Silverlens proudly announces The Carbon Footprint of the Stoic Heroic, a solo exhibition by Jose Tence Ruiz showcasing mixed media works and self-portraits from the late 1970s alongside new works on canvas, a large installation that spans almost the entire large gallery space, and another depicting the artist’s body in the small gallery. The exhibition opens 17 October in Silverlens Manila, with an opening reception from 4 to 6 pm.
With an artistic practice that spans over 50 years, Jose Tence Ruiz is a foremost practitioner of the Philippine social realist movement. Whether as a painter or a political cartoonist, Tence Ruiz’s approach has been defined by a contempt for the cruelties and hypocrisies of Philippine society and a deep respect for the struggles of ordinary people. In 2015, his large-scale installation Shoal was exhibited in the Philippine Pavilion: “Tie A String Around the World,” at the 56th Venice Biennale. This marked the Philippines’ return to the prestigious biennial after a 51-year absence.
Jose Tence Ruiz (detail), ‘Carbon Footprint of the Stoic Heroic,’ 2024
In The Carbon Footprint of the Stoic Heroic, Tence Ruiz reappropriates religious iconography and Mondrian’s geometric abstractions to produce new visual metaphors for his current thematic preoccupations: disillusionment, genocide, and the death of utopia. There is a total of nine new works in the show, the centerpiece of which is a large mixed media installation of a baptismal font encircled by a circular queue of several hundred empty water containers, resembling a living rosary and evoking a perverse litany. The painting after which the show is titled, in addition to three others, utilizes Mondrian’s visual language to symbolize the degradation of utopia and the disillusionment that has haunted the artist in a time of genocide.
In the smaller gallery is a series of self-portraits, four of which were produced in the ‘70s and ‘80s, that culminate in a new installation of the artist’s body modeled in resin, reclining in a massage chair and drowning underneath a mass of black cable wires, illustrating the tragic inertia of life in the digital age and demonstrating the ability to turn sharp social commentary into striking visual metaphor that has served Tence Ruiz for the last 50 years.
The Carbon Footprint of the Stoic Heroic will be on view from 17 October through 16 November 2024 at Silverlens Manila. Join us for an opening reception on 17 October from 4 to 6 pm.
Jose Tence Ruiz (detail), ‘My Heart will GUO On,’ 2024
Jose Tence Ruiz took two courses at the University of Santo Tomas College of Fine Arts and Architecture, enrolling in BFA Advertising in 1973 and graduating with honors with a BFA in Painting in 1979. He was Editor-in- Chief of Vision Magazine in 1976. He has since been involved in multimedia visual activities such as set design, publication design, book illustration, media presentations, teaching, editorial illustration, painting, art for advocacy, sculpture, installation, and autonomous action art. He is an Araw ng Maynila Awardee for New Media (2003), a five-time AAP Award Winner (1979–2005), and the first Filipino to win the Bratislava Biennial Award for Children’s Book illustration in what was then Czechoslovakia (1982). He has been invited to the Cagnes-Sur-Mer Exhibition in France (1981), The 2nd Asia-Pacific Triennial for Contemporary Art in Brisbane, Australia (1996), The Havana Biennial in Cuba (2000), The Kwangju Biennial in Korea (1999), as well as the preparatory commission for the 1st Singapore Biennial (2004). His work from the ‘70s and the ‘80s was featured in Telah Terbit: Asean Art of the 70s, one of the major exhibitions within the 2006 Singapore Biennial. He was part of a curatorial project representing the Philippines at the 2015 Venice Biennial (56th Biennale de Venezia).
Tence Ruiz did editorial illustrations for many Manila-based publications (Adarna Books, The Review, Who?, National Midweek, Business Page, The Manila Times, Philippine Panorama, The Manila Chronicle, Public Policy) as well as The Singapore Straits Times and InterPressService Asia-Pacific, which served Manila, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and Singapore (1977–2004). He currently works as a multimedia artist and an independent writer/consultant/curator for such institutions as the Cultural Center of the Philippines, The National Commission for Culture and the Arts, The Pasig City Arts Museum, Neo-Angono Collective, Pananaw ng Sining Bayan, and The Ateneo Art Gallery.
