Re-evolve in Purgatory

OPENING:
Saturday, June 6, 2015, 6 pm

EXHIBITION DATA:
June 6 to July 3, 2015


1335MABINI proudly presents 13 Artists Awardee Ernest Concepcion in a solo exhibition titled "Re-evolve in Purgatory" from June 6 to July 3, 2015.

Re-evolve in Purgatory directs us to the artist's current attitude towards a medium he has used for years. Ernest Concepcion, recently named by the Cultural Center of the Philippines as one of the recipients of the Thirteen Artists Awards, introduces his new works through a recording of the evolution of his new processes that consist of highly textured paintings where the materials are seen in a more tangible mode of experimentation.

The works in the exhibition all possess the quality of letting the paint drip wherever it wants, the artist describing this as something akin to having a balance between control and giving up on control. This relates to Concepcion's study of the idea of conflict that he explored in his past ink drawings, particularly The Line Wars, as he hopes to present suggestions on how to further examine this within a purely visual context.

Whereas the artist depicted representations of fictional battlefields in his past paintings, he now chooses to 'sculpt war-torn landscapes' on the surfaces of his works before drawing and painting on them. This emphasis on the physicality of form mirrors his way of producing paintings that play with the idea of creation with less calculation, thereby coming up with a habit of working without being obsessive about the final look of his work; in his words, like terraforming a planet before sending out the rivers. This rawness reflects a degree of playfulness that situates the artist in a state of rough experimentation, attempting to re-evaluate the manner in which the activity of painting is experienced.

His process is a revival of the different materials and images he has familiarity with, and this bridges Concepcion's experience with the visual to the mythical; he also compares his exhibitions to music albums, seemingly aware that each undertaking requires a newness that must identify with the demands of the individual's present.