topic

War and conflict

"The 1899 Philippine-American War is not the sort of topic the Filipino public likes to talk about." --- Reynaldo C. Ileto, "The Philippine-American War: Friendship and Forgetting" (2002)

Metal Jacket

Do Ho Suh

1992 - 2011 3000 dog tags on U.S. military jacket fabric liner 60 in. x 50 in. x 15 in. © Do Ho Suh, Courtesy of the Artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong

contributor

X

Do Ho Suh

b. 1962

Do Ho Suh is an internationally renowned Korean artist. Suh constructs site-specific installations and meticulously crafted sculptures that question boundaries of identity, conventional notions of scale, and space in both its physical and metaphorical manifestation.

Suh studied oriental painting at Seoul National University in the 1980s, and in 1991 he moved to the United States to study painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and sculpture at Yale University School of Art. He settled in New York in 1997, where he lived and worked until relocating to London in 2010. He currently maintains studios in London, Seoul, and New York.

Suh represented South Korea at the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001 with his iconic work Some/One, constructed of military dog tags exploring individual and collective identity. Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented internationally, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York, 2001; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 2002; Serpentine Gallery, London, 2002; Artsonje Center, Seoul, 2003; the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, 2005; Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, 2010; DAAD Galerie, Berlin, 2011; Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore, 2011; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, 2012; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, 2012; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2012–13; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, 2013; The Contemporary Austin, Austin, 2014; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio, 2015.

Suh’s work has been prominently featured in major group exhibitions and biennials worldwide, including the Istanbul Biennial, Turkey, 2003; Psycho Buildings, Hayward Gallery, London, 2008; Your Bright Future, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2009; Liverpool Biennial, 2010; Venice Architecture Biennale, 2010; Gwangju Biennale, 2012; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2013; Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2014; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2015; and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2015. His work is included in numerous museum collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Tate Modern, London; Leeum Samsung Museum, Seoul; Artsonje Center, Seoul; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, among many others.

location

X
  • Born: Seoul, South Korea
  • Based: London, England, UK

comments

X

Some/One

Do Ho Suh

Sep 01, 2001 - Oct 11, 2015 Stainless steel military dog tags, nickel plated copper sheets, steel structure, glass fiber reinforced resin, rubber sheets Dimensions variable © Do Ho Suh, Courtesy of the Artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong

contributor

X

Do Ho Suh

b. 1962

Do Ho Suh is an internationally renowned Korean artist. Suh constructs site-specific installations and meticulously crafted sculptures that question boundaries of identity, conventional notions of scale, and space in both its physical and metaphorical manifestation.

Suh studied oriental painting at Seoul National University in the 1980s, and in 1991 he moved to the United States to study painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and sculpture at Yale University School of Art. He settled in New York in 1997, where he lived and worked until relocating to London in 2010. He currently maintains studios in London, Seoul, and New York.

Suh represented South Korea at the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001 with his iconic work Some/One, constructed of military dog tags exploring individual and collective identity. Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented internationally, including at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York, 2001; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 2002; Serpentine Gallery, London, 2002; Artsonje Center, Seoul, 2003; the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, 2005; Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, 2010; DAAD Galerie, Berlin, 2011; Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore, 2011; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, 2012; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, 2012; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2012–13; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, 2013; The Contemporary Austin, Austin, 2014; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio, 2015.

Suh’s work has been prominently featured in major group exhibitions and biennials worldwide, including the Istanbul Biennial, Turkey, 2003; Psycho Buildings, Hayward Gallery, London, 2008; Your Bright Future, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2009; Liverpool Biennial, 2010; Venice Architecture Biennale, 2010; Gwangju Biennale, 2012; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2013; Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2014; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2015; and Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2015. His work is included in numerous museum collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Tate Modern, London; Leeum Samsung Museum, Seoul; Artsonje Center, Seoul; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, among many others.

location

X
  • Born: Seoul, South Korea
  • Based: London, England, UK

comments

X

"The Making of 'Immaculate Rendition'"

John Yoyogi Fortes

2008 Video Duration: 9m 7s Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

John Yoyogi Fortes

b. 1953
image description
  • See All Works
  • facebook
  • visit website

 

Born in a taxi on Yoyogi Street in Tokyo, Japan, John Yoyogi Fortes is a Northern California painter based in Sacramento. His paintings are often large scale explorations of self that lean towards the whimsical, dark and obscure.

 
Fortes’s paintings have been exhibited in California, Nevada, Chicago, New York, Hawaii, Venezuela and Norway, and are held in numerous private collections, as well as, the Asian American Art Centre in New York, the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno and the Triton Museum of Art and Crocker Art Museum in California. His work is included in the International Arts & Artists traveling exhibition, “Infinite Mirror; Images of American Identity.” The exhibit opened at Syracuse University in New York and travels to museums throughout the Eastern U.S.
 
Fortes has received grants from the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission and a Visual Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council. In 2004 John was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant. John was also nominated for the Alliance of Artists Communities, Vision from the New California Project in 2006 and 2007.
 
Aside from painting, John produces short web based videos through his business, Digital Boondocks. He has collaborated with the California Association of Museums and the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento creating exhibition videos for Bay Area painter, Mel Ramos and Austrian artist, Gottfried Helnwein. Recently John worked with Bay Area artist, Travis Somerville on his Kickstarter campaign to fund Rainbow Warriors, a site specific piece with Earthbound Moon.

location

X
  • Born: Tokyo, Japan
  • Based: Sacramento, CA, USA

comments

X

Camouflage I

Marylene Camacho

2011 Digital photograph. Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Marylene Camacho

b. 1981
image description
  • See All Works
  • visit website

Born in 1981 in the Philippines and immigrating to the United States at the age of twelve, Marylene Camacho is a Los Angeles-based artist who explores issues of war in her practice. Primarily considering the perspective and existential experience of the common combat soldier, her work attempts to build upon the artistic canon established on this subject through such mediums as literature, painting, photography, and cinema. Ms. Camacho posits the universality of war, with the belief that it is essentially an abstract condition in contemporary life. Noting the similarities of previous wars and current ones, in both imagery and written history, she believes that war transcends time and space. Ms. Camacho received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2005 from California State University at Long Beach and her Master of Fine Arts in 2011 from the California College of the Arts. She has recently exhibited in Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; and San Francisco, CA.

My work is a result of my own reflections and ruminations on the subject of war. I started to reconsider my thoughts on this issue after viewing photographs taken by a friend who served as a US Army medic in both Iraq and Afghanistan. My goal is to create a moment during which my work generates questions and prompts self-reflection regarding issues of war and its lingering impact on the human experience and psyche. As an abstract condition in contemporary life, war lends itself to be viewed in multiple ways, because everyone looks at this issue differently. I believe that wars, past and present, have a strange rippling effect that continues to be felt for decades, and sometime centuries, to follow.

location

X
  • Born: The Philippines
  • Based: Los Angeles, CA, USA

comments

X

Camouflage II

Marylene Camacho

2011 Digital photograph. Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Marylene Camacho

b. 1981
image description
  • See All Works
  • visit website

Born in 1981 in the Philippines and immigrating to the United States at the age of twelve, Marylene Camacho is a Los Angeles-based artist who explores issues of war in her practice. Primarily considering the perspective and existential experience of the common combat soldier, her work attempts to build upon the artistic canon established on this subject through such mediums as literature, painting, photography, and cinema. Ms. Camacho posits the universality of war, with the belief that it is essentially an abstract condition in contemporary life. Noting the similarities of previous wars and current ones, in both imagery and written history, she believes that war transcends time and space. Ms. Camacho received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2005 from California State University at Long Beach and her Master of Fine Arts in 2011 from the California College of the Arts. She has recently exhibited in Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; and San Francisco, CA.

My work is a result of my own reflections and ruminations on the subject of war. I started to reconsider my thoughts on this issue after viewing photographs taken by a friend who served as a US Army medic in both Iraq and Afghanistan. My goal is to create a moment during which my work generates questions and prompts self-reflection regarding issues of war and its lingering impact on the human experience and psyche. As an abstract condition in contemporary life, war lends itself to be viewed in multiple ways, because everyone looks at this issue differently. I believe that wars, past and present, have a strange rippling effect that continues to be felt for decades, and sometime centuries, to follow.

location

X
  • Born: The Philippines
  • Based: Los Angeles, CA, USA

comments

X

Camouflage III

Marylene Camacho

2011 Digital photograph. Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Marylene Camacho

b. 1981
image description
  • See All Works
  • visit website

Born in 1981 in the Philippines and immigrating to the United States at the age of twelve, Marylene Camacho is a Los Angeles-based artist who explores issues of war in her practice. Primarily considering the perspective and existential experience of the common combat soldier, her work attempts to build upon the artistic canon established on this subject through such mediums as literature, painting, photography, and cinema. Ms. Camacho posits the universality of war, with the belief that it is essentially an abstract condition in contemporary life. Noting the similarities of previous wars and current ones, in both imagery and written history, she believes that war transcends time and space. Ms. Camacho received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2005 from California State University at Long Beach and her Master of Fine Arts in 2011 from the California College of the Arts. She has recently exhibited in Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; and San Francisco, CA.

My work is a result of my own reflections and ruminations on the subject of war. I started to reconsider my thoughts on this issue after viewing photographs taken by a friend who served as a US Army medic in both Iraq and Afghanistan. My goal is to create a moment during which my work generates questions and prompts self-reflection regarding issues of war and its lingering impact on the human experience and psyche. As an abstract condition in contemporary life, war lends itself to be viewed in multiple ways, because everyone looks at this issue differently. I believe that wars, past and present, have a strange rippling effect that continues to be felt for decades, and sometime centuries, to follow.

location

X
  • Born: The Philippines
  • Based: Los Angeles, CA, USA

comments

X

Camouflage IV

Marylene Camacho

2011 Digital photograph. Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Marylene Camacho

b. 1981
image description
  • See All Works
  • visit website

Born in 1981 in the Philippines and immigrating to the United States at the age of twelve, Marylene Camacho is a Los Angeles-based artist who explores issues of war in her practice. Primarily considering the perspective and existential experience of the common combat soldier, her work attempts to build upon the artistic canon established on this subject through such mediums as literature, painting, photography, and cinema. Ms. Camacho posits the universality of war, with the belief that it is essentially an abstract condition in contemporary life. Noting the similarities of previous wars and current ones, in both imagery and written history, she believes that war transcends time and space. Ms. Camacho received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2005 from California State University at Long Beach and her Master of Fine Arts in 2011 from the California College of the Arts. She has recently exhibited in Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; and San Francisco, CA.

My work is a result of my own reflections and ruminations on the subject of war. I started to reconsider my thoughts on this issue after viewing photographs taken by a friend who served as a US Army medic in both Iraq and Afghanistan. My goal is to create a moment during which my work generates questions and prompts self-reflection regarding issues of war and its lingering impact on the human experience and psyche. As an abstract condition in contemporary life, war lends itself to be viewed in multiple ways, because everyone looks at this issue differently. I believe that wars, past and present, have a strange rippling effect that continues to be felt for decades, and sometime centuries, to follow.

location

X
  • Born: The Philippines
  • Based: Los Angeles, CA, USA

comments

X

Camouflage V

Marylene Camacho

2011 Digital photograph. Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Marylene Camacho

b. 1981
image description
  • See All Works
  • visit website

Born in 1981 in the Philippines and immigrating to the United States at the age of twelve, Marylene Camacho is a Los Angeles-based artist who explores issues of war in her practice. Primarily considering the perspective and existential experience of the common combat soldier, her work attempts to build upon the artistic canon established on this subject through such mediums as literature, painting, photography, and cinema. Ms. Camacho posits the universality of war, with the belief that it is essentially an abstract condition in contemporary life. Noting the similarities of previous wars and current ones, in both imagery and written history, she believes that war transcends time and space. Ms. Camacho received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2005 from California State University at Long Beach and her Master of Fine Arts in 2011 from the California College of the Arts. She has recently exhibited in Chicago, IL; Los Angeles, CA; and San Francisco, CA.

My work is a result of my own reflections and ruminations on the subject of war. I started to reconsider my thoughts on this issue after viewing photographs taken by a friend who served as a US Army medic in both Iraq and Afghanistan. My goal is to create a moment during which my work generates questions and prompts self-reflection regarding issues of war and its lingering impact on the human experience and psyche. As an abstract condition in contemporary life, war lends itself to be viewed in multiple ways, because everyone looks at this issue differently. I believe that wars, past and present, have a strange rippling effect that continues to be felt for decades, and sometime centuries, to follow.

location

X
  • Born: The Philippines
  • Based: Los Angeles, CA, USA

comments

X

Open for Business

Mik Gaspay

2012 Print. Variable dimensions. Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Mik Gaspay

image description
  • See All Works
  • resume/cv
  • visit website

Mik Gaspay is an interdisciplinary artist who primarily works with found objects, painting and sculpture. His practice investigates translated meanings of commonplace products and structures: drawing from the tension between functionality, purpose and language he conjures up expressions fused from readymade signification, history and uncertainty. His work queries for meanings embedded in the materials within objects we consume and encompass our lives with.

Mik Gaspay was born in Quezon City, Philippines and migrated to Palo Alto, California at the age of 9. He received a B.F.A. in Illustration/Design from the California College of Arts and Crafts and later attended the California College of the Arts for his M.F.A. He currently lives and works in San Francisco, California.

location

X
  • Born: Quezon City, Philippines
  • Based: San Francisco, CA, USA

comments

X

Shiny Black Stars

Senalka McDonald

2012 Photograph. 35 in. x 7 in. Courtesy of the artist.

contributor

X

Senalka McDonald

b. 1983

A visual artist of Panamanian descent, Senalka McDonald received her M.F.A. from California College of the Arts in 2012, along with a B.F.A. and a B.A. in cultural geography from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006. McDonald is the recipient of various awards, including Graduate Merit and Diversity Fellowships, the Eliza Prize Grant, and the Murphy Cadogan Fellowship. She has participated in residencies including The Core Program (Houston) 2012-2014, the Austin Project (Austin) in 2009 and 2008, as well as ROOTED (Austin) in 2007. Recent exhibitions include Young Latina Artist 19: Y, Qué? (Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin), in my hair: a group show (Medialia Gallery, New York), Selfless (Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art, San Francisco), John Baldessari: Class Assignments (Optional) (Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco), and Queer State(s) (Visual Arts Center - UT Austin, Austin). McDonald is currently based in San Francisco, California.

Senalka McDonald is a self-identified geographer-slash-artist investigating themes of social   transgression, identity play, and imagined spaces. Using performative gestures and utterances, she examines the perceived role of an-other, focusing on the very real trauma of being taught one’s “place.” That “place,” embodied physically, lives internally, practically in our subconscious, at the edge of social breakdown.
 
Simultaneously comic and tragic, the work engages two spheres of reality: the outer, where you look at her, and the inner, where she looks at herself. In this liminal space, fantasies, half-truths, and lies are one and the same, exposing a game of identity play that is filled with unsure substitutions and willing stagnation.  The work divulges the resulting transgressive games, ultimately, moving us closer to the source of implied truth with the final mark of the happening in any of the following: video, photography, textiles, drawing, and/or live performance.  

location

X
  • Born: Texas, USA
  • Based: San Francisco, CA, USA

comments

X