ as an installation of mirrors reflecting the graphics of the painting opposite it, and engages the environment within its reflective reach. The metallic silver and black painting forms an empty crossword puzzle, waiting to be filled up by 2
one’s imagination. The reflective surface in Mark Justiniani’s work appropriates the jeepney header, a ubiquitous accessory whose sole function is ornamentation. The text ‘Propaganda’ could be read in different ways depending on one’s accentuation. It could refer to a political agenda on the one hand, or the inclination towards surface gloss, on the other. When condensed in the vernacular, the word becomes a critique to a futile government focused on selfpromotion and pageantry. Potent juxtapositions of text and image can be gleaned in Santiago Bose’s works. In Design for the Philippines, the artist inscribes the Latin adage Populus vult decipi ergo decipiatur (The people want to be deceived, so let them be deceived). Bose foregrounds the schism between the farmers and the more privileged class of performers who labor diligently yet aimlessly in the fields. They seem to be indifferent to time’s passing. Beyond the horizon lies the image of a monumental cenotaph for Newton, a utopian vision conceptualized by the French architect Boullée, but was never built. In Bose’s configuration, the dream of self-determination is ever palpable, yet still unreachable. Leslie de Chavez’s Veiled painting is reminiscent of the promise of salvation through religious devotion. Though fully geared for worship, de Chavez’s veiled figures seem to be bereft of humanity and soul; an indication of blind following. Their ghastly appearance tempers down the dazzling gold background and the sacred orb of the divine, symbols often present in Christian iconography. On the other hand, Jet Pascua’s Bitter Pills weighs the import of language in acculturation and assimilation. Machineincised with Norwegian vowels, the enlarged discs forming the artist’s installation represent pills taken for temporary relief. Pascua testifies that the plight of integration into the larger Norwegian
community entails the painful process of denying one’s linguistic identity. In order to gain respite, one must embrace the hegemony of another culture and language. These artists render how the society grapples with structures of belief and knowledge whether in the form of history, language, or religion. Lorenza Diaz and Lee Hojin intimate movement and feelings in abstract form. Diaz’s small-scale canvases reveal a quiet elegance. Neutral colors and sparse brushwork glorify the void and the fluidity of subtle forms. The brushwork in Lee’s paintings suggests spontaneity and active movement. One critic describes the artist’s penchant for intense colors as “feasts of energies with unclear perspective.” The works’ preoccupation with inner life and emotions are evocative of the limits of language; its cognitive thrust. As the intermedia artist Ann Hamilton once expressed, “The problem with language is that it is made out of words. Language is not an experience. You have to trust the things you can’t name. You feel through your body, you take the world through your skin.” Multiple Languages imparts the conditions that make this international gathering possible. The artists operate by difference, each having a unique background. Their convergence is facilitated by the possibilities of translation, access to information/technology, increased mobility, and alternative platforms, thus presenting opportunities for temporal networks or lasting bonds. They are unified by their persistent explorations of form and active pursuit of meaning in a globalized world. They are part of a multitude committed to art.
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Jet Pascua Bitter Pills painted fiberglass (15 pcs) variable dimension 2013
Leslie de Chavez Veiled oil on panel with gold and silver leaf 64 x 52 in • 162.5 x 132 cm 2014 5
After Party, and Going Home!, Angki Purbandono; Rest (Offcut), Fall (Fall), and Bruch (Break), Lorenza Diaz; Exploration of Namelessness, and Linguistic Mischief and the Aesthetic of Mental Gymnastics, Wire Tuazon; Tahip, Joy Mallari; Fuse_S (red version), Osang Gwon; Design for the Philippines, Santiago Bose; Get Ready for Love, Mariano Ching; NYC Journals, Santiago Bose Installation view at Silverlens, Manila Photo: Silverlens Galleries 6
Angki Purbandono After Party scanography print on paper & transparency 31.5 x 59 in • 80 x 150 cm 2013 unique edition
Angki Purbandono Going Home! scanography print on paper & transparency (neon box installation) 59 x 39.4 in • 150 x 100 cm 2013 unique edition 7
Tahip, Joy Mallari; Rest (Offcut), Fall (Fall), and Bruch (Break), Lorenza Diaz; Exploration of Namelessness, and Linguistic Mischief and the Aesthetic of Mental Gymnastics, Wire Tuazon; Design for the Philippines, Santiago Bose Installation view at Silverlens, Manila Photo: Silverlens Galleries 8
above images Lorenza Diaz Rest (Offcut) Fall (Fall) Bruch (Break) oil on canvas 12.20 x 9.05 • 31 x 23 cm each 2014
right images Joy Mallari Tahip mixed media 18.5 (dia) x 15 in • 47 (dia) x 38 cm 2014 detail 9
Wire Tuazon Exploration of Namelessness wood, mirror and adhesives variable dimension 2014 Linguistic Mischief and the Aesthetic of Mental Gymnastics acrylic and silver leaf on canvas 54.5 x 54.5 in • 138.4 x 138.4 cm 2014
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Osang Gwon Fuse_S (red version) c-print, mixed media 11.8 x 40 x 16.5 in • 30 x 100 x 42 cm 2009-2010 11
Eric Zamuco Sculpture old Sculpture magazines recovered from flood, saw, and plinth 21 x 11 x 18 in • 53 x 28 x 46 cm 2014
Sculpture, Eric Zamuro; Propaganda, Mark Justiniani; Trifling Moment 2, Trifling Moment 3, and Trifling Moment 1, Se Eun An Installation view at Silverlens, Manila Photo: Silverlens Galleries 12
Mark Justiniani Propaganda mixed media 17 x 48 in • 43 x 122 cm 2006
Se Eun An Trifling Moment 2 Trifling Moment 3 Trifling Moment 1 acrylic on canvas 24 x 36 in • 61 x 91 cm each 2014 13
Hojin Lee The Escape mixed media 44 x 63.5 in • 112 x 161 cm 2014 Story Of mixed media 28.5 x 20.5 in • 72.4 x 52 cm 2013
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Linguistic Mischief and the Aesthetic of Mental Gymnastics, Wire Tuazon; Design for the Philippines, and NYC Journals, Santiago Bose Installation view at Silverlens, Manila Photo: Silverlens Galleries
Santiago Bose NYC Journals mixed media, acrylic 37.4 x 48 in • 95 x 122 cm 2002 15
detail
Santiago Bose Design for the Philippines mixed media on canvas 72 x 72 in • 182.8 x 182.9 cm 2001
Mariano Ching Get Ready for Love wood, wax, pyrograph 30 x 5 x 10 in • 76.2 x 12.7 x 25.4 cm 2014 16
Consubstantialem Patri, Michael Mu単oz; 24, Leslie de Chavez; Holy Debate, Alfredo Esquillo; Touch, Christopher Zamora; I live for your likes, Eric Zamuco; Insomnia, Ahmad Fuad Osman; Pooh, Dongwook Lee Installation view at Silverlens, Manila Photo: Silverlens Galleries 17
reverse
detail
Michael MuĂąoz Consubstantialem Patri plaster of paris, lightbox, steel cable variable dimension 2011
Leslie de Chavez 24 fiber reinforced plastic (24 pcs), light bulb, electrical wire 13 x 8 x 23 in • 33 x 20 x 58 cm each 2014 18
Alfredo Esquillo Holy Debate oil on canvas 36 x 60 in • 91.4x 152 cm 2008
24, Leslie de Chavez, Consubstantialem Patri, Michael MuĂąoz; Holy Debate, Alfredo Esquillo; Installation view at Silverlens, Manila Photo: Silverlens Galleries 19
Christopher Zamora Touch oil on canvas 48 x 60 in • 122 x 152 cm 2014
Eric Zamuco I Live For Your Likes cut-out sticker 5.5 x 73 in • 14 x 185 cm 2014
Mariano Montelibano III Otro Man 2 channel video installation 5 mins, 43 secs 2014 edition 1 of 5
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White Shelter, and Corner, Jaeho Jung; Pooh, Dongwook Lee Installation view at Silverlens, Manila Photo: Silverlens Galleries 22
Jaeho Jung White Shelter Corner oil on linen 39.4 x 39.4 in • 100 x 100 cm each 2010
Dongwok Lee Pooh mixed media 6 x 6 x13.7 in • 16 x 16 x 35 cm 2013
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Ahmad Fuad Osman Insomnia oil on canvas, 2 posters, 16 framed photographs, LED display variable dimension 2011/2014
Artists Bio
AHMAD FUAD OSMAN
ANGKI PURBANDONO
Ahmad Fuad (b. 1969, Kendah) left his hometown of Baling, Kedah in 1987 to obtain a degree in Fine Arts degree at the then Intittute Teknologi MARA (now Universiti Teknologi MARA UiTM). It was there that he met fellow artists Bayu Utomo, Hamir Soib, Ahmad Shukri and Masnor Ramli and formed the Matahati group. This artist collective has played a pivotal role in the careers of its members as well as in the development of Malaysian contemporary art.
Angki Purbandono (b. 1971, Semarang) studied photography at the Indonesian Institute of Arts and was the co-founder of the Ruang MES 56 Alternative Space in Yogyakarta. Besides important art events such as the CP Biennial and the Industrial Fiesta Cemeti Art House (2007), the artist has participated in several group exhibitions both in Indonesia and abroad.
His work has been widely exhibited in Southeast Asia. His awards and residencies include: Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation’s Signature Art Prize, Juror’s Choice (2008); Rimbun Dahan Residency, Kuang Selangor, Malaysia (2007-08); Asian Artists Fellowship, Goyang National Art Studio, South Korea (2005-06); Asian Artists Fellowship, Freeman Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, USA (2004); and, Philip Morris Malaysia Art Award, Juror’s Choice (2000 & 2003).
Purbandono is by all means the upgraded artist. He upgrades his own individual universe at each software being released on the marketplace, he archives memories of the future by decontextualisng invisible and forgotten everyday life objects that he appropriates as his own manifesto of Indonesian Digital.
ALFREDO ESQUILLO
After the group show Fetish (2007) and Hyperlinks (2010), the artist presented at Biasa Artspace the solo exhibition entitled Happy Scan. Angki Purbandono was the recipient of the Asian Artist Fellowship at Changdong Art Studio, South Korea (2006).
Alfredo Esquillo (b. 1972, Las Piñas) is a Fine Arts graduate from the University of Santo Tomas. He was a recipient of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Award in 2000.
CHRISTOPHER ZAMORA
His other awards and residencies include: Award For Continuing Excellence In Service (ACES), Metrobank Foundation, 2004; Projek Mager group residency project with Anting Anting and Matahati, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2004); Asean Art Awards, Fourth Prize, Bangkok, Thailand (1996); Asean Art Awards, First Prize, Jakarta, Indonesia (1995); Philippine Art Awards, Juror’s Prize, Manila (1995 & 1996); Three-month residency at Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan (2001); and, Two-month residency, Vermont Studio Art Center, USA (1999). The artist lives and works in Las Piñas City.
Christopher Zamora (b. 1978, Manila) obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Philippine Women’s University, Manila. His residencies include: the Southeast Asian Group Exchange Residency (SA GER) in Kuala Lumpur (2011), Yogyakarta (2011), and Philippines (2012). His work has been widely exhibited locally. Selected international exhibitions include Art Triangle in Kuala Lumpur (2008), Art Beijing in Beijing (2008), Tenggara in Greenland (2008) and London (2009), Plastic Syndrome in Incheon (2009), and Thingness in Seoul (2012). He lives and works in Manila.
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DONGWOOK LEE
HOJIN LEE
Dongwook Lee’s (b. 1976, Daejeon) works are suffused with a simultaneously gloomy and lyrical horror. His miniature human figures condense both hyper-reality and surrealistic illusion, creating odd but beautiful cacophonies. Some are displayed as medical curiosities, squeezed into a syringe or cocooned in a bell jar. Here, the human form is scrutinised and dissected under a cold scientific gaze.
Hojin Lee (b. 1974, Seoul) is a graduate of the Pratt Insitute and New York University. He works with painting, installation, and media. He deconstructs the conventional composition of oriental painting by absorbing modernist expressionism into his self-centered imagery, no fixed perspective, no background or front-ground but just a swirling inner-explosion on the picture surface. Hojin Lee gradually keeps himself away from the art of former times which emphasizes artist’s personal styles and some specific themes, and is committed himself to the exploration of how post-modern experiences of puzzlement is presented, how disorder of contemporary super-reality is ritualized as the highest fetishism. Lee’s work has been exhibited in Korea, the US, Germany, France, and China. He lives and works in Korea.
In Extinction (2004) a mythical, transgenic mermaid floats in the trivial surrounding of a domestic fishbowl. The pathos of this piece is indicative of the emotional tension present in much of Lee’s work. There is an ever-present opposition between the mundane and the grotesque, reality is constantly disrupted and challenged by fantastical illusion.
He received his BFA and MFA at Hongik University, Seoul. His work has been exhibited in Korea, Germany, the US, the UK, Switzerland, Italy, and Japan among others. He lives in Korea.
ERIC ZAMUCO Eric Zamuco (b. 1976, Manila) received his MFA from the University of Missouri in 2009. Having relocated from Manila to Missouri in 2005, to Massachusetts in 2009, and back to Manila in 2012, Zamuco’s body of work has been about filtering his own displaced experience. His subject matter runs the gamut from notions about home, belief, identity, post-colonial narratives, to the need for reclamation of space. The works which are of a diverse range of media, include sculpture, installation, photography, drawing, video and performance. They not only serve as social commentary but also as self-critique. The intention in transforming the commonplace is to pull the immaterial from banality and to possibly find knowledge for some kind of human order.
JAEHO JUNG
Jaeho Jung (b. 1970, Busan) was educated at the San Francisco Art Institute, USA and Se-Jong University, Seoul (MFA & BFA). He has exhibited widely in Korea and has been included in group exhibitions in San Francisco and New York. Selected solo exhibitions include: Detached place, YooArt Space (2013); Every single day, Gallery b’one (2010); Euphoria, Gallery LVS, Seoul (2009); solo exhibition, Window Gallery, Gallry Hyundai, Seoul (2008); and Made, Goyang Art Studio Gallery, Korea (2006). Some of his artist residencies include the Seoul Foundation for Art and Culture in 2013 and the Vermont Studio Freeman Fellowship (full grant) in 2008-09. His works are currently part of the collections of Seoul Museum of Art, Art Bank of National Museum of Contemporary Art, and Cartier Collection.
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JET PASCUA Jet Pascua’s (b. 1969, Manila) artistic practice during the past 10 years or so has been greatly influenced by his migration to Norway. Liminality, migration, memory and forgetting and rewriting of histories are recurring themes in his work. He uses historical events, whether public or personal, as references and material in imagining a different reality, or making sense of the present one.
Leslie de Chavez has held several solo exhibitions in the Philippines, China, Korea, and Switzerland. He has also participated in several notable exhibitions and art festivals which include the Third Asian Art Biennale in Taiwan 2011, Third Nanjing Triennial in China 2008 and the First Pocheon Asia Biennale in South Korea in 2007. He is the director of the artist-run initiative Project Space Pilipinas and has been exclusively represented by Arario Gallery since 2006.
JOY MALLARI
LORENZA DIAZ
Joy Mallari (b. 1966, Rizal) is a contemporary Filipino painter and visual artist. Mallari is known for a visual style similar to the contemporary Filipino figurative expressionism common among members of the Grupong Salimpusa and Sanggawa art movements, but distinguished by a narrative approach which one critic has described as exploring “the linkages between literature and art”- an approach which she attributes to her exposure to the pre-digital animation industry during her developmental years as an artist.
Lorenza Diaz (b. 1978, Frauenfeld) studied at the School for Design in St. Gallen and the FHNW Basel, Schwitzerland, achieving her degree in 2010. As an exchange, student she also studied at the Fine Arts Academy of Danzig and the HGB Leipzig. Her work has been exhibited in Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium among others. She currently lives in Leipzig, Germany.
She is also known for exploring themes of identity and marginalization in Philippine society The children’s book “Doll Eyes”, which she co-created with writer Eline Santos, won the National Children’s Book Award in 2011.
LESLIE DE CHAVEZ Leslie de Chavez (b. 1978, Manila) is a young artist who cautiously deals with sensitive topics like cultural imperialism, colonial history, contemporary life, politics, and religion in his country. He contemplates deeply about the significant function, influence, and directivity of art in society. De Chavez’s adroit sensibility in painting casts bitter metaphors in the society he lives in, suggesting a response to realities through reconstruction and reinvention of narratives, issues, icons, and symbols of the time. His value system about society and art is firm and clear. He invites introspection on reality through works that reflect hard work, passion, and a stand.
MARIANO MONTELIBANO III Mariano “Manny” G. Montelibano III (b. 1971, Bacolod) is a Visayan media artist who focuses his works on the psychology of current social, political, economic, and religious structures. His works have been exhibited in the National Museum of the Filipino People, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Metropolitan Musuem of Manila, Singapore Art Museum, Seoul Citizen Hall, Museo Iloilo, Visayas Islands Visual Arts Exhibit and Conference, Vargas Museum, Ateneo Art Gallery, Galleria Duemila, NOVA Gallery, Museo Negrense de La Salle, and Fort Santiago-Intramuros in the Philippines. He has been part of exhibitions in Seoul, Korea, Hong Kong, Spain, Germany, New Zealand, Canada, and France. He is a video and sound installation artist, film and stage director, editor, technical specialist and teacher at the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City. Currently, he is affiliated with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts of the Philippines, Black Artists in Asia Association, Crossing Negros Cultural Foundation Inc., Produksyon Tramontina Inc., Bacollywood Organization, and VIVA ExCon Org. Manny is based in the south of the Philippines, City of Bacolod, the province of Negros Occidental, Philippines. 27
MARIANO CHING
MICHAEL MUÑOZ
Mariano Ching’s (b. 1971, Manila) works dwell on the excesses of the imagination. A recipient of the Monbusho Japanese Grant and the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Awards. Mariano Ching‘s fictional landscapes may be reminiscent of childlike fantasies, cartoonish and playful; and may be peopled by grotesque figures, deformed and mythical, but the underlying motif behind each scenery almost always consists of a sequence of revelation, an apparition achieved through a psychedelic state or a rude awakening propelled by the colors and symbols of a mix of shamanistic, Krishna, voodoo, alien or colonial iconography. Such paradox elevates his work from the mere excursions of the psyche and imagination to a rich, multi-layered narrative that has the ability to engage its audience like a sci-fi novella.
Michael Muñoz (b. 1973, Rizal) studied painting at the UP College of Fine Arts in 1993 and pursued a career with the artist-run space and artists-collective Surrounded by Water in 1999. He has exhibited in various venues in the country and participated in a few exhibitions abroad. In 2003, he worked as exhibition consultant and designer for the Museo ng Kalinangang Pilipino at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, setting-up exhibitions on the indigenous collections of the museum and local craft traditions in the country. In 2005, he helped found MANLILIKHA Artisans’ Support Network (www.manlilikha.org) and since then was involved in various heritage advocacy projects through exhibitions, documentation and promotion of local traditions, craftworks and artisans. Muñoz is a recipient of the CCP Thirteen Artists Award in 2012.
Ching received his education in the University of the Philippines Fine Arts Program and became a distinguished Research Student as a Printmaking Major in Kyoto Arts University, Japan. His works have been shown regularly in Manila, as well as in other countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, France, and Japan.
MARK JUSTINIANI Mark Justiniani (b. 1966, Bacolod) studied fine arts at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He was granted the CCP Thirteen Artists Award in 1994. He has mounted several notable solo exhibitions, which include, Orbit at Finale Art Gallery, Mimefield at Tin-aw Gallery in 2013, Malikmata at Silverlens Gallery in 2010, Catapult at Substation Gallery, Singapore in 2008, 2002 at Galleria Duemila in 2002, Sanktuaryo at Boston Gallery in 1999 and White Rain at Hiraya Gallery in 1995. Justiniani is a well-traveled artist and has represented the Philippines in various international conferences, workshops and exhibitions in Japan, Singapore, Denmark, Australia and the USA.
OSANG GWON
Osang Gwon (b. 1974, Seoul) has made it his quest to demolish the line that divides the medium of sculpture from that of photography. He accumulates photographs to build sculptural forms and sets up sculptural forms to compose photographs. Trained academically in sculpture, Gwon has incited interest in the circles of both sculptors as well as photographers.
Dedicated to his most famous series, Deodorant Type, the book Gwon, Osang: The Sculpture was published by Arario Gallery. His work can be found in numerous local and international exhibitions, as well as in publications that present and feature contemporary Korean art. Gwon has held solo exhibitions in South Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and his work was shown in the international touring exhibition Roundabout which traveled from New Zealand to Israel.
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SANTIAGO BOSE
WIRE TUAZON
Santiago Bose (1949 – 2002, Baguio) was a mixed-media artist from the Philippines and the founder of the Baguio Arts Guild. He is a graduate of the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines (1972), Bose continued his studies in the United States at the West 17th Print Workshop in New York.
Wire Tuazon (b. 1973, Rizal) is a visual artist whose practice combines the hyperrealist, semiotic, and the performative. Graduating with a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1999, he became a founding member of the art collective Surrounded By Water, which set up independent artist-run spaces in Angono and later on in Manila in 2000.
Bose was granted the CCP Thirteen Artists Award in 1976. He has exhibited in major international events: Third Asian Art Show, Fukuoka, Japan (1989); Havana Biennial, Cuba (1989); First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia (1993); At Home & Abroad, 20 Contemporary Filipino Artists, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (2000). In June 2002, he was presented the “Gawad ng Maynila: Patnubay ng Sining at Makabagong Pamamaraan” (Cultural Award for New Media presented to an Outstanding Filipino Artist) by the City of Manila, and was posthumously shortlisted for the Order of National Artists for Visual Arts in 2006.
In 2001, Tuazon received a residency grant at the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History from the Japan Foundation Asia Center. In 2003, Tuazon was chosen as one of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ annual Thirteen Artist Awardees. He served as President of the Rizal-based Neo-Angono Artists Collective in addition to participating in numerous group exhibitions and public art performance festivals across the Philippines, Australia, Singapore, Japan, and Korea.
SE EUN AN Se Eun An (b. 1971, Seoul) received her Bachelor’s degree in Painting at Ewha Woman’s University, Seoul in 1994. She received her MFA in painting at the same university and later on received a Master’s degree in New Forms at the Pratt University in New York.
Her work has been widely exhibited in Korea, and has also exhibited in the US, Germany, Japan, and now, the Philippines. She currently lives and works in Manila.
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SILVERLENS (Manila and Singapore), through its exhibition program, artist representation, art fair participation, and institutional collaboration, aims to place its artists within the broader framework of international contemporary art dialogue. SILVERLENS, founded by Isa Lorenzo and Rachel Rillo, has earned recognition from both artists and collectors as one of the leading contemporary art galleries in Southeast Asia. Artists represented include Maria Taniguchi, Patricia Eustaquio, Gary Ross Pastrana, Luis Lorenzana, and I Lann Yee. Recent collaborations include the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design Manila, Vargas Museum Manila, and Singapore Art Museum. Silverlens participates annually in key international art fairs.
Special thanks to :
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Multiple Languages Copyright Š 2014 Silverlens Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the above mentioned copyright holders, with the exception of brief excerpts and quotations used in articles, critical essays or research. All texts copyright the authors. Cover Image: Tahip, 2014, Joy Mallari (detail) Back Cover Image: Sculpture, 2014, Eric Zamuco (detail)
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