On its fifth year in Art Basel Hong Kong, Asia’s premier art fair, SILVERLENS is pleased to present a selection of artists the gallery represents and one guest artist whose work was most recently seen in the Philippine Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

On July 13, 2016, the warehouse facility that served as storage for Silverlens burned down. On this recent history, Silverlens presents Even if you kill me, portraits of power. Power is often held in numbers. For good measure, we gather two sets of artists – a hard quadrivium, and a soft trinity. 

The hard quadrivium. Manuel Ocampo, Gabriel Barredo, Norberto Roldan, and Pow Martinez. Four horsemen of the apocalypse: three powerhouse artists who have shaped the contemporary baroque in the region and one young irreverent, farcical, fantastic painter. Anchored by a large painting from 1992 by Manuel Ocampo (b. 1965, Manila), Porco Dio (Para Eso Habeis Nacido/Tanto Y Mas) of the devil beheading a kneeling skeleton against a landscape of a floating cross, the desert sun setting. Gabriel Barredo (b. 1957, Manila), with his flawless representation of reused material and amusing light and electric circuitries; but in fact, his work very severe. It is littered with details that remind us of the endless horrors and hypocrisies of life: hunger, war, death, decay. Norberto Roldan (b. 1953, Roxas City), through paintings and installations combining objects, text and imagery, explores issues ranging from collective memory to the balance of power in geopolitical encounters. Pow Martinez (b. 1983, Manila), a believer of painting, whose images range from improbable, cartoonish scenes executed in rough strokes to heavy impastos that near abstraction. Like Bosch and Breughel, these four continue art’s long tradition depicting the monstrous and the malign. In such acts, we are confronted with blade-sharp truths. We include YEE I-Lann (b. 1971, Kota Kinabalu) as the plus one in this group, with her Untitled (Self-Portrait). 

For Silverlens, we claim Even if you kill me, I do not die.

The soft trinity. Wawi Navarroza, Gregory Halili, and Chati Coronel. Three artists whose light touch and practices are rooted in the lush tropical. Anchored by large photographs from 2017 by Wawi Navarroza (b. 1979, Manila) from the marble island of Romblon. The dominant images are of labor, masculinity and hard stone; with ideas of lightness and immateriality just as important to consider. Gregory Halili (b. 1975, Manila), his miniature paintings of eyes on mother of pearl shells from Philippine seas creating memento moris. Chati Coronel (b. 1970, Manila), draws on the divine to make multilayered paintings of raw strokes, rough lines, and soft colors to arrive at a primal core. As Coronel wrote in 2009, “I thought about the simplicity and the magnitude of the history of my hand. And how all that history goes into each brushstroke. I blessed this painting with the power of all my ancestors. More importantly, with this painting I blessed all the hands that made mine.” We include Maria Taniguchi (b. 1981, Dumaguete City) into this as Trinity plus One. Her art practice alludes to “building skins”, using the brick, the simplest pattern in masonry. 

For Silverlens, we claim Even if you kill me, I live.

Gabriel Barredo’s (b. 1957, Manila) work is meant to create entire opuses. He builds them through months of bricolage, sketching and painting, elevating his sculptures to nearly theatrical lengths, immersive for the viewer, featuring numerous pieces both large and small, some of them simple drawings, others motorized, along with object-led side-narratives—with all of it accompanied by sound and light. The highly reclusive artist has pioneered kinetic sculpture in the Philippines and his work is included in many important collections. Most recently, the Singapore Art Museum acquired a large installation from his landmark exhibition Opera ( 2015, Manila and Singapore).

Chati Coronel (b. 1970, Manila) arrived at painting after completing a Degree in Architecture in 1991. She has since developed a distinct practice of deeply layering painted figures, using negative space to contain gestures and landscapes to explore human consciousness and spirit. Coronel had her first one-woman show at Manila's seminal artist-run space, Surrounded by Water, in 1999. She was the recipient of a grant for artist residency at The Vermont Studio Center in 2000 and was the first Filipino artist chosen to participate in the Florence Biennale in 2005. Coronel lives and works in Manila.

Gregory Halili (b. 1975, lives and works in Manila) carves and paints mother-of-pearl shells, creating memento moris.  Halili received his B.F.A. from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. His work focuses on the art of miniatures with interest in the notion and idea of memory, life, death, and cycle.  They have 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 Gallery in Makati City and Nancy Hoffman gallery in New York City. He is one of the Filipino artists presented in the Singapore Biennale 2016.

Pow Martinez (b. 1983, Manila) is a recipient of the Ateneo Art Awards for his 1 Billion Years exhibition at West Gallery, Philippines. He exhibits internationally and has worked with different media, including sound. His recent group exhibitions include the New York and Berlin editions of Bastards of Misrepresentation, Salvation on a Nest of Vipers in Melbourne, Australia, and Complete and Unabridged in Osage Gallery, Hong Kong. Martinez has also held a number of solo shows in major galleries in Manila, the most recent of which is Techno-Utopian in SILVERLENS.

Wawi Navarroza (b. 1979, Manila) is a photographer and multi-disciplinary artist from Manila, Philippines. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from De La Salle University, Manila and attended continuing education at the International Center of Photography, New York. In 2012, Navarroza completed her scholarship with an award from the Istituto Europeo di Design, Madrid under the program European Master of Fine Art Photography. Her work has been shown in institutions such as the National Museum of the Philippines, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery, Hangaram Art Museum in Seoul, National Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung (TW), and Fries Museum in the Netherlands, and is in the collection of the Central Bank of the Philippines, LUMI Photography in Helsinki, and private collectors worldwide.

Manuel Ocampo (b. 1965, Manila) paints images that boldly tackles taboo subjects through his depictions of haunting visions, representing a world that is nightmarish, populated by religious motifs and body parts.  By doing so, he explicitly exposes hidden wounds that pierce into contemporary social consciousness.   His work was recently included in the Philippine Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2017, marking his third presentation in Venice after 1993 and 2001. His participation in the shows Helter Skelter: LA Art in the 1990’s (Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 1992) and Documenta IX (1992) established his status in the art world.

Norberto Roldan (b. 1953, Capiz) took his BA in Philosophy at the St. Pius X Seminary, his BFA in Visual Communications at the University of Santo Tomas, and his MA in Art Studies at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He has represented the Philippines in various international exhibitions in the Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the USA, and in international symposia and conferences on independent art spaces and international cultural exchanges. He was represented in three landmark surveys of Southeast Asian contemporary art: Sunshower in 2017 by Mori Museum and National Art Center, Tokyo; New Art from Southeast Asia in 1992 by the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, and Negotiating Home History and Nation: Two Decades of Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia 1991–2011 by the Singapore Art Museum. He was also represented in the recent acquisition exhibit No Country: Contemporary Art For South/Southeast Asia at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Asia Society–Hong Kong, and the Center for Contemporary Art in Singapore. Roldan is currently the artistic director of Green Papaya Art Projects, an independent multidisciplinary platform founded in 2000, while practicing as a visual artist.

Maria Taniguchi (b. 1981, Dumaguete) won the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award in 2015 and was a LUX Associate Artist in 2009. Recent exhibitions include The Biennale of Sydney, The Art Show: Art of the New Millenium in the Taguchi Art Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan, History of a vanishing present: A prologue, the Mistake Room, Los Angeles (2016); Afterwork, Para Site, Hong Kong (2016); Globale: New sensorium, ZKM Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany (2016); The vexed contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila (2015); and the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, Brisbane (2015). Her work is held in a number of collections including the M+ Museum, Hong Kong; the Burger Collection, Hong Kong; Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco; QAGOMA, Brisbane; and the K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai.

Yee I-Lann (b. 1971, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysian Borneo) lives and works
in Kuala Lumpur. She graduated from the University of South Australia with a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) in 1993 with a major in photography and a minor in cinematography. Her primarily photomedia-based practice speculates on issues of culture, power and the role of historical memory in our social experience. Such layers necessitate an extensive and multi-layered visual vocabulary drawn from historical references, popular culture, archives and everyday objects. Yee also works as a production designer for feature films.   Her work has been exhibited in museums and international biennials. Recent exhibitions include Sunshower in 2017 by Mori Museum and National Art Center, Glorious, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, Yee I-Lann: 2005–2016 at Ayala Musuem, Manila (2016); Like the Banana Tree at the Gate, Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York (2016).