Philippine painter and sculptor Louie Cordero furthers his penchant for ornamentation and the grotesque in new forms of colour and colour patterns in his solo show in Singapore. Digested via the high-pressured environment of contemporary Manila, the elusive crossings between the visual and commercial arts are propelled by an external eclectism. Here also, empty Suprematist space is churned into a vomit of horror vacui. Though crowded aesthetics have a tradition in Philippine art, Cordero’s traumatic forms emerge from whence the pollution and the visual sensory assault of urban life simmer deep within the psyche, and also conscious derivations from childhood things to interior design fads and ‘failed’ avant-garde art. In this series of work, narrative is eschewed in favour of bricolage and design. These follow a dynamic of mathematical construction and meltdown, of images and shapes multiplying and dividing unto themselves to conjure potentialities for associations.

-Richard Koh Fine Art

Image: © Louie Cordero