An Object at the Limits of Language - Necromantic KIPPIAN Emancipator: No. 2

Born in Quezon City, Philippines, Manuel Ocampo had little formal art training. Both of his parents were journalists, and in his youth he published cartoons in his mother's newspaper. As a student in Catholic schools, he was taught to replicate Spanish colonial folk paintings, which were weathered and then sold to tourists. Traces of these experiences are evident in many of his later paintings, which fearlessly and idiosyncratically combine a range of bold iconography, from sacred religious icons to mass media references and punk culture imagery, evoking the many ways that Catholicism, colonialism, and popular culture have shaped Filipino identities. The process of artistic creation and originality  are also a concern in some of his works, which include ironic references to the Western canon of art history.