Internationally-acclaimed sculptor and installation artist Junyee will unveil Siete Pintados, a one-man exhibition of recent works in wood, at the main hall of Galleria Duemila from 8 November to 2 December 2008. This is the artist's second time to exhibit in a commercial gallery; most of his previous shows being held at international and local art museums, public spaces, and art centers in the Philippines and in other countries.  

The Siete Pintados exhibition will present seven life-size wood sculptures of pre-colonial Filipino males, embellished with colored tatoos sourced from both indigenous and contemporary iconographies. Measuring around five feet each, the works and the symbols in these embody the “collision of cultures”, as art critic Alice Guillermo terms it, induced by uneven and transitional spheres of development within the context of Philippine society and culture.

The figures were sculpted from discarded acacia and santol hardwood, reflecting the artist's intentional adherence to the use of indigenous objects in art production. An avowed environmental advocate, the artist intentionally refrains from cutting any live trees and sources out trees that have been felled out of natural causes and then discarded.  

Junye's Pintados series date back to the past eight years. The first Pintado sculpture created by the artist was exhibited as one of the two Filipino entries to the 7^th Havana Biennale in Cuba in 2001: a wooden life-size figure of a tatooed pre-hispanic figure held aloft by natural fibers and hovering above a mirror image of a contemporary Filipino made out of etched glass. The second figure was exhibited at the inauguration of the Ayala Museum in 2004.  

The artist makes use of composite tattoos as symbol and metaphor for cultural contradictions. The tattoos are sourced from two representational traditions: from book illustrations of tattoos worn by pre-colonial Filipinos from the Mountain Province and Leyte islands and from contemporary tattoos prevalent in popular culture influenced by foreign images, such as the iconography of American hip hop groups, beatnik culture or the protest movement.  

Siete Pintados draws on two periods of Filipino representational heritage as a springboard for creativity, to bring across a personal testimony of how the advancement of modern civilization (and its ills, such as development aggression) creates a litany of unexpected and stark impacts for the inhabitants of a Third World country where the majority are left behind. The works articulate apprehension of losing individual and collective identity in this period of transitional trauma.  

Siete Pintados will open simultaneously with Derelict Penthouses, a one-man exhibition by Jose Tence Ruiz. The two shows open on the 8^th of November (Saturday) and will be on view at Galleria Duemila until 2 December 2008. For inquiries, please contact Galleria Duemila at (632) 831 9990 and (632) 833 9815; email: duemila@mydestiny.net