BIOGRAPHY

RODEL TAPAYA
Date of Birth: July 10, 1980

At the heart of Rodel Tapaya’s work is his on-going amalgamation of folk narrative and contemporary reality within the framework of memory and history. Utilizing a range of media mainly in painting—from large acrylic on canvasses to an exploration of under-glass painting, traditional crafts, diorama, and drawing— Tapaya filters his observations of the world from existing texts of folktale and pre-colonial historical research to create often a whimsical montage of his characters. Each work has its origin in Tapaya’s own reflection of a particular time or place with an enduring resonance, from its correspondence with the formalistic and psychological implication of the grid in his earlier works – through often protracted ventures to excavate and interpret myth and folk aesthetics. Inherent in the work is the tension and parallelism between the objective investigations of art and the subjectivity of perception and experience, providing his work with an enigma that comes from the impossibility to paint a story and not show the inflections made by the painter’s hand.

Rodel Tapaya born in 1980 in Montalban, Philippines is one of the most active artists in Southeast Asia today, with solo exhibitions hosted in Berlin, Beijing, Singapore and Manila and notable inclusions in international art fairs and expositions. He broke out in the art scene by earning the coveted top prize in the Nokia Art Awards competed among artists in the Asia-Pacific region which allowed him to pursue intensive drawing and painting courses at Parsons School of Design in New York and from the University of Helsinki in Finland prior to graduating from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts.
He lives and works in Bulacan, Philippines.

CURRICULUM VITAE

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011 Visions of Lore Galerie Caprice Horn, Berlin
This Beast I Have Become, Y++ Gallery, Beijing

2010 Bulaklak ng Dila [Flowers of the Tongue], Vargas Museum, UP Campus Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Memory Landscapes, The Drawing Room, Makati City, Philippines

2009 Mythical Roots, SOKA ART Center, Beijing
Diorama, The Drawing Room, 1007 Metropolitan Ave., Makati City, Philippines

2008 Into the Forest, Utterly Art and The Drawing Room, 229A South Bridge Road Level 2, Singapore
FOLKgotten, The Drawing Room, 1007 Metropolitan Ave., Makati City, Philippines

2007 Perya, Boston Gallery, Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines
Mapapel, The Drawing Room, Makati City, Philippines

2006 Parables, Utterly Art and The Drawing Room 229A South Bridge Road Level 2, Singapore
Looban, Boston Gallery, Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines
Tauhan, Big and Small Art Co. Mandaluyong, Philippines

2005 Lunan, Boston Gallery, Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines
Recent paintings, Big and Small Art Co. Mandaluyong, Philippines

2004 Balangkas, Boston Gallery, Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2011 Emerging Asian Contemporary Part I, WADA Fine Arts, Tokyo
Bisa: Potent Presences, Metropolitan Museum, Philippines

2010 Simple Depictions Alliance Francaise de Manille, Makati City, Philippines
Looking Back, Ark Galerie, Jakarta, Indonesia withThe Drawing Room, Philippines

2009 Thrice Upon a Time: A Century of Story in the Art of the Philippines Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
Verso Manila, Verso Artecontemporanea with The Drawing Room, Turin Italy
SCOPE New York ’09, The Drawing Room, Lincoln Center, New York, USA

2008 SCOPE Miami ’08, The Drawing Room, Miami, Florida, USA
Showcase Singapore, Singapore
Hong Kong International Art Fair, Hong Kong
CIGE 2008 Beijing Art Fair, Beijing, China
Bridge Art Fair New York, New York, U.S.A.

2007 Art Singapore, The Drawing Room, Level 4 Suntec Building, Singapore

2006 New Directions, The Rotunda Gallery, Neilson Hays Library, 195 Surawong Road, Bangkok
Art Singapore, The Drawing Room, Level 6 Suntec Building, Singapore

2005 Figuras, Art center, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines

2004 Alay 8, Pinto Art Gallery, Antipolo City, Philippines
Configured Drawings, Cultural Center of the Philippines Pasilyo Guillermo Tolentino, Pasay City
Gamit, UP Vargas Museum, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Danas: Sinsin, CCP Small Gallery, Pasay City

2002 Toys, Ayala Museum, Ayala, Makati, Philippines

SELECTED AWARDS

2011 Asia Pacific Breweries Signature Art Prize Grand Winner Singapore

2011 Short-listed Ateneo Art Awards: Anatomy of Autonomy
2010 Short-listed Ateneo Art Awards: Shattering States
2007 Finalist for NCR Region, Philip Morris: Philippine Art Awards
2006 Short-listed Ateneo Art Awards: Outbound
2005 Short-listed, Ateneo Arts Awards
2003 One of the 50 semi-finalists, Philip Morris: Philippine Art Awards
2001 Grand Prize, Nokia: Arts Awards Asia Pacific (International level, held at Seoul Korea)
Semi-finalist, Metrobank: Young Painters’ Annual Art Competion
First place, Shell: National Students Art Competion (Oil/Acrylic Category)
Kahusayan sa Larangan ng Sining, Pagkilala ng UP (National and International level)
2000 One of the 5 finalists, Nokia: Arts Awards Asia Pacific
1999 Finalist, Shell: National Students Art Competion (watercolor category)

ARTIST RESIDENCY

March – April 2008 – Vermont Studio Center, Vermont, USA

EDUCATION

Intensive Studies, emphasis on drawing and painting, Parsons School of Design, New York City
Intensive Studies, emphasis on drawing and painting, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland
CFA, Major in Painting, College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines