Esquire Philippines' cover star for February, National Arts Month, is Manuel Ocampo.
Manuel Ocampo is a Filipino contemporary artist known for his thought-provoking and often controversial works that blend religious iconography, political narratives, and elements of punk subculture. His art often explores themes of colonialism, religion, and social issues, challenging conventional artistic boundaries and provoking dialogue through his unique visual language.
#EsquirePHVideo
#EsquirePHCover
#EsquirePHEvents
Manuel Ocampo is a Filipino contemporary artist known for his thought-provoking and often controversial works that blend religious iconography, political narratives, and elements of punk subculture. His art often explores themes of colonialism, religion, and social issues, challenging conventional artistic boundaries and provoking dialogue through his unique visual language.
#EsquirePHVideo
#EsquirePHCover
#EsquirePHEvents
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00You make the artwork, you know, you put your hours and sweat into it and then for a person
00:08to auction it off for a profit. It's like, it's really not about your art, it's about your brand.
00:15I think when an artist I truly admired wanted to do a collaboration with me,
00:32that's when I felt vindicated. As far as being vindicated by the public,
00:37I sometimes resisted, I rejected. There were two occasions when I felt that what I did was correct
00:48and I felt like I did something good. It was when Albert Uhlen, a German artist,
00:57wanted to do a collaboration with me and Schnabel invited me to his studio and gave me a painting.
01:07I don't think artworks are honest. I think when you're a young artist you keep it honest
01:18because you don't know the rules of the game yet, but as soon as you get into the system
01:26and you know how to play it, I don't think you're trying to hack the game to your advantage. So,
01:35I don't know, maybe what I see as honest is like naivety.
01:46After coming from the States, it was difficult but it was challenging at the same time and I felt
01:54like at the time the art scene was very open to a lot of possibilities. That's why I was able to
02:03do an exhibition with, a collaborative exhibition with Romeo Lee. The exhibition was called
02:10Lee Almighty. Me and Lee, I was supposed to make Lee into the star because Magnet,
02:20it was shown in Magnet Gallery because Magnet Gallery was in ABS-CBN where they make stars
02:26and I thought it would be a good idea to make Lee a star because Romeo Lee is very well known in the
02:34underground music scene. Why not make him into a star because he's not just any cardboard cutout
02:45celebrity. He's sort of the real deal and that's how I got involved in the Philippine art community.
02:56There's a lot more people buying art for investment. It doesn't come from the passion
03:06of collecting, it comes from playing the game. Being in on the game, it's sort of like a gamble.
03:15It's changed from art collecting to art buying now. Sometimes a collector will buy my painting
03:23in February in an art fair and then you'll see it in the auction house in September
03:28and the prices, yeah, would triple and you feel bad because you feel like you've been
03:36cheated because you think you make the artwork, you know, you put your hours and sweat into it
03:44and then for a person to auction it off for a profit, it's like it's really not about your art,
03:51it's about your brand and it sucks and that's what's happening in the
03:57in the art market right now because it's become such a business.
04:10I call myself more as an art organizer than a curator. It's hard to because I pick
04:19from my gut instinct. I think the more fringe, it depends on the artist, the more crazy the work
04:27looks, the better for me. I try to pick artists who are sort of like more fringe look,
04:36fringe work, whose works are more fringe and the fringe.
04:45Friend of mine, Paquito Bolino from France, recently showed me the work of Renzo Dizon.
04:53He's a tattooist but also a painter and also, yeah, there's some interesting artists like
05:02Aling Lucrecia. Yeah, I don't know if she's, yeah, I haven't met her. Yeah, a lot of the works that
05:11are being shown in Kalawakan art space, space time, Kalawakan and Pablo, San Paquito projects.
05:22Like I said, more like fringe. It's not Makati, BGC area artists. Yeah, I find some of the stuff
05:31they're showing more interesting.