Daniel Coquilla
DANIEL COQUILLA’s VIEW FROM THE TOP
opening
WEDNESDAY 23rd APR 2008 7 pm
Utterly Art Exhibition Space (above Teck Soon Medical Hall,
opposite the Sri Mariamman Temple , Pagoda St Exit)
229A South Bridge Road (2nd Level) Singapore 058778
Tel: 6226 2605 E-mail: utterlyart@pacific. net.sg
Mon-Sat 12 noon - 8 pm Sun 12 noon - 5.30 pm
The exhibition runs to SUNDAY 4th MAY2008 .
Living in Amorsolo and Krus na Ligas within the University of the Philippines campus vicinity for more than ten years, Daniel Coquilla’s busy neighbourhood has become the artist’s unlikely haven for painting. His home, set amidst the frenzy of small businesses and neighbors with unusual and fascinating lifestyles, provides the images and subjects for his art.
His signature bird’s eye view of his environs offers a panoramic vista of popular cultural landscapes. Vendors hawking religious effigies or sunglasses, or repairing watches; pastimes such as throwing darts, playing cards or exercising in the street gym. Several paintings depict the food culture in the Philippines , which could pass for a Fear Factor challenge. It shows the creativity and boldness of Filipinos in bringing out outrageous new flavors from ordinary ingredients - in taste, in presentation and oddly enough, in place of commerce, such as on the top of an overpass.
The setting and characters are real and his neighbors are more than willing subjects of his paintings. They are aware that these works will constitute his first international show and they fancy that this is their vicarious way of a foreign exposure. In a country where one-tenth of its people live and work overseas, Coquilla proudly embraces the idiosyncrasies of his locality. Thus, even as he widens in his artistic circle, his subject core remains the quirky Pinoy!
Daniel “Dansoy” Coquilla (born 1970, Panabo City, Davao del Norte) majored in painting at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Fine Arts, where he also received the UP Gawad Chanselor para sa Sining Biswal in 1998. He was a Juror’s Choice awardee in the Philip Morris ASEAN Art Awards, a Grand Prize and a Juror’s Choice winner in AAP Competitions, as well as a finalist in the Metrobank and Shell National Painting Competitions. He was likewise a Philippine representative in the Windsor & Newton World-Wide Millenium Painting Competition. In 2006, he was made a Thirteen Artists Awardee by the Cultural Centre of the Philippines . View From the Top is his first overseas solo exhibition and his fourteenth overall.
i got this one from our yahoo groups. he’s a brod and i can never be more than proud! In HBST!
