#WIP #Manilia: Filipino Emerging Artists Group Exhibition
Text / Ruel N. Caasi (Curator)
This group exhibition introduces the works of young and emerging names who in recent times have gained attention and following in the contemporary Philippine art scene. The artists have jumpstarted their individual trajectories of art practice, each one offering a fresh and distinct voice amid the cacophony of sounds that characterizes the art scene in their part of the world. Now, they attempt to bring the vitality of their visions to foreign shores as a collective and continue the new routes they have carved back home.
The title appropriates the language of social media, using hashtags to index a current trend amid the frenetic flow of data and information. The participating artists, who belong to the millennial generation, have become new trends in their own right, a group of new personalities to look out for among the art viewing public in the Philippines. In their works, they also respond to what is currently trending and interprets these in the form of references, allusions, and tangents translated through their temperaments and idiosyncrasies. But just like trends, it is yet to be seen whether their artistic practices and their current places in the art world would be sustained or would just be fleeting presences. These artists and their works are works-in-progress opening up possibilities as it waits conclusion, represented by the acronym and hashtag # WIP, in the vibrant and bustling city of Manila.
Participating artists are Aiya Balingit, John Lawrence Canto, Keb Cerda, Ronson Culibrina, Dale Erispe, Johanna Helmuth, Yeo Kaa, John Marin, Pow Marin,and Yani Unsana. Together, they represent a collective called The Working Animals Art Projects which collaborates closely with various organizations and art institutions in its aim to promote contemporary Philippine art.