New Natives exhibit shows contemporary Filipino artists in a new light
The most extensive show of contemporary Filipino art ever seen in Hong Kong, it features work from 28 established and emerging artists in a range of media from photography, collage, painting and illustration to sculpture-based artwork.
NEW NATIVES
Lightbombs Contemporary
“THIS SHOW REALLY is a microcosm of what’s happening with art from the Philippines,” says Zoe Peña, curator of the “New Natives” exhibition at the Lightbombs Contemporary gallery in Wong Chuk Hang.
The most extensive show of contemporary Filipino art ever seen in Hong Kong, it features work from 28 established and emerging artists in a range of media from photography, collage, painting and illustration to sculpture-based artwork. The show sends strong messages about displacement and identity, issues that resonate throughout a country where more than 2.2 million of its citizens work overseas.
“New Natives also deals with how people deal with identity and how the identity of an artist has very little to do with geography these days,” says Peña. She describes the show as the ideal platform to showcase the country’s booming art scene.
A number of artists are earning an international reputation, including Noberto Roldan, who exhibited in “No Country”, the travelling show from the Guggenheim Museum; Stephanie Syjuco, whose works are part of the Whitney Museum’s permanent collection; Gary-Ross Pastrana, who has his work in the Singapore Art Museum; and Mark Salvatus, the winner of the Sovereign Art Foundation’s Schoeni Prize last year.
Highlights include the mixedmedia print Happy Shizocouple by emerging artist Dex Fernandez, and a surreal acrylic and watercolour painting by Gel Jamlang called Fall that looks at the constraints on women in Philippine society.