Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) Kuala Lumpur is proud to present celebrated young Filipino artist Bembol Dela Cruz first solo exhibition in Malaysia. Entitled Markings 1:16, the show will exhibit new oil on canvas paintings from Dela Cruz’s series of works representing tattooed subjects. This exhibition is in collaboration with Finale Art File, Philippines.

The exhibition derives its title from the term ‘1:16,’ which indicates the depth (in inches) of tattoos on skin: deliberately designed scars on the landscape of the human body. As a visual artist, Dela Cruz excels in both oil painting and skin art, often crossing the boundaries of both in his work. His paintings merge the realism of photographic representation and the physical sensuousness of living surfaces. Markings 1:16 reflects Dela Cruz’s continuing exploration of the tattoo as a subject of painting.

In 2010 in Singapore, for instance, he exhibited figurative paintings of subjects covered with tattoos, drawing attention to these images as symbols of defiance. The following year in 2011, he produced a series of tattoo designs produced using oil on leather: fragmented bodies of evidence and anatomic attestations of identity.

In this exhibition, Dela Cruz presents representations of people covered in tattoo art. Framed against the black backdrop of a studio with faces partially or entirely obscured from view, the subjects stand not as individual entities but as surfaces for the visual dance unfolding on skin.