MANILA.- Silverlens, the established Manila-based gallery known for its robust roster of Asian Diaspora artists, announced their presentations for major global art fairs Frieze Seoul, The Armory Show, and Frieze London. Silverlens will feature works by artists Yee I-Lann, Patricia Perez Eustaquio, Pow Martinez, Mit Jai Inn, Maria Taniguchi, and Martha Atienza.
In addition to Silverlens’ participation in art fairs around the world, the gallery will open its first New York outpost in Chelsea this September 8th, 2022 — an expansion that is necessitated by the growth of the gallery’s program and the drive to bring a broader representation of Southeast Asian, Asian Pacific, and Diasporic artists into the wider framework of the contemporary art dialogue. Silverlens New York’s inaugural shows will feature works by Martha Atienza and Yee I-Lann.
ART FAIR SCHEDULE
Frieze Seoul
September 2-5, 2022
Presentations by Yee I-Lann, Patricia Perez Eustaquio, and Pow Martinez
Yee I-Lann: Excerpts from Tikar/Meja
At Frieze Seoul, Yee I-Lann is presenting individual pieces from her acclaimed series, Tikar/Meja –– a collection of Bajau Sama DiLaut mats on which tables have been woven — that have been shown previously in museum exhibitions in Kota Kinabalu (SICC, 2021), Seoul (MMCA, 2021), and Hong Kong (CHAT, 2021).
The mats will be installed in a loose grid, 3 pieces high by 3 pieces wide, on the central wall. The table represents administrative power and control –– colonial, patriarchal, federal, and state power. They are the antithesis of the non-hierarchical, community-based, open platform of the tikar. Tikar/Meja forms a message from the people on the mat directed to the people at the table. The table can be rolled up, essentially “eaten” by the mat. Like a game of rock-paper-scissors, the paper-like object (the mat) actually has more power than the object that is typically seen as being stronger (the table).
“Traditionally in the Southeast Asia region, all communities sat on mats on the ground; had a tradition of making mats. The tikar, or mat, for me, is intrinsically feminist, representing a communal, egalitarian power that comes from old knowledges, heritage, and culture,” says Yee I-Lann.
Patricia Perez Eustaquio: History is a Jungle
At Frieze Seoul, Patricia Perez Eustaquio will be presenting her show, History is a Jungle, featuring a collection of spears made of wood and foliage demonstrated alongside the Babaylan tapestry An Unraveling (Conversation Among Ruins, After Francisco). This exhibition, described by Perez Eustaquio as a tangle of drawing, painting, tapestry and objects, is an exploration of things and our relationship to them. According to the artist, we exist in an empire of things. Historically, the desire to obtain things has dominated our pursuits and has led humans to travel all across the world in search of obtaining more objects. But this quest is not without consequence. In the case of Philippine colonial history, this dominance led to, for example, the destruction of natural resources such as cutting down hardwood forests to create galleons for the Manila-Acapulco trade route. In her works, Perez Eustaquio aims to tease apart the questions that arise from the complex histories of objects and their creation.
In History is a Jungle, Perez Eustaquio displays an armory of spears with a variety of tropical leaves and flowers alongside the Babaylan tapestry in order to challenge the inherited colonial ideas of fine art demonstrated in the history of the tapestry as it, as well as painting, entered into our visual culture and the culture of Philippine artists. Perez Eustaquio’s work is a self-described “jungle of odds and ends.”
“I have always found it more interesting to smash together different forms and flavors of art, to see what kind of statements and equations such juxtapositions would spawn,” says Patricia Perez Eustaquio.
Pow Martinez:
At Frieze Seoul, Pow Martinez is showing new paintings that blend the mundanities of his everyday studio life on the banks of the notorious-for-flooding Marikina River with elements of pop culture. From films to music to famous imagery in art history, Martinez uses sights and sounds that resonate with him as starting points for his paintings. Just like his previous works, Martinez paints the world as he sees it, creating wildly expressionist visual treats. He continues to explore societal roles and consumption in contemporary culture. At Frieze Seoul, the artist shows paintings that poke fun at the exoticization of tribal cultures, usually by the “West.” Martinez explores primitivism alongside imagined tribal roles and their consumption in contemporary culture with a tongue-in-cheek, satirical edge.
The Armory Show | Booth #132
VIP Preview: September 8, 2022, Public Days: September 9-11, 2022
Presentations by Mit Jai Inn, Pow Martinez, and Maria Taniguchi
Mit Jai Inn: Excerpts from Patchworks
Mit Jai Inn, a widely respected senior artist known for his boundary-defying painting and socially engaged practices, will be presenting work from his series Patchworks. The artist’s paintings come to life in his Chiang Mai studio, where he creates vibrantly colored and textured works, encouraging an enhanced experience when viewed up close. At The Armory Show, he will be presenting excerpts from his series entitled Patchworks which began in 1999. This large-scale oil and pigment on ribbons woven piece references dystopian and utopian potentiality at the coming of a new millennium. Recent exhibitions include Mit Jai Inn, presented by APSARA Studio, Silverlens, and Ikon Gallery, London (2022); Dreamworld, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2021); AORA V, AORA Space (2021); Royal Marketplace, Rossi & Rossi, Hong Kong (2020); and The King And I, TKG+, Taipei (2020), and the upcoming Aichi Triennale, Japan (2022).
Pow Martinez: At The Armory Show, Pow Martinez presents three oil on canvas paintings featuring cliché characters, easily recognizable in the Western canon. In these situational portraits, the artist’s sitters find themselves at their most absurd. A gifted colorist and painter, his recent exhibitions include Underground Spiritual Unit, Galería Yusto/Giner, Madrid (2022); No Subtle Forces, Art Basel Hong Kong (2021); Sustainable Anxiety, Silverlens, Manila (2020); City Prince/sses, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2019); and Aesthetic Police, ROH Projects, Jakarta (2018).
Maria Taniguchi: “Untitled”
Maria Taniguchi’s practice investigates space and time, alongside historical and social contexts. The laborious and painstaking process seen in her “Untitled” brick paintings creates a subtle yet complex pattern on the surface –– an ongoing series since 2008. Taniguchi is a recipient of the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award in 2015. Her recent exhibitions are Art Histories of a Forever War: Modernism between Space and Home, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2022); room of phases, Silverlens, Manila (2021); Maria Taniguchi, Carlier | Gebauer, Berlin (2019); the 12th Gwangju Biennale: Imagined Borders, South Korea (2018); and the 21st Biennale of Sydney, SUPERPOSITION: Equilibrium & Engagement, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia (2018).
Frieze London
October 12-16, 2022
Presentation by Martha Atienza
Martha Atienza: Tigpanalipod (The Protectors) 11°02'06.4"N 123°36’24.1”E Antonio Dacomos Turib
Following the success of Atienza’s participation in the 2019 Honolulu Biennial and 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, the artist explores installation and video in her Frieze London presentation. Atienza asks, ‘Who owns the land? Who owns the sea?’. These are questions that persistently come to mind when working with communities across the Bantayan group of islands, north of Cebu. Her work, Tigpanalipod (The Protectors) 11°02'06.4"N 123°36’24.1”E Antonio Dacomos Turib, calls on the viewer to participate in the act of remembering. It shows Antonio, whose family came from the surrounding islands of Cebu and Negros a few generations ago, proudly standing on the fishing boat as a means of bringing light to longstanding issues of land ownership and class, as families like Antontio’s are currently being forced to relocate. Places such as Bantayan Island remind us that the act of remembering is essential to the continuation of cultural knowledge and being; our connections to places retain memories. Like the island of Mambacayao Dako featured in her work, places such as these are repositories of knowledge for oppressed people. Remembering in itself is a way to challenge a system designed to suppress.
