José Santos III

Born in 1970 in Manila, Philippines

Lives and works in Pasig City, Philippines

After cutting through a wall of his studio along with the closet in front of it, José Santos III chanced upon an entirely hidden visual composition. The resulting crevice revealed cross-sections of both closet and wall, and sparked Santos’s interest in the expansion of meaning able to be generated from what is normally concealed from one’s view. The subsequent work, the polyptych Clockwise (2012), stands as an homage to both an object’s containment and its progression through time. The twelve vertically oriented canvases are projected by the depth of their wooden frames. They approximate the cross-section of a closet cut into several parts. Like time capsules, they signify a different period, taking their cue from an analog clock’s segments. Mundane objects from both exterior and interior lives - from domestic routines that inhabit the memory or the hidden codes that dwell within the psyche - are painted with their corresponding accessories attached underneath, and in some cases across, the frames, demarcating the intervals that shape each day.
The idea of containment figures in most of Santos’s works, whether depicted in his paintings through the inclusion of receptacles—e.g. boxes, cans, drawers, and wooden crates – or in his installations that present actual objects wrapped in cloth. Santos’s inquiry into the notions of representation in art deals with the limiting power of its own subtext: “How do you represent what is hidden?” In a work called Hide & Seek (2014), he uses several fabric bags as vessels to hold particular objects. These bags, sealed with resin, are mounted to form rows against the gallery wall, while their contents remain completely hidden from our view. The ambiguity of such objects - an undoubted condition of something present, signified by the shapes formed through the bags which are both tactile and dense - reveals how the visual representation of an object can paradoxically reveal meaning by actually suppressing it.
Santos’s works serve as conveyors to our senses: carrying objects as luggage, which is enveloped and wrapped around a cluster of philosophical considerations that the artist has pursued. His representation of the visible world - one of his main concerns - comes full circle in a work called Paperweight 1 (2014). In this work, the image of a rock goes through a succession of transformations and configurations. It is photographed, printed on paper, mutilated, printed once again, and then concealed by the same image before it is finally painted. The final image becomes a loose consolidation derived from a single entity’s multiple incarnations. Through this, Santos presents a tautological condition of meaning. The tears and ruptures in the concealing print reveal the same object underneath. The whole process of self-reflexivity is finally synthesized through painting, while a small
fragment of the printed piece is also attached as an object. The extensive process that surrounds this piece demonstrates the artist’s propensity to seek meaning through de-familiarization. By breaking down the nature of representation through the combination of several copies of a very mundane object, José Santos III is able to suggest the way meaning permeates visible appearances: through the tears, cuts, cracks and cross-sections of sur- faces that are virtually negated by the desire to see through them.

Education

1997 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Major in Painting, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City,
Philippines

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2014 2hide, Pearl Lam Galleries, Singapore
2013   In Transition, BenCab Museum, Baguio City, Philippines
Confertum: Collecting Crowds, UP Vargas Museum, Quezon City, Philippines
2011   Sneak Peek, The Centro Iloco de Juan Luna Hall, Sitio Remedios, Ilocos Norte, Philippines
2009 {Un}common, Artinformal, Mandaluyong City, Philippines
2006   Insights, West Gallery, Mandaluyong City, Philippines
Journeys, Art Space, Singapore
Phases, Boston Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
2005   Times II, West Gallery, Mandaluyong City, Philippines
2004   Past Presented, Boston Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
2003   Perspectives, Boston Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
Orientations, West Gallery, Mandaluyong City, Philippines
2002   Paper Planes, Pinto Art Gallery, Antipolo City, Philippines
Acts, West Gallery, Makati City, Philippines
2001 Flat Land, West Gallery, Mandaluyong City, Philippines
Epeisodion, Boston Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
1999 Reflections, Boston Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
1995 Building Blocks, Boston Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines

Selected Group Exhibitions
2015   Off Site / Out of Sight, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
2013   Revealing Signs of the Present, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Philippines
2012 Imagining Identity: 100 Filipino Self-Portraits, Finale Art File, Makati City, Philippines
2011   Monumental, Manila Contemporary, Makati City, Philippines
2010   Crossover: Samtidskunst fram Filippinerne\Sydøstasien, Brøndsalen Exhibition Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark
Dekalogo, UP Vargas Museum, Quezon City, Philippines
2009   Figuring the Times: Philippine Paintings 1996–2009, Finale Art File, Makati City, Philippines
Pitik-Bulag Letra at Liwanag: A Celebration of Philippine Contemporary Art and Poetry, GSIS Museum, Pasay City, Philippines
2008   Silent Tension, TAKSU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2007   Beyond Borders II, Artspace, Singapore
2006   Emerging Fires, TAKSU Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2005   Portal Shifts, The Substation, Singapore
2003   11th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh, Bangladesh National Museum, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2001   16th Asian International Art Exhibition, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China
10th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh, Bangladesh National Museum, Dhaka, Bangladesh
2000   Thirteen Artists Awards, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Pasay City, Philippines
Kathang Kamay, Philippine
Center Gallery, New York, USA
1994   To Be or Not To Be: The Industrial Destruction of Nature, Goethe-Institut, Quezon City,
Philippines
1992   Karnabal, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Pasay City, Philippines
1991   3rd Baguio Arts Festival, Baguio Convention Center, Baguio City, Philippines

Selected Bibliography

2014   Abaya, Leo, and Kenneth Tay. 2hide. Exh. cat. Pearl Lam Galleries, Singapore.
Chan, Michele. “Hide and seek: Filipino artist Jose Santos III illuminates the ordinary – in pictures.” Art Radar, November 28. (Online)
2013   Bollansee, Marc. Southeast Asian Contemporary Art Now. Singapore. Flores, Patrick D. Revealing Signs of the Present: Philippine Paintings 2000–2012. A Selection from the Paulino Que Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Manila. Manila.
Yraola, Dayang. José Santos III: Confertum: Collecting Crowds. Exh. cat. UP Vargas Museum, Quezon City. Mandaluyong City. (Online)
2012   Flores, Patrick D. Imagining Identity: 100 Filipino Self-Portraits: A Selection from the Paulino Que Collection. Exh. cat. Finale Art File. Makati City.
José Santos III: Clockwise. Edited by Artinformal. Exh. pamphlet. Hong Kong International Art Fair. Manila. (Online)
2011   Flores, Patrick D., ed. Monumental. Exh. cat. Manila Contemporary. Makati City.
2010   Francisco, Francis, and Maria Chittyrene C. Labiran, eds. Without Walls: A Tour of Philippine Paintings at the Turn of the Millenium. Pasig City.
2009   Almario, Virgilio S., and Marne Kilates, eds. Pitik-bulag: Letra at liwanag: A Celebration of Contemporary Filipino Art & Poetry. Manila.
Espinola, Manny, et al. The Philippines Yearbook 2009: 61 Artists that that will Change the World. Manila.

José Santos III, Things we keep along the way, 2016, found objects in wooden casing , 9 x 190.5 x 20.5 cm each x 9 boxes

Exhibitions

A3 PRESENTS: WASAK! Filipino Art Today

December 8, 2015 – January 30, 2016

Opening | Saturday | December 5, 2015, 12 - 6 pm

A group exhibition curated by Norman Crisologo and Erwin Romulo across two locations in Berlin at:

ARNDT Berlin Potsdamer Strasse 96 (Tue - Sat, 11am - 6pm)

ARNDT ART AGENCY A3 Fasanenstrasse 28 NEW PREMISES (Wed - Sat, 12 - 6pm)

Exhibiting artists: Zean Cabangis, Annie Cabigting, Buen Calubayan, Louie Cordero, Jigger Cruz, Marina Cruz, Kawayan De Guia, Alfredo Esquillo, Ian Fabro, Nona Garcia, Robert Langenegger, Pow Martinez, Manuel Ocampo, Alwin Reamillo, Norberto Roldan, Kaloy Sanchez, José Santos III, Rodel Tapaya, Tatong Torres and Ronald Ventura.

A publication has been published by DISTANZ Verlag to accompany the exhibition.

View the complete publication HERE.

The underlying motivation of the exhibition and accompanying publication in Berlin is to shed light on the fascinating contemporary art landscape in the Philippines. WASAK! explores Filipino contemporary art, in the hope of providing an emblematic contextual compendium for western audiences. Signaling the first instance of its kind, WASAK! thus offers snapshots of current artistic practices from the Philippines, uniting a selection of its leading protagonists across generational lines, genres, and media.

All of the 19 participating artists included have witnessed the social and political upheaval of Philippines’ recent history. Most of these artists spent their maturation grappling with local events that have transpired such as: natural disasters like earthquakes and floods; political unrest in the form of coup d’état and calls to presidential impeachments; political ineptitude in the form of corruption and briberies; and longstanding bouts with poverty and urban overpopulation. This selection of artists have nurtured, or at least, directed their ideas into the reality that is Manila, the nation’s capital, from where most of the country’s bizarre undulations spring.

Although much of their work is inspired by their own localities, these artists continue to seek their place among the rest of the world. Through the jumble and mess of their own ground zero—which is a country of broken histories, a nation of lush influences, and a people constantly having to live despite of something—their art continued to become, individually, more diverse and yet collectively, as a single exploded view. ‘Wasak’ is a Filipino word that means “in ruins.” When used in the vernacular, it means “wrecked,” or as a more encouraging interjection—it can also mean “going for broke.” It is a term that signals a hazard.
In this field of scattered landscapes, of broken narratives and loose continuity, what then could be ascribed as Philippine Art? The artists represented in WASAK! have come from the different potholes this gap has created, which explains the varying degrees how their work tries to explain not only a locality, but their own place in art history.

In a 1979 essay, one of the most influential Filipino art critic, Leo Benesa, asked the question: “What is Philippine in Philippine Art?” Knowing how any kind of art from any other place cannot escape the influence of the Western canon, he settled with a more optimistic response in implying that the intention of the artist to paint well is what makes them Filipino: “Painters first, and bearers of message, second,” he concluded. The majority of the artists in the show have chosen painting as their primary medium, with a few exceptions that have dealt primarily with assemblage and sculpture. In looking at their paintings, trying to find out what special place they hold, we can follow Benesa’s prescription—to look at the form first, and then deal with the message later. To try to understand, before anything else, that their intention is to do something which is relevant for them, before handing out a prognosis that casts them as representatives of an aesthetic sensibility, a socio-historical period, or worse, a movement.

The 19 artists covered in WASAK! provide us with an opportunity to experience the different directions they have wandered into—a chance to view a small course of history that is finding its way into the arts.

ARNDT Berlin
Potsdamer Strasse 96
10785 Berlin
info@arndtberlin.com
+49 30 2061 3870

ARNDT ART AGENCY A3
Fasanenstrasse 28
10719 Berlin
contact@arndtartagency.com
+49 30 2061 3870

PRESS

Randian | WASAK! | 7 April, 2016

Coconuts Manila | There’s an exhibit of PH contemporary art in Berlin and it’s called…'Wasak' | 15 January 2016

Zitty Berlin | „Wasak!“ zeigt Bilder aus einem katholischen Asien | 14 January 2016

Art Radar | WASAK! Filipino Art Today at ARNDT Berlin | 12 January 2016

Kunst und Film | WASAK! Filipino Art Today | January 2016

Artsy | ARNDT Explores the Complexities of Filipino Art in New Berlin Gallery Space | 12 January 2016

Financial Times | The Art Market: All about agencies | 18 December 2015

Blouin artinfo | ARNDT Opens new Berlin Venue With Filipino Art Shows | 11 December 2015

Taz | Kunstraum | Land der Brüche - Kunst aus den Philippinen | 10 December 2015