Silverlens is delighted to return to S.E.A. Focus from 19 to 28 January 2024, featuring works by eight contemporary artists from the Philippines, its diaspora, and the Asia-Pacific region: Pio Abad, Poklong Anading, Nicole Coson, Taloi Havini, Bernardo Pacquing, Stephanie Syjuco, Ryan Villamael, and Yee I-Lann. S.E.A. Focus is the first in a series of global presentations by the gallery on its 20th anniversary.

Challenging the myth that the sociopolitical legacy of the Marcoses is one isolated to the Philippines, Pio Abad’s Thoughtful Gifts (2021) summon a transnational cast of characters that have either been in favor of, or weakened by the United States’ quest for empire and the perpetuation of its political mythologies. 

Running concurrently with SEA Focus is the group show Translations: Afro-Asian Poetics, featuring 100 artists from the African and Asian diaspora, including Abad, at The Institutum, Singapore.

In anonymity (2006 – 2011), one of the more iconic conceptual photographs of the past decade, Poklong Anading (b. 1975, Manila, Philippines) activates the idea of inter-dependence at the onset: subject—object—and light. The subject here, the person, bears an object, a mirror, which is held against their face and into the sunlight, producing a blinding glare that covers the holder’s identity. This iteration employs the use of lightboxes, extending the involvement of light beyond the photograph. 

Anading's anonymity is also on view at the Thailand Biennale in Chiang Rai through 30 April 2024, and at the Jimei x Arles International Photography Festival in Xiamen, China until 30 March 2024.

Nicole Coson (b. 1992, Manila, Philippines; lives and works in London, England) traces her history using a vessel of commerce: a transport crate, an object of utility common in Philippine trade. Coson prints with these crates, transforming them from a means to an end to an end in itself. Forming labyrinthian networks, these traces become circuitry burnt into canvas. Coson’s art speaks to the rich country of the Philippines while simultaneously holding a mirror to the now: the imprints of the past forming outlines of the present. 

Silverlens New York will present Coson’s solo debut exhibition in the United States in March.

Taloi Havini (b.1981, Arawa, Bougainville) created Reclamation collaboratively with her Hakö clan members. Underlying the wall-bound sculptures are questions about the ways in which we relate within temporal spaces; how borders are defined and claimed as well as the value of impermanence and embodied knowledge over fixed historical understandings. 

Havini is one of 10 artists shortlisted for the prestigious Artes Mundi prize and exhibition in Wales, with presentations at Mostyn, Llandudno and Chapter, Cardiff.

As a continuation of his Blossom series, Bernardo Pacquing (b. 1967, Tarlac, Philippines; lives and works in Singapore) will present three new oil paintings. For his previous works in 2016, Pacquing explored the different visual stages of a flower blossoming. Inspired by his interest in process art, a form that places significance on progression, Pacquing chooses to experiment here with gestural execution and a focus on movement and cadence. 

In June, the artist will present a solo exhibition at Silverlens Manila in time with the publication of his first artist monograph.

In Block Out the Sun (2021), Stephanie Syjuco (b. 1974, Manila, Philippines; lives and works in Oakland, California), responds to historical archives containing documentation of a faux Filipino village created for the 1904 World’s Fair. A newly-acquired colony of the United States, Filipino culture was showcased for the American public via a living “human zoo,” filled with 1200 imported “natives” performing dances and rituals. Over a century after the original photos were taken, Syjuco uses her body to intervene with the archive–both a temporary shield and a marker of defiance. 

Syjuco’s work is currently on view in the group exhibitions Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at The Edge of Visibility at the Guggenheim Museum, New York and Don’t Forget to Call Your Mother at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Her first artist monograph will be published in April by Radius Books, and her first solo exhibition at Silverlens Manila will open in August.

Seized in a vitrine, Ryan Villamael’s (b. 1987, Laguna; lives and works in Los Baños) Pulô series depicts an oasis of an island that safeguards a vision of an indigenous loci. Ryan Villamael often works with archival materials such as paper and old books, transforming them into cut paper with intricate designs. Coinciding with SEA Focus, Villamael’s Locus Amoenus (2017–2023), a site-specific installation consisting of intricately cut latticework from replicas of geographical maps, will occupy Esplanade Singapore, the country’s national performing arts center. First exhibited at the Singapore Biennale in 2016, Locus Amoenus has been shown in Shiga prefecture, Japan; Chiang Mai, Thailand, and; Manila, Philippines. 

Running concurrently with SEA Focus is Villamael’s solo exhibition Return, My Gracious Hour at Silverlens Manila.

Throughout the Southeast Asian region, all mother tongues have a different name for the mat.  Nevertheless, there is an unparalleled intimacy in the shared experience of the mat tied to everyday life and ritual. Regarding the woven mat as architectural and democratic, Yee I-Lann (b. 1971, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia) considers it a portal to story-telling and a way to discover and unroll other knowledges. 

The fair programme includes a panel discussion and book launch titled Collaboration and Community: Yee I-Lann, June Yap and Beverly Yong on 20 January, 2 – 3 PM, celebrating I-Lann's monograph the sun will rise in the east, which traces I-Lann's artistic journey from 2011 to 2023 through essays, conversations, and photographic documentation. There will be a book signing by the artist after the talk. Registration can be done at the S.E.A. Focus website.

A continuation of I-Lann’s ongoing TIKAR/MEJA series (2020–) will be on view at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive’s Art Wall from 24 January through July. This is followed by the opening of Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art at the Barbican London in February before traveling to Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam in September.