Manila Contemporary presents Joseph Tecson’s latest exhibition Over and Out that bring together the artist’s ongoing interests in aggression and alienation. Transforming the gallery into a theater of war, extreme images unfold of large-scale choppers, tanks, attack dogs, soldiers and gas masks. Expressionist in nature, these dark, confrontational forms are recognizable as both pop icons of conflict as well as symbols of personal angst and trauma. However, the pleasures of thickly applied paint, frenetic brushstrokes, and hints of neon color interrupt his brooding monochromes, replacing the specificities of war with the seduction of painting itself. Perhaps mirroring the artist’s personal experiences of incarceration and subsequent release, these new works reveal how acts of creation can help ease the mind from the burdens of the past.

Over and Out will be the last and final show of Manila Contemporary before the gallery ceases operations in March.

-Manila Contemporary