Oska Gutheil & Rodel Tapaya: A Tale of Two Cities

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Filipino artist Rodel Tapaya and German artist Oska Gutheil, for the first time, collaborate in a new exhibition at Tang Contemporary Art Hong Kong. The show, curated by Michela Sena and titled “A Tale of Two Cities,” showcases a selection of artworks inspired by the artists’ personal experiences of living in two different cultures: Tapaya in Manila and Gutheil in Berlin.

Together, the artists create a unique blend of cultural aesthetics that converges audiences from different backgrounds and nationalities. It demonstrates how art can bridge cultural divides and foster understanding among diverse communities. It also demonstrates the power of collaboration in the art world and how it can create new and exciting possibilities for both artists and audiences.

The exhibition highlights Tapaya’s signature style of combining traditional Philippine folklore with contemporary issues, as well as Gutheil’s focus on his inner world and the complexities of his visionary dimension.

For Oska Gutheil, his paintings question social norms within society and is primarily concerned with the construct that we call reality. Uniformity, failure, gender clichés and transformation play a decisive role in the often biographically inspired works. His works result in vibrant canvases with bold colors and textures, evoking a sense of movement and energy.

Rodel Tapaya instead is known for his large-scale paintings on canvas, which depict complex narratives inspired by his cultural heritage and personal experiences. His works often incorporate elements of Philippines mythology, folklore, traditional storytelling and contemporary social issues, and are characterized by their bright colors, intricate patterns, and layered symbolism.

Even through distinct stylistic approaches, Tapaya and Gutheil’s works harmonize to create a unique and stunning visual display when juxtaposed against each other. A fusion of traditional inspirations elaborated in a contemporary language, resulting in a modern and innovative art form.

Like A Tale of Two Cities, the show becomes a visual journey that explores the intersection of culture and artistic expression. The exhibition aims to prove how different contexts can meet in a smooth dialogue. In its complexity the show highlights the power and beauty of art in transcending cultural boundaries and creating a shared human experience. In fact, despite their different backgrounds and approaches, both Tapaya and Gutheil share a common interest in exploring human experiences and emotions through their art, and in challenging the boundaries between traditional and contemporary forms of expression.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

At the heart of Rodel Tapaya’s work is his ongoing amalgamation of folk narrative and contemporary reality within the framework of memory and history. Utilizing a range of media - from large acrylic on canvasses to the exploration of under-glass painting, traditional crafts, diorama, and drawing - Tapaya filters his observations of the world through folktales and pre-colonial historical research,  creating whimsical montages of his characters.
 
His work is held in the following museum and institutional collections: Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia, Tokyo Mori Art Museum, Singapore Art Museum, Philippines Bencab Museum, Philippines Ateneo Art Gallery, Philippines Pinto Art Museum, Central Bank of the Philippines. Rodel Tapaya was awarded the coveted Top Prize in the Nokia Art Awards, which allowed him to pursue intensive drawing and painting courses at Parsons School of Design in New York and the University of Helsinki in Finland. In 2011, he won a landmark achievement for a Filipino artist by winning the Signature Art Prize given by the Asia-Pacific Breweries Foundation and the Singapore Art Museum. He was also among the Thirteen Artists Awardee of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2012.

Typical of Oska Gutheil's figurative painting are the stylized, colorful compositions in which narrative comic aesthetics and expressive lines meet. In his varied series of works, Gutheil takes up topics such as gender, gender norms and existing uniformities in our society. Social projections, stereotypes, but also individual longings are deconstructed with relish and often with a lot of wit, dissolved and transformed into something new. Gutheil's pictures are populated by people, animal hybrids, dream creatures, and sometimes fairytale landscapes – humor but also the grotesque is omnipresent here. The absurd and the fantastic are combined with everyday phenomena.

Oska Gutheil has presented in numerous institutional solo shows, including the recent solo exhibitions: “Oska Gutheil 2022”, Kunstsammlung, Jena (Germany, 2022); “Övre”, Kunstraum Potsdam, (Germany, 2020); “ZWEI NULL ZWEI NULL”, Gallerie Krinzinger Schottenfeld, (Astria, 2020); “Fitz Fatz Peng”, Kunstverein Ulm, (Germany, 2017); His paintings were included in group exhibitions: “Why can’t we live together”, Kunstmuseum Marburg and Marburger Kunstverein, (Germany, 2022); “Fragmented bodies II”, Albertz Benda Gallery, (USA, 2021); “Time takes a Cigarette”, Josh Lilley Gallery, (UK, 2022); “Blow up”, ASU Artmuseum, (USA, 2016); “Taguchi Art Collection ”, Matsumoto City Museum of Art, (Japan, 2014).