Marina Cruz

Born 1982 in Bulacan, Philippines
Lives and works in Bulacan, Philippines

Painted dresses, magnified from a certain spot and rendered in detail, call for a formalist mode of interpretation. In the hands of Marina Cruz, they undergo a process of sublime composition to produce an effect similar to minimalist abstraction. The patterns found in each textile - whether checkered, dotted, lace-patterned, or pinstriped - recall the works of abstractionists who focused on to the interaction between colors and shapes. The folds and creases of each dress create a particular kind of texture, similar to the mannered strokes and painterly surfaces perpetuated by formalists. Unexpected details such as threadbare hems or blotchy stains adds further vitality to the overall composition, while buttons, holes, tears, and armies of seams complete the story.
The clothes that Cruz paints are part of a deeper fabric of remembering forgotten family narratives: her chance encounter with a heap of family heirlooms, and discovering the small dresses that her mother and her mother’s twin sister wore as children, which left a lasting impression on her. The damaged, brittle condition of the tiny dresses opened up a remarkable world from the past able to be codified through such objects. From then on, Cruz began to unearth more than a hundred dresses made by her grandmother for her mother and aunt. She proceeded to paint them, embroider them, cast them in resin, and use them in installations and videos for exhibitions. For her, they served as a family archive, through which the unspoken lives and histories of an earlier generation were embedded.
Through these paintings, Marina Cruz has continually explored an essential trait found within the region: the valued continuum that proceeds from close family ties among succeeding generations. Through her art, she is able to transpose the activity of one generation to the next: her grandmother’s dress- making, her mother’s fittings, and her own activity of painting. This closed cycle of familial undertakings, carefully pieced together and sympathetically presented by Cruz, has become rare in a world that has developed the propensity to reach outward rather than inward, due to the globalizing technologies.

CV

Education

Bachelor of Fine Arts Major in Painting, Best Thesis and Cum Laude
College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines


Selected Solo Exhibitions

2015   Wear and Tear, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan
Meditations on Unearthed Terrain, West Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
2014   Fabric Skin, Artinformal, Mandaluyong City, Philippines
2013   Flower Arrangements, Finale Art File, Makati City, Philippines, Lost Finds, Artesan Gallery + Studio, Raffles Arcade, Singapore
2012   Corners of My Sleep, Artinformal, Mandaluyong City, Philippines
  In the House of Memory, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei
                        Inside | Out, BENCAB Museum, Baguio City
2011   Forget me not, West Gallery, Manila
2009   Spontaneous Moments, The Drawing Room, Manila
Un/Fold, Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila
Home is the place that you will leave, The Drawing Room at CIGE China International Gallery Exposition
2008   Open House, The Drawing Room, Manila
Embroidered Landscapes, Main Gallery, La Trobe Visual Arts Center, Australia
Lest you forget, Boston Gallery, Manila
Resollections, Art Informal, Manila
2005   Kambal, Boston Gallery, Manila


Selected Group Exhibitions

2015  WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, Germany
2014   Woman-Home: In the Name of Asian Female Artists, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan
2013   The Philippine Contemporary: To Scale the Past and the Possible, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Philippines
2011   BISA: Potent Presences, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila
2010   Simple Depictions, Total Gallery, Alliance Francaise de Manille
Looking Back, Drawing Room and Ark Galerie, Jakarta
2009   Daloy Exhibition at CCP Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila
Cloud Cuckoo Land, Boston Gallery, Manila
2008   Sentimental Value, SOKA Contemporary Art Exhibition and The Drawing Room, Beijing
Uncommon Grounds, West Gallery, Manila
Strange Familiarities, Familiar Strangers, Alliance Francaise de Manille
2007   Sungduan 4: Extensions, Museum of Three Cultures, Capitol University, Manila
Tampu+Lapuk: Contributions to Teracotta, 2nd Dumaguete Teracotta Bienale, Dumaguete
2006   A/P: Analogue Playground, Ateneo Art Gallery, Ateneo de Manila University, Manila
2005   Armour, Corredor Gallery, UP College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines, Manila
2004   Babaylan@Kasibulan.net, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila
Gamit, The Edge, Up Jorge Vargas Museum, University of the Philippines, Manila
2003   Buod: Celebration of the Year of the Family,  NCCA National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Manila
2002   Trap Doors False Buttons, West Gallery, Manila
Toys, Ayala Museum, Makati City, Philippines

Marina Cruz, Plain with Stains, 2016, oil on canvas, 106,68 × 60,96 cm, MCRU0006 Marina Cruz, Plain with Stains, 2016, oil on canvas, 106,68 × 60,96 cm, MCRU0006

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
"WASAK! Reloaded", installation view at ARNDT Fine Art, Singapore "WASAK! Reloaded", installation view at ARNDT Fine Art, Singapore

WASAK! Reloaded

Group Exhibition of Filipino Art Today

27 August - 8 October 2016

Opening | Saturday | August 27, 2016, 12 - 5 pm | ARNDT Fine Art, Singapore 

WASAK! Reloaded  is a group exhibition exploring the Filipino contemporary art landscape and is accompanied by a major hard copy publication WASAK! Filipino Art Today published by European publisher DISTANZ Verlag. The show is a continuation of the well-received group exhibition presented in Berlin in 2015, and will travel to Gazelli Art House in London in 2017.

Exhibiting artists include: Zean Cabangis, Louie Cordero, Jigger Cruz, Marina Cruz, Kawayan De Guia, Alfredo Esquillo, Ian Fabro, Robert Langenegger, Jason Montinola, Pow Martinez, Manuel Ocampo, Norberto Roldan, Kaloy Sanchez, Rodel Tapaya and Ronald Ventura.

The underlying motivation of WASAK! and its accompanying publication is to shed light on the fascinating contemporary art currently being produced in the Philippines. By offering an overview of Filipino contemporary art, WASAK!  aims to provide an emblematic contextual compendium. Uniting a selection of leading protagonists across generational lines, genres, and media, the exhibition presents snapshots of current artistic practices from the Philippines.

The 17 participating artists 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 the artists´ 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.

The 17 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.

Press Contact:
Pey Chuan Tan
peychuan@arndtfineart.com
+65 9111 3203

Venue:
ARNDT Fine Art Pte Ltd
Gillman Barracks
47 Malan Road #01-25
Singapore 109444
Tel. +65 67340775
Opening hours: Tues - Sat 11am- 7pm, and by appointment

Press:
Blouin ARTINFO | Filipino Artists Present "WASAK! Reloaded" at ARNDT Fine Art | July 21, 2016

Blouin Art Info | Filipino Artists Present ‘WASAK! Reloaded’ at ARNDT Fine Art | July 21, 2016