Filipino artist Victor Balanon generates artworks that are loyal in form, yet furtive in nature. Typically based on age old photographs - they recall or remember, existing as reconstructions rooted in our base cerebral archives. This time, as art critic Louis Ho writes, Victor Balanon’s images “are cerebral, citational, almost cryptic. He conjures up cinematic realms in smoky chiaroscuro, he reimagines art historical icons in unfamiliar forms. Pronouncedly postmodern, his work is composed of fragments; here are slivers and shards of other texts, other times, other worlds, conceived for the contemporary moment.” The exhibition is part of Balanon’s continuing Nameless Hundred series.
About the Artist:
Victor Balanon (born 1972, Manila, Philippines) started to study Dental Medicine at the University of the East in 1989. He left school however, a year short of finishing his studies, choosing to pursue and develop his interest in art. A self-taught artist, he has worked as an illustrator creating artworks for film, independent comics and underground music labels. He later studied film and animation at the Mowelfund Film Institute producing two animated short films as a result. During this time he has also created a self-published comic-book anthology and started working on his serialized pen and ink drawings. He was invited to be a part of the seminal late-90’s art space/collective Surrounded By Water, where some of the more prominent, contemporary artists of today have started their practice. He has participated in various groups shows ever since, both here and abroad, handling his time between his day job as a (hand-drawn) key animator and in producing his own art. Currently he is working on an on-going, long-term series of murals. He is self-taught in the visual arts and has started producing video art with animated content. A Somnambulist Manifesto is Victor Balanon’s second solo show at Artesan Gallery + Studio, Singapore. His works have also been collected by the Singapore Art Museum.
Image: © Victor Balanon, Artesan Gallery
