Manuel Ocampo has been a vital presence on the
international art scene for over twenty years, and we are very pleased to
welcome him back to New York for this exhibition of new works, which marks his
60th solo show and his first in New York in four years. Born in the Philippines,
Ocampo eventually moved to the United States, graduating from college in
California, where he remained based for almost ten years. His first solo show,
which took place in Los Angeles in 1988, set the stage for a rapid rise to
international prominence. By the early 1990s, his reputation was firmly
established, with inclusion in two of the most important European art events,
Documenta IX (1992) and the Venice Biennale (1993). He has subsequently
participated in numerous museum exhibitions and biennials around the world,
including the biennials of Gwangju (1997), Lyon (2000), Berlin (2001), and
Seville (2004). He is now the most internationally active contemporary artist
from the Philippines. Currently based in Manila, he spends significant time
working in the US and Europe, particularly Germany, Luxembourg, and
France.
Ocampo is known for fearlessly tackling the taboos and cherished icons of
society and of the art world itself. During the 1990s, he was noted for his
bold use of a highly charged iconography that combined Catholic imagery with
motifs associated with racial and political oppression, creating works that make
powerful, often conflicted, statements about the vicissitudes of personal and
group identities. His works illustrate, often quite graphically, the psychic
wounds that cut deep into the body of contemporary society. They translate the
visceral force of Spanish Catholic art, with its bleeding Christs and tortured
saints, into our postmodern, more secular era of doubt, uncertainty, and
instability.
Of late, his works have featured more mysterious yet emotionally charged
motifs that evoke an inner world of haunting visions and nightmares. For his
autumn 2010 exhibition at Tyler Rollins Fine Art, we see Ocampo looking back to
his earlier fascination with religious symbols, which now reappear alongside
some of his more personal, idiosyncratic motifs, such as teeth, bones, and
fetuses. The subdued palette of greys, blacks, and whites seen in so many of
these works heightens the feeling that we are looking into a nocturnal dream
world, one that we can see only obscurely, as if through a veil. It is a world
that invites the viewer to enter, but at his own risk, offering no comfort, but
perhaps some promise of
redemption.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
Tiffany Chung: November 4 December 31, 2010
Tracey Moffatt: January 13 February 26, 2011
Agus Suwage: March 3 April 16,
2011
