Ernest Concepcion

Ernest Concepcion is a Filipino painter based in Manila, Philippines, who combines the motif of classical landscape with contemporary caricatures and representations that take one into the framework of warfare while uncovering the effects of a larger 20th-century, Postwar existence. Concepcion began exploring this juxtaposition in a series of over 100 drawings from 2004 titled The Line Wars.  Within each 9 x 12-inch panel the artist covered the pictorial space with cartoon-like conflicts, portraying chairs flying toward each other, monster-like eggs smothering a massive army of Saint Benedicts, or pasta fighting against the quick-sands of rice.

In 2008 Concepcion’s vision of battlefield landscapes was realized on a much larger scale at the Kentler International Drawing Space where caricatures were tagged over landscapes and extended from floor to ceiling in the tall, narrow gallery space.  In 2009 the artist presented a series of explosion paintings that consisted of enamel on steel. Colors became the physical layers of each mushroom cloud and marked the artist’s shift further into the depths of conflicted horizon lines, away from caricatures.

He spent several years in Brooklyn, New York, where he participated in a number of art residences including The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Workspace Program, the Bronx Museum of Art Artists-in-the-Marketplace (AIM) Program, the Artists Alliance Inc. Rotating Studio Program, the Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency, the LMCC Swing Space Program at Governors Island and an artist residency in Beijing, China via NY Arts Magazine.

A graduate of the University of the Philippines Bachelor of Fine Arts, Concepcion has produced a significant body of work with a particular interest in experimentation in the fields of painting, sculpture, and installation. In 2011 he was both a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) finalist in the Drawing Category and a Nominee for the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. In 2012, he re-established his connections with some prominent Manila art galleries where he had two solo exhibitions, in West Gallery and Blanc Gallery respectively, and participated in a number of major group exhibitions including an artist feature at The Lopez Memorial Museum. In 2013, he participated at El Museo del Barrio’s La Bienal in New York and had a solo exhibition in Minneapolis before returning back to Manila to exhibit at Art Informal, Secret Fresh, and 1335Mabini Gallery. In 2014 he became a Light & Space Contemporary resident artist and held his first-ever solo museum exhibition at the UP Vargas Museum showcasing entirely new epic-scale works that not only marked a momentous return home for the artist but also became his ultimate artistic epiphany. He was given the prestigious 13 Artists Award by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in 2015. He divides his time as a full-time artist working between Manila and Brooklyn.

“Ernest Concepcion often works on large-scale canvases, creating crowded, action-packed, and paint-encrusted battlefields or strange lands with storied characters. Soldiers overlap on stained wildernesses. A solitary beast-man walks in a jungle — all of Concepcion’s paintings have something for us to decipher or clues to string into a narrative.

Concepcion himself is aware of his narrative style of painting or story-driven studio practice. And many of his works are brimming with a sense of conflict, of ruins, of storms, of the deluge, of invasions. It’s imagery and process that, according to Concepcion, resonates with a culture that feeds on the discord of its socio-political landscape. Inequality, unrest, disorder, and violence in our streets and halls of power seep into our popular culture. Meanwhile, hope is ushered in by our beliefs, the promises of faith, the mercy of the supernatural, or the confidence in one’s diligence and resourcefulness.

His imagery, however, is as much fed by what’s epic, sinister, heroic, gigantic, and otherworldly in the popular culture he consumes — comic books, toys, games, science fiction, and music. Salvation finds its equivalent in clues drawn in, a gallant cavalryman with an electric guitar, a mythical six-eyed wolf, a godlike mechanism, and lights in the distance.” – from Vintana .ph, 2020

Dex Fernandez

Artistic Background:

Dex Fernandez, from Quezon in Manila, is an illustrious contemporary artist from the Philippines. His creations are expressed in diverse forms such as paintings, mixed media, photographs, or mural paintings. Dex's creations were born from urban art. He began expressing his art mainly between 2007 and 2010, with graffiti on street walls or in subways, highlighting social problems and transgressing fixed cultural norms.

Dex mixes surrealism and pop culture in his art, developing a concept of artistic social therapy. His vintage posters mix local traditions with the creative freedom of a contemporary artist, antagonizing the past with the present within a progressive perspective. Dex had also used repurposed remnants from the disaster of Typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban, Leyte in 2016 to expose his art and help the affected victims. The same year, he exhibited his art at the Singapore Biennale with the title I Wander, I Wander. 

Dex enjoys assembling the microcosm and the macrocosm mind-world of the modern Filipino people. The main goal of his creations is to convey an accessible message of healing through the senses, transcending the inherited mind-blockages and daily problems of Filipino citizens. Dex's art is however not limited to the Philippines, as his creativity and unique initiatives of expression are outstanding, and make him a prominent figure spreading far in a global contemporary urban art perspective. Dex style is highly stylized with multiple layers of meanings. He associates different concepts and brings to light a third, unique message. From images and materials, Dex creates a new endless maze-like world of possibilities that take shape-staying truth to his unusual personal aesthetic concepts. 

Garapata Art:

Garapata is a new whimsical creative representation of a bizarre parallel world that resulted from some intertwined unusual life-insight experiences that grew up in Dex artistic mindset. It started as a childhood experience for Dex and involved pets and pests, giving birth to the concept of Garapata. When he was still a child, Dex used to own a dog, that unfortunately, became infested with ticks, or garapata as called in the Philippines. He tried to cure the dog from the garapatas, but the situation got worse. Soon, it was not just the dog who got infested, as the ticks multiplied, and found their way all around the house as they scattered and hid in different places. Dex began seeing them crawling in the living room, on the tables, making their way up to the curtains, and even on the television set. He and his siblings would spend hours catching the ticks, looking at the nooks and crannies of their home and at the dog’s fur. They would catch and drown them in gasoline but no matter how many they caught; it seemed that Dex and his sibling could not get rid of them all. They then left with no other choice but to give away the dog. His home became tick-free again but this experience left a big impression on Dex. This fascination manifested when he entered the world of graffiti. He thought, then that: “Why shouldn’t I infest different places with ticks by placing Garapata art everywhere?” Dex was trying then to continue the infestation the only way he knew, that is through public art.

Exhibitions:

Works of Dex Fernandez have been part of numerous local and international exhibitions, presenting his works in spaces such as UP Vargas Museum, Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Museum of Design and Contemporary Arts (MCAD), Pinto Art Museum, Drawing Room, Pablo Gallery, West Gallery, Finale and Silverlens in Manila, as well as Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Primo Marella Gallery in Italy, Topaz Arts in New York, Osage Foundation, Lightbomb Contemporary and Rossi & Rossi in Hong Kong, 1 am Gallery in San Francisco and Owen James Gallery in Brooklyn, NYC. Also participated in the first Urban Art Fair in Paris, (2016) and the Singapore Art Biennale 2016. He also completed residency programs at the following institutions: Vermont Studio Centre (2011), Ping Pong Art Space Taiwan (2012), Lir Art Space, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (2013) Asian Cultural Council, New York (2015), Art Center Ongoing, Tokyo (2016), Hidden South, Taiwan (2018) Fernandez is a recipient of 13 Artists Awards 2015, by Cultural Center of the Philippines. He is also known for his ongoing street art project called Garapata and he also collaborated with commercial brands mainstream and underground.

       Chung Nung    Calma Thian

Chung Nung is a renowned contemporary artist from Cauayan, Isabella in the Philippines. His works. Mainly made of bamboo, expresses the spirit of the jungle areas of his birthplace. His mind-blowing colored assembled sculptures made of local natural materials are giving life to the rivers, the mountains, the people, and the animals of Northern Luzon with a sensational result. Chung Nung is a “Mga Bagong Rizal” Awardee (National), an Outstanding “Isabelino” Awardee, and a Cauayan City Art Ambassador.