SOS by Jon Cuyson
Galleria Duemila, Philippines
Jon Cuyson
Opens 7 May-31 May 2022
210 Loring St. 1300 Pasay City, Metro Manila
Galleria Duemila presents a solo exhibition of abstract paintings from interdisciplinary artist Jon Cuyson. SOS is part of an ongoing body of work from the artist who works in the intersection of painting, installation and film. The exhibition features paintings and collage works that explore horizontality, materiality and abstraction. In the current context of chaos and anxiety, his works investigate and claim horizontality as a form of resistance to verticality. The artist builds layers of acrylic paint and marks on the canvas, repeating and revising in order to build densities in the surface resulting in an interplay of receding and advancing geometric abstract compositions. Consistent with his interest in the narrative of the sea, Jon Cuyson borrows the maritime code distress signal, SOS (Save Our Ship, Save Our Souls), as exhibition title, and to serve as a conceptual anchor in the paintings that reveal a restrained form of poetic urgency.
“While these paintings were created amidst a period of increasing uncertainty, I consider them to be proposals for contemplation. Much like the sea, these works are symbolic containers of my internal desires and fears, and can be viewed as sites for thinking and self-reflection.” - Jon Cuyson
Jon Cuyson received his MFA from Columbia University in New York in 2010 and has exhibited locally and internationally, including the group exhibition Motions of This Kind in London in 2019. SOS will open on May 07, 2022 at Galleria Duemila.
About the Artist
Jon Cuyson began exhibiting his paintings in Manila in 1998. In 2004, he participated in group and solo exhibitions in Europe before moving to New York to participate in residencies in Vermont and Skowhegan, Maine. He received his MFA from Columbia University, New York in 2010. His works employ different techniques and media including texts, photographs, drawing, painting, artist books, sculpture, video and installation. His artistic practice investigates the complex intersections of art, history, culture, and their relationship to Filipino diaspora, and identity.
His work has been shown in a number of local and international exhibitions, including Motions Of This Kind, Brunei Gallery, UCL, London, England (2019), South by Southeast, Times Museum, Guangzhou (2016); Radiation, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok (2014); Me Love You Long Time, Aljira, Newark, New Jersey (2012); Lost In Your Eyes/Foreign Correspondant, FormContent Gallery, London (2009); Musee Du Louvre, The Royal Academy of Art, London (2008); AIM 27 Here and Elsewhere, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx City, New York (2007).
Jon Cuyson currently lives and works in Manila where he continues to teach while working on his diverse artistic practice.
To know more about the artist, please view or contact:
art@galleriaduemila.com | sales.art@galleriaduemila.com
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