Cover Artworks by Filipino contemporary artist Rodel Tapaya on display at Gajah Gallery Jakarta (Photo: Gajah Gallery)
Artworks by Filipino contemporary artist Rodel Tapaya on display at Gajah Gallery Jakarta (Photo: Gajah Gallery)
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Gajah Gallery’s latest group show explores the human compulsion of ownership
Once again, the Filipino art community makes waves abroad. Gajah Gallery Jakarta recently opened its group show, Possession: To Have & To Hold, featuring the works of several established Filipino contemporary artists.
Curated by Joyce Toh, the exhibition delves into the topic of ownership and the human need to claim objects, whether due to greed or necessity. Artworks exhibited in this show are meant to question our relationship with possessions, materials or otherwise.
Possession: To Have & To Hold is on exhibition at Gajah Gallery Jakarta from August 10 to September 8. Participating artists, including national artist Benedicto Cabrera (BenCab) and Venice Biennale 2019 representative Mark Justiniani, who attended the show’s opening day. The Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia, Gina A Jamoralin, was also present as guest of honour.
Related: Gajah Gallery Singapore to feature Filipino artists in group show, ‘In Excess’
Above Rodel Tapaya, 'Many Eyes But They Cannot See,' acrylic and burlap on canvas, 2024
Above BenCab's 'Passionate Embrace' is a pastel and charcoal piece created in 2024 (Photo: Gajah Gallery)
Rodel Tapaya, 'Many Eyes But They Cannot See,' acrylic and burlap on canvas, 2024
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The show highlights the cultural similarities between the Philippines and Indonesia and emphasises their status as hubs of contemporary art. It is a successor to Gajah Gallery Singapore’s group show In Excess from October 2023, also curated by Toh and featured artists based in the Philippines.
Read more: Art curator Joyce Toh on Gajah Gallery Singapore’s group show ‘In Excess’
The exhibition’s name plays with the many facets of the word ‘possession’—of owning, consuming and collecting material objects, or perhaps intense emotional and psychological states. This can be seen in BenCab’s Passionate Embrace, a pastel and charcoal piece depicting a couple with their arms locked around each other, suggesting a kind of mutual “ownership” regarding the man and woman’s love and fidelity towards one another. The act of embracing can also symbolise possession of “claiming” through physical touch.
Above Rocky Cajigan's 'There are no saints here' is an acrylic on canvas painting created in 2024 (Photo: Gajah Gallery)
Above Marina Cruz, 'Kinship,' oil and embroidery on canvas, 2024 (Photo: Gajah Gallery)
Rocky Cajigan's 'There are no saints here' is an acrylic on canvas painting created in 2024 (Photo: Gajah Gallery)
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The participating artists are BenCab, Kawayan de Guia, Kiri Dalena, Leslie de Chavez, Marina Cruz, Mark Justiniani, Nona Garcia, Rocky Cajigan, and Rodel Tapaya. Possession marks the return of Cruz, De Chavez, and Justiniani, whose works were showcased at In Excess.
Additionally, the artists have collaborated with the gallery’s foundry, the Yogya Art Lab (YAL) in Yogyakarta. This endeavour empowers these creatives to conceive works with new materials, fostering an exchange of ideas to enhance their own practices.
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Julianna has been interested in leading a literary life since she first read Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess at eight. Before working with Tatler, she was an archive intern at The Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York. She is a textbook Pisces who devotes most of her spare time to her crochet projects, watching classic films, and going through her never-ending pile of unread books. She studied creative writing, global literature and art history at Sarah Lawrence College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2022. Toni Morrison, Nora Ephron, Clarice Lispector and Jia Tolentino are among her all-time favourite writers.
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Julianna writes about fashion, beauty, sustainability, and the arts. She is always keen on conducting interviews with talented women who are changing the game in their respective fields.
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