As a first generation Filipino-American I grew up as the son of a single mother working in the military. As a result of that formative experience, I have been instilled with a unique perspective on the contemporary multicultural landscape. My early experience consisted of constant uprooting, exposing me to cultures ranging from Ludwigsburg Germany to rural Georgia. These
experiences combined with an early love of painting have engendered a passion to inquire into concepts of formation and identity.
At a young age, the work of artists such as John Singer Sargent and Chuck Close captivated me with their ability to depict the figure so absolutely. As I matured and developed as a painter, artist like Jenny Saville and Karel Funk also became influential for their conceptual expressions of modern culture, in which they use the figure as a language by which to explore their respective social landscapes, not directly through metaphor or allegory, but through the specificities of human physicality and its implications for identity politics.
My paintings use the framework of portraiture and figuration as a means of exploring the relationship between modern cultural influence and notions of individuality. I’m interested in identifying the precise point at which an individual ends and the influence of culture begins.
Mass-media culture seems to passively permeate everyday life to such an extent that it becomes the architectural model of many individual’s reality. By employing the same visual methods of mass-media culture (i.e. cinematic narratives, the heroic icon, tropes of masculinity, extreme camera angles and internet social networking), I am exposing the pervasive influence that these various visual mechanisms have on the individual.
