Provenance: Finale Art File

ABOUT THE WORK

As a manifestation of the “New Fil-Am Painting” movement, Louie Cordero’s assemblies of stock Pinoy pop imagery finished with that prototypical acrylic matte surface (calling to mind American ghetto paintings, enlivened with graffiti, stylized body fluids and vibrant entrails, seems like a junior’s homage to its aesthetic instigator, Manuel Ocampo. As a preface, when Ocampo blew into town, he changed the imagery of Philippine visual arts by defamiliarizing the familiar repertoire: it was no longer just dada or surrealism but a postmodern night train surrealism careening on the brink of chaos. But whereas Ocampo’s reputation revels in the shock value of his flagrantly abject iconic stereotypes, Louie Cordero’s almost cutesy painterly approach makes him appealing to a broader cross section of a brace new world of audiences. The youthful defiance of his powerful works is more than reactionary and vicarious. What Cordero represents is an in-your-face disavowal of stiff upper lip sensibilities, crossing as he does into territories of our shared psyche that had long remained uncharted. This pop meets punk firewall art may partly explain Cordero’s popularity with artists, curators and the art loving public, as can be gleaned in his various gallery engagements across the United States (San Francisco, Austin, and New York City. In fact, this work, “Holiday in R.P.”, with its psychedelic, flower child era vibe, was done the year he was listed among the 2006 Thirteen Artists Awards of CCP.