11 Filipino artists featuring in Singapore gallery's month-long group show
MANILA, Philippines — Gajah Gallery Singapore will be hosting this month the "In Excess" group show featuring 11 Filipino artists, a first for the gallery, curated by Joyce Toh.
As its title presents, the exhibition dives into the many connotations and implications of the word "excess," be it to positively surpass expectations and limitations or the negative afflictions of greed and gluttony.
The aesthetic of excess has appeared in Philippine culture over the years like artist Vicente Manansala's painting "Jeepney" showing the crowded post-war Manila chaos and the Cultural Center of the Philippines initially being built to project a front the country was progressing but became an example of "edifice complex."
Filipinos continue to use words like "sobra" and "napaka" to express excess, sometimes going over the edge of what is necessary, or losing what actually is.
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In alphabetical order the artists participating in "In Excess" are Victor Balanon, Annie Cabigting, Imelda Cajipe-Endaya, Charlie Co, Louie Cordero, Marina Cruz, Leslie de Chavez, Geraldine Javier, Mark Justiniani, Christina Quisumbing Ramilo and Maria Jeona Zoleta.
Several of the artists are actually based outside Manila, specifically in Bacolod in Negros Occidental (Co, though Justiniani was also born on the island), Lucban in Quezon (de Chavez) and Cuenca in Batangas (Cordero), working closely with their respective communities.
On September 23, the day after "In Excess" opens, Cabigting, Co, de Chavez, Justiniani, and Ramilo will take part in a panel moderated by Toh discussing the multiple dimensions of "excess" and how their artworks reflect them.
"In Excess" runs from September 22 to October 22 at Gajah Gallery Singapore on Tanjong Pagar Distripark.
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