Jigger Cruz

Born in 1984 in Malabon City, Manila, Philippines
Lives and works in Manila, Philippines

Jigger Cruz explores the primitive memory of the figurative in contemporary painting. The paintings rework many of the stylistic quirks and formal concerns of classical painting, employing their basic composition and approximating their processes. His pursuit of the idea that a painting is also an installation results in exposing the canvas stretcher bars and revealing all aspects and surfaces in the final artworks.

The figures from classical paintings that appear beneath remind the viewer of the laborious painting activity as well the art historical baggage of the contemporary painter.

Jigger’s artistic approach plays with ideas of defacement and vandalization. The traditional painted landscapes that are visible underneath Cruz’s layers of pastos oil and spray paint give the impression that an Old Master painting having been destroyed. The destruction of these figures becomes integral to our aesthetic understanding of the piece. His paintings become  assemblages of recognizable objects and obscure shapes which interlace, envelope and unfurl within one another.

CV
Jigger Cruz studied Fine Arts at the Far Eastern University in the Philippines and Design at De La Salle-College of St. Benilde. Selected exhibitions and fair venues include: "Smudging Dirty Little Touch", Albertz Benda, New York, USA (2016),  "SUBTRACTION PARADISE", solo show at ARNDT Singapore, 2015, Art Stage Singapore" (2015) "Depth Circus" at the West Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines (2013), "Glitch Habitation" at the Primae Noctis Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland (2012), "Dead End" at the West Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines (2011), "Watching the Wheels" at the Ayala Museum, Philippines (2010), "Tabi Tabi Po, a charity art event" at the 1:AM Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA (2010), "Constructing Deconstruction" at the Tala Gallery, Tomas Morato, Philippines (2009), "Swing" at the Blanc Art Space, Makati City, Philippines (2008) and "Pink Fumes" at the Pablo Gallery, Cubao, Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippnes (2007).

Jigger Cruz, Metaphorical Suffocation, 2014, Oil painting and resin, 176 x 140 x 78 cm Jigger Cruz, Metaphorical Suffocation, 2014, Oil painting and resin, 176 x 140 x 78 cm

Exhibitions

JIGGER CRUZ 

SUBTRACTION PARADISE

June 4 - August 29, 2015

Opening | Wednesday | June 3, 2015 from 6 - 9pm | at ARNDT Berlin

An ARTIST TALK in English will be held in conversation with Uta Grosenick (Distanz Verlag), Christopher Moore (Randian Online) and Matthias Arndt on the occasion of the opening at 7 pm. The evening will also include a BOOK LAUNCH for Jigger Cruz's new book published by DISTANZ Verlag. For full details visit the publications page HERE.

ARNDT Berlin is pleased to present its first solo exhibition by Jigger Cruz. An encounter with a Jigger Cruz painting inexorably signifies an encounter with artifice. Cruz’s works convey an astute, circumventing ploy aimed at redefining ideas surrounding painting while contesting the definition of the medium. Painting as object is subject to critical analysis, and is at the same time laden with critical ideas. It therefore becomes both tool and vessel for criticality, especially in Cruz’s works, whose paintings achieve the status of both medium and object: a medium wherein surface can be demolished, and an object whose phenomenon can be re-constructed. Painting therefore exists, then, for him, a surface of images as well as an image to destroy.
 

Cruz’s paintings are enigmas, whose complexities are forged through his attempts at retrieving the balance between representational and non-representational images. These attempts have led him to redefine the activity of painting as a condition where one is left to grapple with, more than anything else, a physical object – a thing subjected to physical deformities. Something that can be cut, burnt, and bent. This object’s surface (the canvas) becomes then purely incidental, and can be filled or left empty; the pigment and textures applied become a materialization of a presence rather than the construction of images. And this presence in Cruz’s paintings translate into the presence of a conceptual scheme found within his process, to which he describes as, “representations of broken images, shapes, and textures that have been intentionally reduced and recreated.” 

As seen in his previous work, the perceptibly figurative images lie beneath the layers of his signature. Thick impasto lines of multi-colored oil pigments serve as backdrops or as defaced surfaces, depending upon one’s perspective. Most of his works reveal ‘shadows’ of explicit genre paintings, with themes as varied as portraiture, landscape, or Flemish pastoral scenes. In his present works exhibited for his show in ARNDT Berlin entitled, Subtraction Paradise, the explosion of numerous colorful lines transform into massive, singular obstructions. According to Cruz, the resultant works “attempt to make things more simplified and more defined in a natural way specifically when dealing with negative spaces – the most frightening state of my practice.” His previous displays of immense layers of wild, anarchic splaying of lines and smears have graduated into shapely contours of thick, vast, pigments that take over the frame as a singular imposing entity. This shift is evident in Untitled diptych (2015), shown in the current exhibition, where the canvas on the left brandishing a chaotic scenery of lines is opposed by a large, consolidated silvery-white field on the right. It is an apt display of the dichotomy that pervades his present art practice: the rapture triggered by horror vacui against the simplicity and purity of the negative space.

The ‘negative space’, then, becomes part of Jigger Cruz’s discourse, and thus another layer on top of the eliminated surface. The idea of subtraction becomes twofold: the annihilation of the image underneath, and the accumulation of negative spaces. In Jigger Cruz’s work, an absence occurs at the center of the painting’s materiality. The real subject – his raw, textured, chaotic blots of thick layered oil pigment obscure the viewer from the image we were programmed to consider as subject. Even his iconoclastic procedures extend well outside the canvas and onto the material of the frame itself, which he scorches, carves and disfigures. His interventions within the imagery spill over far beyond the surface, pushing his works further into the category of material object.
Jigger Cruz’s solo exhibition at ARNDT Berlin, Subtraction Paradise, represents the reduction of painting into an activity that negates the discipline in the traditional sense. Via this enquiry, whereby painting’s time-honored rubric of canvas, subject, and frame is dismantled and reconfigured, Cruz’s process of extending the possibilities of art, physically and symbolically, beyond the limits of painting’s parameters,  questions painting as a viable creative medium.

*Cocoy Lumbao

Jigger Cruz (b.1984, Manila) studied Fine Arts at the Far Eastern University in the Philippines and Design at De La Salle-College of St. Benilde. Selected exhibitions and fair venues include "Art Stage Singapore" (2015) "Depth Circus" at the West Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines (2013), "Glitch Habitation" at the Primae Noctis Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland (2012), "Dead End" at the West Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines (2011), "Watching the Wheels" at the Ayala Museum, Philippines (2010), "Tabi Tabi Po, a charity art event" at the 1:AM Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA (2010), "Constructing Deconstruction" at the Tala Gallery, Tomas Morato, Philippines (2009), "Swing" at the Blanc Art Space, Makati City, Philippines (2008) and "Pink Fumes" at the Pablo Gallery, Cubao, Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippnes (2007).

ARNDT Berlin
Potsdamer Strasse 96
10785 Berlin
info@arndtfineart.com

Installation view | Jigger Cruz - Subtraction Paradise | ARNDT Berlin | 2015 Installation view | Jigger Cruz - Subtraction Paradise | ARNDT Berlin | 2015
Installation view | Jigger Cruz - Subtraction Paradise | ARNDT Berlin | 2015  Installation view | Jigger Cruz - Subtraction Paradise | ARNDT Berlin | 2015
Installation view | Jigger Cruz - Subtraction Paradise | ARNDT Berlin | 2015 Installation view | Jigger Cruz - Subtraction Paradise | ARNDT Berlin | 2015
Installation view | Jigger Cruz - Subtraction Paradise | ARNDT Berlin | 2015 Installation view | Jigger Cruz - Subtraction Paradise | ARNDT Berlin | 2015

Manila: The Night is Restless, The Day is Scornful

Group exhibition of contemporary Filipino artists at ARNDT Singapore
Curated by Norman Crisologo
July 12 - August 30, 2014
Opening reception | Friday | July 11, 2014 | 6-9 pm

Please click here to view the list of artworks

"Manila: The Night is Restless, The Day is Scornful" features works by Mike Adrao, Gabriel Barredo, Santiago Bose, Zean Cabangis, Jigger Cruz, Alfredo Esquillo, Dex Fernandez, Kawayan de Guia, José Legaspi, Pow Martinez, Alwin Reamillo, Kaloy Sanchez, Norberto Roldan, Jose Tence Ruiz and Tatong Torres.
                  
Manila is a city of extremes, and at a time that only the extreme makes an impression, it still manages to shock. To wander into its streets, to be among the crowds, to be caught in the din of history that barrages you at every corner is to participate in a drama that began centuries ago, but whose cries and whispers echo resound well into the present. The sacred and the profane, the amatory smiles and the feral gaze are all on display here, as the unforgiving sun of its days give way to the artificial neon of night.
This exhibition is a guided tour of Manila, by asking its best contemporary artists to act as Virgils ushering us into its depths as well as pointing out the stars of the darkened heavens above this infernal city.
Erwin Romulo, 2014

Manila: The Night is Restless, The Day is Scornful, 2014 Manila: The Night is Restless, The Day is Scornful, 2014

The catalogue was published on the occasion of the curated exhibition of Norman Crisologo at ARNDT Singapore in 2014.

This publicationis a guided tour of Manila, by asking its best contemporary artists to act as Virgils ushering us into its depths as well as pointing out the stars of the darkened heavens above this infernal city and features works by Mike Adrao, Gabriel Barredo, Santiago Bose, Zean Cabangis, Jigger Cruz, Alfredo Esquillo, Dex Fernandez, Kawayan de Guia, José Legaspi, Pow Martinez, Alwin Reamillo, Kaloy Sanchez, Norberto Roldan, Jose Tence Ruiz and Tatong Torres.

The publication "Manila: The Night is Restless, The Day is Scornful" features the essays of Erwin Romulo, Oliver X.A. Rexles


Self-Published by ARNDT / 70pages, many colour plates
unbound soft cover
Language English

Installation view I  Installation view I
Installation view II Installation view II
Installation view III Installation view III
Installation view IV Installation view IV

ART STAGE SINGAPORE 2015, January 22 - 25

 

ARNDT is pleased to announce its participation at Art Stage Singapore 2015, taking place from January 22 – 25. We are looking forward welcoming you at our Booth E13.

Artists exhibited:
Del Kathryn Barton, Gilbert & George, Rodel Tapaya, David LaChapelle & Jigger Cruz.

Venue:
Marina Bay Sands Convention Center | 10 Bayfront Avenue | Singapore 018956

Please click here to view the list of artworks.

ART STAGE SINGAPORE 22 - 25 January, 2015 ART STAGE SINGAPORE 22 - 25 January, 2015
ART STAGE SINGAPORE 22 - 25 January, 2015 ART STAGE SINGAPORE 22 - 25 January, 2015
ART STAGE SINGAPORE 22 - 25 January, 2015 ART STAGE SINGAPORE 22 - 25 January, 2015
ART STAGE SINGAPORE 22 - 25 January, 2015 ART STAGE SINGAPORE 22 - 25 January, 2015

ART FAIR PHILIPPINES, February 5 - 8, 2015
 

ARNDT is pleased to announce its participation at Art Fair Phillipines 2015.

Artists exhibited:
Jigger Cruz, Ian Fabro, Rodel Tapaya.


Please click here to view the list of artworks.

Installation view, Art Fair Philippines, 2015 Installation view, Art Fair Philippines, 2015
Installation view, Art Fair Philippines, 2015 Installation view, Art Fair Philippines, 2015
Installation view, Art Fair Philippines, 2015 Installation view, Art Fair Philippines, 2015
Installation view, Art Fair Philippines, 2015 Installation view, Art Fair Philippines, 2015
Installation view, Art Fair Philippines, 2015 Installation view, Art Fair Philippines, 2015
Installation view, Art Fair Philippines, 2015 Installation view, Art Fair Philippines, 2015

VOLTA NY - MARCH 5–8, 2015
 

ARNDT is pleased to announce its participation at VOLTA NY 2015, with a solo presentation of JIGGER CRUZ. We are looking forward welcoming you at our Booth B5.

Venue:
PIER 90 | West 50th Street at 12th Avenue | New York, NY 10036

 

VOLTA NY 5-8 March, 2015 VOLTA NY 5-8 March, 2015
VOLTA NY 5-8 March, 2015 VOLTA NY 5-8 March, 2015
VOLTA NY 5-8 March, 2015 VOLTA NY 5-8 March, 2015
VOLTA NY 5-8 March, 2015 VOLTA NY 5-8 March, 2015

A3 PRESENTS: WASAK! Filipino Art Today

December 8, 2015 – January 30, 2016

Opening | Saturday | December 5, 2015, 12 - 6 pm

A group exhibition curated by Norman Crisologo and Erwin Romulo across two locations in Berlin at:

ARNDT Berlin Potsdamer Strasse 96 (Tue - Sat, 11am - 6pm)

ARNDT ART AGENCY A3 Fasanenstrasse 28 NEW PREMISES (Wed - Sat, 12 - 6pm)

Exhibiting artists: Zean Cabangis, Annie Cabigting, Buen Calubayan, Louie Cordero, Jigger Cruz, Marina Cruz, Kawayan De Guia, Alfredo Esquillo, Ian Fabro, Nona Garcia, Robert Langenegger, Pow Martinez, Manuel Ocampo, Alwin Reamillo, Norberto Roldan, Kaloy Sanchez, José Santos III, Rodel Tapaya, Tatong Torres and Ronald Ventura.

A publication has been published by DISTANZ Verlag to accompany the exhibition.

View the complete publication HERE.

The underlying motivation of the exhibition and accompanying publication in Berlin is to shed light on the fascinating contemporary art landscape in the Philippines. WASAK! explores Filipino contemporary art, in the hope of providing an emblematic contextual compendium for western audiences. Signaling the first instance of its kind, WASAK! thus offers snapshots of current artistic practices from the Philippines, uniting a selection of its leading protagonists across generational lines, genres, and media.

All of the 19 participating artists included have witnessed the social and political upheaval of Philippines’ recent history. Most of these artists spent their maturation grappling with local events that have transpired such as: natural disasters like earthquakes and floods; political unrest in the form of coup d’état and calls to presidential impeachments; political ineptitude in the form of corruption and briberies; and longstanding bouts with poverty and urban overpopulation. This selection of artists have nurtured, or at least, directed their ideas into the reality that is Manila, the nation’s capital, from where most of the country’s bizarre undulations spring.

Although much of their work is inspired by their own localities, these artists continue to seek their place among the rest of the world. Through the jumble and mess of their own ground zero—which is a country of broken histories, a nation of lush influences, and a people constantly having to live despite of something—their art continued to become, individually, more diverse and yet collectively, as a single exploded view. ‘Wasak’ is a Filipino word that means “in ruins.” When used in the vernacular, it means “wrecked,” or as a more encouraging interjection—it can also mean “going for broke.” It is a term that signals a hazard.
In this field of scattered landscapes, of broken narratives and loose continuity, what then could be ascribed as Philippine Art? The artists represented in WASAK! have come from the different potholes this gap has created, which explains the varying degrees how their work tries to explain not only a locality, but their own place in art history.

In a 1979 essay, one of the most influential Filipino art critic, Leo Benesa, asked the question: “What is Philippine in Philippine Art?” Knowing how any kind of art from any other place cannot escape the influence of the Western canon, he settled with a more optimistic response in implying that the intention of the artist to paint well is what makes them Filipino: “Painters first, and bearers of message, second,” he concluded. The majority of the artists in the show have chosen painting as their primary medium, with a few exceptions that have dealt primarily with assemblage and sculpture. In looking at their paintings, trying to find out what special place they hold, we can follow Benesa’s prescription—to look at the form first, and then deal with the message later. To try to understand, before anything else, that their intention is to do something which is relevant for them, before handing out a prognosis that casts them as representatives of an aesthetic sensibility, a socio-historical period, or worse, a movement.

The 19 artists covered in WASAK! provide us with an opportunity to experience the different directions they have wandered into—a chance to view a small course of history that is finding its way into the arts.

ARNDT Berlin
Potsdamer Strasse 96
10785 Berlin
info@arndtberlin.com
+49 30 2061 3870

ARNDT ART AGENCY A3
Fasanenstrasse 28
10719 Berlin
contact@arndtartagency.com
+49 30 2061 3870

PRESS

Randian | WASAK! | 7 April, 2016

Coconuts Manila | There’s an exhibit of PH contemporary art in Berlin and it’s called…'Wasak' | 15 January 2016

Zitty Berlin | „Wasak!“ zeigt Bilder aus einem katholischen Asien | 14 January 2016

Art Radar | WASAK! Filipino Art Today at ARNDT Berlin | 12 January 2016

Kunst und Film | WASAK! Filipino Art Today | January 2016

Artsy | ARNDT Explores the Complexities of Filipino Art in New Berlin Gallery Space | 12 January 2016

Financial Times | The Art Market: All about agencies | 18 December 2015

Blouin artinfo | ARNDT Opens new Berlin Venue With Filipino Art Shows | 11 December 2015

Taz | Kunstraum | Land der Brüche - Kunst aus den Philippinen | 10 December 2015

Artnet | Arndt Gallery Opens New Upmarket Location in West Berlin | 3 December 2015

Inquirer | Filipino Art Exhibit WASAK! to open new gallery in Berlin  | 26 November 2015

Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015 Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015 Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015 Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015 Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015 Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015 Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT Berlin, 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015
Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015  Installation view, WASAK! Filipino Art Today, ARNDT ART AGENCY (A3), 2015
"WASAK! Reloaded", installation view at ARNDT Fine Art, Singapore "WASAK! Reloaded", installation view at ARNDT Fine Art, Singapore

WASAK! Reloaded

Group Exhibition of Filipino Art Today

27 August - 8 October 2016

Opening | Saturday | August 27, 2016, 12 - 5 pm | ARNDT Fine Art, Singapore 

WASAK! Reloaded  is a group exhibition exploring the Filipino contemporary art landscape and is accompanied by a major hard copy publication WASAK! Filipino Art Today published by European publisher DISTANZ Verlag. The show is a continuation of the well-received group exhibition presented in Berlin in 2015, and will travel to Gazelli Art House in London in 2017.

Exhibiting artists include: Zean Cabangis, Louie Cordero, Jigger Cruz, Marina Cruz, Kawayan De Guia, Alfredo Esquillo, Ian Fabro, Robert Langenegger, Jason Montinola, Pow Martinez, Manuel Ocampo, Norberto Roldan, Kaloy Sanchez, Rodel Tapaya and Ronald Ventura.

The underlying motivation of WASAK! and its accompanying publication is to shed light on the fascinating contemporary art currently being produced in the Philippines. By offering an overview of Filipino contemporary art, WASAK!  aims to provide an emblematic contextual compendium. Uniting a selection of leading protagonists across generational lines, genres, and media, the exhibition presents snapshots of current artistic practices from the Philippines.

The 17 participating artists have witnessed the social and political upheaval of Philippines’ recent history. Most of these artists spent their maturation grappling with local events that have transpired such as: natural disasters like earthquakes and floods; political unrest in the form of coup d’état and calls to presidential impeachments; political ineptitude in the form of corruption and briberies; and longstanding bouts with poverty and urban overpopulation. This selection of artists have nurtured, or at least, directed their ideas into the reality that is Manila, the nation’s capital, from where most of the country’s bizarre undulations spring.

Although much of the artists´ work is inspired by their own localities, these artists continue to seek their place among the rest of the world. Through the jumble and mess of their own ground zero—which is a country of broken histories, a nation of lush influences, and a people constantly having to live despite of something—their art continued to become, individually, more diverse and yet collectively, as a single exploded view. ‘Wasak’ is a Filipino word that means “in ruins.” When used in the vernacular, it means “wrecked,” or as a more encouraging interjection—it can also mean “going for broke.” It is a term that signals a hazard.

In this field of scattered landscapes, of broken narratives and loose continuity, what then could be ascribed as Philippine Art? The artists represented in WASAK! have come from the different potholes this gap has created, which explains the varying degrees how their work tries to explain not only a locality, but their own place in art history.

The 17 artists covered in WASAK! provide us with an opportunity to experience the different directions they have wandered into—a chance to view a small course of history that is finding its way into the arts.

Press Contact:
Pey Chuan Tan
peychuan@arndtfineart.com
+65 9111 3203

Venue:
ARNDT Fine Art Pte Ltd
Gillman Barracks
47 Malan Road #01-25
Singapore 109444
Tel. +65 67340775
Opening hours: Tues - Sat 11am- 7pm, and by appointment

Press:
Blouin ARTINFO | Filipino Artists Present "WASAK! Reloaded" at ARNDT Fine Art | July 21, 2016

Blouin Art Info | Filipino Artists Present ‘WASAK! Reloaded’ at ARNDT Fine Art | July 21, 2016