Roaming around Artissima art fair, our editors have met Rachael Vance from Arndt Gallery from Berlin, who gave a short interview to our senior editor Ana B.K. This gallery has been invited to Artissima for the Present Future section, and it is exhibiting works by only one artist – Rodel Tapaya.
Rodel Tapaya is a leading Philippine artist, very well known in South-East Asia, but virtually unknown for wider European art lovers. This is the reason why Arndt Gallery had decided to exhibit Tapaya’s brilliant, vivid and colorful paintings – one of the goals of this gallery is to introduce the Western audience with the art and the artists from Southeast Asia, but they have been also showing a lot of European artists in Arndt Gallery in Singapore.
Art Derived from Myths
In this exclusive short interview, Rachael Vance also discussed about the art scene of Southeast Asia, calling it very individual, and linking this characteristic with the very fragmented society of Philippines, since it had many influences from different countries throughout its history.
Speaking of Rodel Tapaya’s art, Rachael Vance said that he is usually using acrylic on canvas, or sometimes on paper, and that he is very well known for his large murals. Tapaya’s works rely on folklore, myths, mythology and symbolism of Philippine culture, which is largely an unknown area for the Western world, since Philippine myths, stories and folklore were not derived from Europe. This is one of the reasons why Tapaya’s artworks are fascinating Europeans, and citizens of Western world in general.
So, be sure to listen to this interview with Rachael Vance from Arndt Gallery, and stay tuned for more live reporting from Artissima!
Ricardo Martinez
