Manuel Ocampo

MANUEL OCAMPO (Quezon City, Philippines 1965).
"Virsicht Natur", ca. 1990's.
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 165 x 126 cm.
Manuel Ocampo developed in the nineties a subversive iconography, impregnated with sarcasm, in which he linked veiled comments on the colonial legacy of Catholicism in his native Philippines with U.S. imperialist policies. In this painting, ferocious jaws open up showing inside them crosses from Orthodox and Catholic churches, leaving little doubt about the underlying critique of the violence that has been inflicted on peoples in the name of religion. His comments are never literal, however, for they underlie many layers of reading. Enfant terrible of contemporary art, he would soon be claimed by museums and galleries around the world.
Manuel Ocampo is considered the most important Filipino artist today. His painting, labeled by the media as "devastating", "brutal" and "fierce", undergoes frequent strategic changes in response to new contexts and subjects of study, and is influenced by Punk and cartoons. He works mainly from his hometown, although he has also been based in other places such as California, Seville or Luxembourg. He has made numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally, highlighting: 2018, Yes, Sir/Ma'am! No, Sir/Ma'am! Right Away, Sir/Ma'am! at Tyler Rollins Fine Art (NYC); 2017, Oeuvres: 1994 - 2016, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris; 2017, Hello! Belle Peinture: Thinking of the Beginning of the End of the Death of Painting, Nosbaum Reding Art Contemporain, Luxembourg; 2016, The Corrections, Finale Art File, Makati, Philippines; or in 2016, Sweating the Green Parrot Out, Marie Kirkegaard Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark.