ABOUT THE WORK

A grotesquely masked man dominates the complexly detailed composition, with a red moon hovering above. The moon plays a peripheral, but provocative role in the composition. For many Filipino contemporary artists, social issues are two of the most compelling themes in their work. In Charlie Co’s work, these themes are expressed intensely, even theatrically. From a survey of his works, one derives the impression of an integral and transcendent world peopled with vivid, symbolic figures albeit with allusions to culture and history. Possibly the self-contained and concentrated quality of his imagery comes from the fact that his native ground and source of inspiration is Negros, the center of which is Bacolod, where he is based. As well as the familiar bestiary are largely drawn from the environment in which Charlie Co grew up — these were, in some sense, a dynamic projection of his desire to represent “psychic reality” in a work of art.