DUMMIES

Charlie Co lines up 'Dummies' for a solo show at Galleria Duemila
7 May 2011 - 5 June 2011

Bacolod-based artist Charlie Co presents his latest paintings at Galleria Duemila in a one-man rebuttal to modern-day malevolence and malaise.

Starring in Co's eleven large canvases are life-sized wooden mannequins in various quotidian scenarios. Faceless and seemingly soulless, they enact misdemeanors that are all too human and thus embarrassingly familiar: debauchery, conspiracy, apathy, and fraud.

Current events, be they national scandals or global conflict, inform all of these pieces, all executed in the last four months. "I have always associated the subject matter of most of my works with everyday scenarios. I cannot help but put these situations on canvas, not in literal level but more as a satire," Co says.

For example, “Done Deal” and “Checkmates” were inspired by recent senate investigations into alleged illegal behavior by public officials while "Blind Pinocchios leading blind Pinocchios" recall images of Middle East streets enveloped in protest.
All of these performances play out under Co's deceptively light baton: carnival-like in arrangement but rendered with a gloomy palette, generating a mood that is tense, at times apocalyptic.

As art critic Gina Fairley notes in the exhibition catalogue, this show is “is classic Co imagery melding fantasy with the big topics. They are the marks of a mature and considered artist, and Co’s constant push for a currency in his art making is what has sustained his practice over the past three decades and, indeed, signals this new body of work as a superb next chapter."

Far beyond a record of present-day events, these works capture the prevailing zeitgeist not only within Filipino experience but also over at further shores. For what these paintings disguise underneath the light strokes and Crayola wash is a palpable fury - an artist's bellow arising from a spring of discontent.

Charlie Co's 'Dummies' will run from 7 May 2011 to 5 June 2011 at Galleria Duemila, 210 Loring Street, Pasay City, Philippines.

For more information, please contact, Thess Ponce of Galleria Duemila through Tel. No. (+632) 831-9990 Telefax (+632) 8339815, e-mail: gduemila@gmail.com or visit our website at www.galleriaduemila.com.

Galleria Duemila is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year.