Manuel Ocampo: An Arcane Recipe Involving Ingredients Cannibalized from the Reliquaries of Some Profane Illumination

September 16 – October 30, 2010

Press Release:

The most internationally active contemporary artist from the Philippines, Ocampo will present a solo exhibition at the gallery in September and October 2010, entitled An Arcane Recipe Involving Ingredients Cannibalized from the Reliquaries of Some Profane Illumination. The exhibition will feature new paintings and woodcut panels that blend traditional Christian iconography with secular and political narratives, creating cryptic allegories that are at once ironic and disturbing.

Ocampo has been an important voice on the international and Filipino scene since his first solo show in Los Angeles in 1988. He is known for fearlessly attacking the taboos and cherished icons of society and of the art world itself. Widely respected in Europe, Asia, and the US, he has been included in numerous exhibitions in museums and biennials around the world, including Documenta and the Venice Biennale. His exhibition with Tyler Rollins Fine Art marks his 60th solo show and his first in New York City in four years.

Describing the exhibition, Ocampo writes: “The theme that comes up again and again is of figures that connect to a sort of myth-induced stereotype, rendered iconic but bludgeoned into a farcical conceptual iconoclasm made absurd by its exaggerated impotence as a carrier of meaning or the esthetics of politics. The paintings are a comment on desire, as painting itself is an object accustomed to this wish of being desirous, yet in the series they have a knack of providing some difficulty to the viewer as the conventions of painting are dismantled to the point of ridicule.”

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