NEW YORK, NY.- Silverlens New York is kicking off 2024 with a solo exhibition by Filipina artist Wawi Navarroza, a leading figure in contemporary Southeast Asian art. The show marks Navarroza’s first-ever solo exhibition in the United States after more than a quarter-century of photography practice. The Other Shore will be on view from January 11, 2024 to March 2, 2024.

Born in Manila and moving between Manila, Madrid, and Istanbul, Navarroza is known for her large-format photographic tableaus and self-portraits. Her exhibition at Silverlens New York chronicles her work from 2019 to 2023, and invites new audiences into her expansive worldbuilding, where language is replaced by a vivid and opulent lexicon consisting of objects, place and cross-cultural exchange.

Examining the duality of worlds in the East and West, the individual and the collective, and personal identity and experience, Navarroza documents cycles of change, lineage, and transfiguration. Anchoring her exploration in folk memory, she delves into concepts of shame, superiority, and the provincial to unlearn and reclaim a legacy of Oriental art from various Asias, spanning Anatolia to the Pacific, and including Ottoman, Persian, and Indian art. Incorporated within her work are traces of the Philippines' post-colonial past, a history inherently linked to Hispanic culture, and exhibited in the prevailing Catholic iconographies and use of 'fiesta' colors. Drawing inspiration from Chinese screens, Japanese ukiyo-e, Thai Buddhist murals, and thangka painting from Bhutan, she creates an opulence of symbolism, mystery, and meaning.

The body of work featured in The Other Shore illustrates Navarroza's artistic evolution, moving from a phase characterized by exclusively monochromatic and austere tones to her current, heightened practice defined by the embrace of vibrant, tropical hues. This transformative shift was brought about by a series of misfortunes and dramatic changes, which the artist vanquished and transfigured into art. A pivotal chapter in New York, defined by Navarroza’s critical questioning surrounding her chosen medium during her Asian Cultural Council fellowship and continuing education at the International Center of Photography, ultimately culminated in a triumphant return, marked by a vibrant reengagement evident in spirited, dynamic, and daring polychromatic works.

Featuring a series of bricolage self-portraits that explore the intimate connection between women, reproduction, and the enduring essence of art, Navarroza employs an ornate and multi-layered aesthetic within a controlled studio setting. Integrating lens-work, photographic lighting, and the deliberate arrangement of objects, her work illuminates the peaks and valleys of the female experience, creating a portrait of Woman and her threshold of a thousand rebirths. Portraits in the series such as "Tropical Gothic" and "As Wild As We Come" were meticulously crafted through years of travel between the Philippines, Spain, Türkiye and numerous other countries. As a result, these works serve as a catalog of years marked by celebrations, transformations, and rebirth.

Throughout a lifetime of practice, Navarroza has employed her corporeal form as an artistic medium. Through her artwork, she elevates the portrayal of women beyond mere material creators, positioning them as inherent, innate forces within both art and the world.

Co-presented by Silverlens and Arc Gin, a conversation between Navarroza and Christopher Y. Lew will be held on Saturday, January 20, starting at 1pm.

To coincide with Wawi Navarroza: The Other Shore; Silverlens New York will present a collection of new miniature paintings on capiz shells by Gregory Halili in the Viewing Room.

Miniatures, a form of secular art with a longstanding history in the Middle East, have been a significant decorative element frequently employed in medieval manuscripts. In the Philippines, the popularity of capiz shells can be traced back to the first Tagalog language dictionary, authored in 1860. Within it, the entry for capiz describes them as la ventana or "window," highlighting their use as cut and processed shells that allow light to filter through.

In this series of miniature oil paintings, Halili pushes the material to its most fragile state, almost to the point of breaking. The capiz shells are delicately thinned down to a glass-like quality, enabling the paintings of butterflies and moths on the reverse to be visible from the other side. Halili explains, "What may initially appear as simple, beautiful works of butterflies and moths are, in fact, a commentary on the complex, fragile state of the environment and the unpredictable future."

WAWI NAVARROZA

Wawi Navarroza (b. 1979, Manila, Philippines) is a Filipina lens-based artist. Recognized as one of the foremost names in contemporary Southeast Asian art, she is known for her vibrant large format photographic tableaus and self-portraits which allude to the hybridity of identity, photography, and place.

Born in Manila, with higher education in the West, and moving between Madrid and Istanbul, Navarroza draws upon her transnational experiences to create in-studio collages using a variety of materials, mise en scène, and herself. Informed by tropicality within the context of post-colonial dialogue and globalization, and conscious of her role as a female artist, Navarroza employs her corporeal form as an artistic medium. Her body of work serves as a testament to the various facets and stages of the women's narrative, portraying woman as creator.

Navarroza’s scenes and depictions emphasize the often overlooked power of symbolic allegory, folk memory, and imaginations of the exoticized “East” to create a rich visual lexicon of criss-crossing references and riddles. She champions textiles, ornament, domestic décor, the handmade, the mass-produced, the high-low, the vernacular and indigenous, as well as the cosmopolitan and the worldly. Captivated by the in-between, Navarroza blends the edges to define her signature tropical gothic.

Navarroza has received a number of awards such as the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship Grant New York, Lucas Artists Fellowship Award for Visual Arts San Francisco, Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Awards, Ateneo Art Awards, Lumi Photographic Art Awards Helsinki, and a finalist for Singapore Museum Signature Art Prize, WMA Commission Hong Kong and Sovereign Asian Art Prize. Her work has been exhibited in museums internationally including the the National Museum of the Philippines, National Gallery Singapore, Hangaram Museum (Korea), National Museum of Fine Arts (Taiwan), Yogyakarta National Museum (Indonesia), Fries Museum of Contemporary Art & Museum Belvedere (Netherlands), Danubiana Museum (Slovakia), and in galleries in Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, London, Spain, Italy, and Russia.

Wawi Navarroza is represented by Silverlens and Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery.

GREGORY HALILI

Gregory Halili (b. 1975, Manila, Philippines; lives and works in Cavite, Philippines) is an artist specializing in the intricate art of miniatures. He meticulously carves and paints mother-of-pearl shells, creating momento moris that contemplate concepts of memory, life, death, and cycles. Recently, he has broadened his practice to include miniature oil paintings. Transforming capiz shells into canvases, he delicately presses them to their most fragile state, nearly reaching the point of breaking. These thinned-down, glass-like pieces, featuring doubled-sided paintings of flora and fauna, offer a reflection on the intricate and fragile state of both the environment and future. After 25 years in the United States, he returned to the Philippines in 2013.

His work has appeared in numerous exhibitions and shows, including the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin; The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; The Hammond Museum and Sculpture Garden in Salem, New York; Ayala Museum in Makati City; Jorge B. Vargas Museum at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City; West Gallery in Quezon City; Silverlens in Makati City and Nancy Hoffman gallery in New York City. In 2016, Halili presented at the Singapore Biennale. Halili received his B.F.A. from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

CHRISTOPHER Y. LEW

Christopher Y. Lew is founder of C/O: Curatorial Office, a curatorial consulting firm. Lew has over fifteen years of experience working at American museums and arts nonprofits. He had been the founding Chief Artistic Director at Horizon Art Foundation and Outland Art and is also a former curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art where he oversaw the emerging artist program and was co-curator of the 2017 Whitney Biennial. At the Whitney, he organized numerous exhibitions including Josh Kline: Project for a New American Century (2023), Salman Toor: How Will I Know (2020), Pope.L: Choir (2019), Kevin Beasley: A view of a landscape (2018), Eckhaus Latta: Possessed (2018) and mounted the first US solo exhibitions for Sophia Al-Maria, Rachel Rose, and Jared Madere. Prior to joining the Whitney, he was assistant curator at MoMA PS1 and organized many exhibitions there. Lew has contributed to several publications including Art AsiaPacific, Art Journal, Bomb, Huffington Post, and Mousse.