Buen Calubayan

Born 1980 in Lucena City, Philippines
Lives and works in Manila, Philippines

Buen Calubayan examines the contradictions found within the notion of Filipino identity through his own endeavors as an artist seeking self-validation. In his painting as well as in performances, sculptures, and conceptual pieces, he combines autobiographical material with canonical works, blurring the distinctions between personal and cultural histories.
He believes that personal conflicts can be seen as microcosms of the continuous struggle for autonomy that plagues his country, and that his search for the appropriate form to embody these ideas through art can also reflect a whole nation’s search for an inherent aesthetic taste.
Essentially, for Calubayan, thoughts should amount to actions, actions constitute objects, and objects be organized into new histories, thus eventually offering new opportunities for re-establishing the Filipino identity. He poses questions about his own in certain ways contradictory identity as an artist, who must do a mundane day job to earn his living and continue making art.

Education
2001   Master’s units in Cultural Heritage Studies, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Major in Advertising, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2015   Biowork, Ateneo Art Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
2014   Bionote, Blanc Gallery and Liongoren Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
Idiot Knows No Country, La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre, Bendigo, Australia
2013   Biography, Blanc Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
Spoliarium, Now Gallery, Makati City, Philippines
2012   Fressie Capulong, Blanc Peninsula, Makati City, Philippines
2008   Crawling Man™, 1/of Gallery, Taguig City, Philippines
2007   Idiot Show for Idiots, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Pasay City, Philippines
The Cubicle Art, Gallery, Pasig City, Philippines
Big Sky Mind, Quezon City, Philippines
TAO™, 1/of Gallery, Taguig City, Philippines

Selected Group Exhibitions
2014   Forces at Work, UP Vargas Museum, Quezon City, Philippines
Articles of Disagreement, LopezMemorial Museum, Pasig City,Philippines
The Mirror and Monitor of Democracy in Asia, Gwangju Museum of Art, Republic of Korea
2013  Ateneo Art Awards 2013: MarkingTime, Shangri-La Plaza and Ateneo Art Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
The Philippine Contemporary: To Scale the Past and the Possible, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Philippines
2012   INexactly THIS, Kunstvlaai – Festival of Independents, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2011   Touch Me, Hiraya Gallery, Manila,Philippines
2010   Zero In: Extensions, Lopez Memorial Museum, Pasig City, Philippines
2009   Thirteen Artists Awards, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Pasay City, Philippines
2008   Tablado, Boston Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
FoEM, Art Center – SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines
TutoK: Kargado , Ateneo Art Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
2007   TutoK: Nexus , Loyola House of Studies, Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City, Philippines

Buen Calubayan, Biowork - Mount Banahaw, 2015, oil on canvas, 121,92 × 152,4 cm, CALU0004 Buen Calubayan, Biowork - Mount Banahaw, 2015, oil on canvas, 121,92 × 152,4 cm, CALU0004

Exhibitions

A3 PRESENTS: WASAK! Filipino Art Today

December 8, 2015 – January 30, 2016

Opening | Saturday | December 5, 2015, 12 - 6 pm

A group exhibition curated by Norman Crisologo and Erwin Romulo across two locations in Berlin at:

ARNDT Berlin Potsdamer Strasse 96 (Tue - Sat, 11am - 6pm)

ARNDT ART AGENCY A3 Fasanenstrasse 28 NEW PREMISES (Wed - Sat, 12 - 6pm)

Exhibiting artists: Zean Cabangis, Annie Cabigting, Buen Calubayan, Louie Cordero, Jigger Cruz, Marina Cruz, Kawayan De Guia, Alfredo Esquillo, Ian Fabro, Nona Garcia, Robert Langenegger, Pow Martinez, Manuel Ocampo, Alwin Reamillo, Norberto Roldan, Kaloy Sanchez, José Santos III, Rodel Tapaya, Tatong Torres and Ronald Ventura.

A publication has been published by DISTANZ Verlag to accompany the exhibition.

View the complete publication HERE.

The underlying motivation of the exhibition and accompanying publication in Berlin is to shed light on the fascinating contemporary art landscape in the Philippines. WASAK! explores Filipino contemporary art, in the hope of providing an emblematic contextual compendium for western audiences. Signaling the first instance of its kind, WASAK! thus offers snapshots of current artistic practices from the Philippines, uniting a selection of its leading protagonists across generational lines, genres, and media.

All of the 19 participating artists included have witnessed the social and political upheaval of Philippines’ recent history. Most of these artists spent their maturation grappling with local events that have transpired such as: natural disasters like earthquakes and floods; political unrest in the form of coup d’état and calls to presidential impeachments; political ineptitude in the form of corruption and briberies; and longstanding bouts with poverty and urban overpopulation. This selection of artists have nurtured, or at least, directed their ideas into the reality that is Manila, the nation’s capital, from where most of the country’s bizarre undulations spring.

Although much of their work is inspired by their own localities, these artists continue to seek their place among the rest of the world. Through the jumble and mess of their own ground zero—which is a country of broken histories, a nation of lush influences, and a people constantly having to live despite of something—their art continued to become, individually, more diverse and yet collectively, as a single exploded view. ‘Wasak’ is a Filipino word that means “in ruins.” When used in the vernacular, it means “wrecked,” or as a more encouraging interjection—it can also mean “going for broke.” It is a term that signals a hazard.
In this field of scattered landscapes, of broken narratives and loose continuity, what then could be ascribed as Philippine Art? The artists represented in WASAK! have come from the different potholes this gap has created, which explains the varying degrees how their work tries to explain not only a locality, but their own place in art history.

In a 1979 essay, one of the most influential Filipino art critic, Leo Benesa, asked the question: “What is Philippine in Philippine Art?” Knowing how any kind of art from any other place cannot escape the influence of the Western canon, he settled with a more optimistic response in implying that the intention of the artist to paint well is what makes them Filipino: “Painters first, and bearers of message, second,” he concluded. The majority of the artists in the show have chosen painting as their primary medium, with a few exceptions that have dealt primarily with assemblage and sculpture. In looking at their paintings, trying to find out what special place they hold, we can follow Benesa’s prescription—to look at the form first, and then deal with the message later. To try to understand, before anything else, that their intention is to do something which is relevant for them, before handing out a prognosis that casts them as representatives of an aesthetic sensibility, a socio-historical period, or worse, a movement.

The 19 artists covered in WASAK! provide us with an opportunity to experience the different directions they have wandered into—a chance to view a small course of history that is finding its way into the arts.

ARNDT Berlin
Potsdamer Strasse 96
10785 Berlin
info@arndtberlin.com
+49 30 2061 3870

ARNDT ART AGENCY A3
Fasanenstrasse 28
10719 Berlin
contact@arndtartagency.com
+49 30 2061 3870

PRESS

Randian | WASAK! | 7 April, 2016

Coconuts Manila | There’s an exhibit of PH contemporary art in Berlin and it’s called…'Wasak' | 15 January 2016

Zitty Berlin | „Wasak!“ zeigt Bilder aus einem katholischen Asien | 14 January 2016

Art Radar | WASAK! Filipino Art Today at ARNDT Berlin | 12 January 2016

Kunst und Film | WASAK! Filipino Art Today | January 2016

Artsy | ARNDT Explores the Complexities of Filipino Art in New Berlin Gallery Space | 12 January 2016

Financial Times | The Art Market: All about agencies | 18 December 2015

Blouin artinfo | ARNDT Opens new Berlin Venue With Filipino Art Shows | 11 December 2015

Taz | Kunstraum | Land der Brüche - Kunst aus den Philippinen | 10 December 2015

Artnet | Arndt Gallery Opens New Upmarket Location in West Berlin | 3 December 2015

Inquirer | Filipino Art Exhibit WASAK! to open new gallery in Berlin  | 26 November 2015

Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015 Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015 Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015 Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015 Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015 Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015 Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015