Silverlens is pleased to participate in Art Basel Miami Beach for the first time with a solo booth in the Nova Sector by Filipino artist Norberto Roldan. The presentation precedes Roldan's gallery showopening at Silverlens New York in May 2024, which will mark the artist's first-ever US solo exhibition.
For decades, Norberto Roldan has worked at the forefront of cultural artistic practice in the Philippines.He founded the seminal artist group Black Artists in Asia in 1986—a Philippine-based group focusedon socially and politically progressive practice—as well as the region's longest-running biennale, VisualArts Exhibition and Conference, which he established in 1990. Currently, he is the Artistic Director ofGreen Papaya Art Projects, an independent artist-run initiative and alternative art space that supportscollaboration between Asia-Pacific and Filipino artists, which he co-founded in 2000. Within GreenPapaya Art Projects, Roldan initiated the Shri Vishayas project, a platform for the intersections ofindigenous, rural, and contemporary cultures.
Roldan's practice delves into the post-colonial conditions of the Philippines, reflecting the tumultuoushistorical and sociopolitical landscapes of his homeland. His artistic journey is a profound explorationof the struggle for liberation, as well as the notion of history serving not as a factual account but as anarrative manipulated and rewritten by institutional ruling powers. Rather than infusing materials withmeaning, he sources and creates assemblages with found objects and ephemera abound insignificance(Spanish Catholic vestments, symbols of the Philippine revolution, photographs of Old Hollywood moviestars, Japanese dollhouses, among others).
Silverlens' presentation unfolds a powerful story of imaginative retelling and features Roldan's reveredcenterpieces from the series 100 Altars for Roberto Chabet (2014–23). In 2008, the building that housedGreen Papaya Art Projects' archival materials and artworks burned down in a tragic fire. Roldanmanaged to recover a few of the works, which he then restored and renovated with second-handmaterials and architectural debris, specifically for Art Basel Miami Beach. The altars' forms are inspiredby Roberto Chabet—widely acknowledged as the father of Filipino conceptual art—and his abstractedcollages from the 1970s-80s, particularly the Kong Ziggurats or King Kong Collages (1979-1980).Holding varied dialogues in texture, the altars collectively manifest as symbolic totems reflecting thespirit and struggles of the locales embedded in them.
The presentation will also include two large-scale tapestries, which take the form of Catholic ceremonialbanners. Upon closer inspection, the intricate imagery and found amulets reveal themselves as symbolsof Filipino resistance. Roldan pays tribute to revolutionaries who used Catholic iconography as adisguise during the Philippine Revolution against the Spaniards (1896-1898) and as a battle symbolduring the subsequent Philippine-American War (1899-1902). By blending diametric elements, Roldancreates a subversive new interpretation of past and present that renders colonial power as a force tobe questioned and challenged.
Art Basel Miami Beach will run from 6 to 10 December 2023 at Miami Beach Convention Center, Florida.
Private Days (by invitation only)
Wednesday, December 6, 2023, 11am to 7pm, First Choice VIP guests
Wednesday, December 6, 2023, 4pm to 7pm, Preview VIP guests
Thursday, December 7, 2023, 11am to 7pm, First Choice and Preview VIP guests
Thursday, December 7, 2023, 4pm to 7pm, Vernissage VIP guests
Public Days
Friday, December 8, 2023, 11am to 6pm
Saturday, December 9, 2023, 11am to 6pm
Sunday, December 10, 2023, 11am to 6pm
Miami Beach Convention Center
1901 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, FL 33139