NADA Art Fair New York 2023
May 18-21
Recovering Filipino Folk Tradition
Ontopo at NADA NYC 2023 presents a vibrant showcase featuring Bhen Alan's Tago ng Tago series curated by Jon Santos. This collection reflects Alan's engagement with traditional Filipino materials and craft, while addressing contemporary issues of cultural heritage, labor, and migration. The work draws on the artist’s exploration of abaca, bamboo, and other natural materials, creating an immersive installation that connects personal and collective histories with current social narratives. Ontopo’s presentation is part of their broader commitment to highlighting experimental and site-specific practices in Hawaiian contemporary art.
Bhen Alan
Kanne Arsag
2021-22
Bamboo leaves, canvas, fabrics, yarns, canvas threads, phragmites, shells, twine, rattan, abaca and industrial plastic fence on stretcher bar.
108 x 60 inches
Bhen Alan
Station of the Cross 1
2021
Canvas, coconut leaves, rattan, dried fruits, coins, twine, abaca, fabrics, handmade paper flowers, threads, electrical tubing
84 x 45 x 20 inches
Bhen Alan
Tinikling
2022
Rattan, bamboo leaves, industrial fence on stretcher bar
80 x 40 inches
Bhen Alan
Anak ko (My child)
2022
Acrylic, hand woven twine on stretcher bar
29 x 40.5 x 1.5 inches
Press
Across various mediums, contemporary artists from the Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora draw on traditional art techniques. From Kashmiri embroidery to Native Hawaiian kapa to Indigenous Filipino banig weaving, new generations are not only embracing and preserving these legacies, but also expanding the artistic possibilities of these methods.
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Woven Choreographies: Inside the Movement with Bhen Alan
Alan’s first and most foundational form of expression. Through movement, he made use of an innate talent while upholding the rituals of his ancestors. “When I was growing up in the Philippines, I was trained to dance folk dances—cultural dances—to preserve our culture and traditions, and especially our stories,” he said. “There are a lot of stories involved in the movement and in the choreography itself that you can’t articulate verbally.”
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‘The Dust, the Paint, the Glue’: Artists at NADA New York Embrace Household Materials and Domestic Scenes While Digital Art Recedes
The works pair well with those by Filipino-American weaver Bhen Alan, presented by the gallery Ontopo. Alan is currently on a Fulbright studying indigenous Filipino weaving techniques.
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Bhen Alan included in NADA Curated by Catherine Taft
This exhibition was an invitation for artists to speculate about the future and the potential worlds that are imagined through present-tense-endings. Artists were asked to think beyond any notion of the apocalyptic and instead reflect on how life will adapt to experiences of a new now, be that political, industrial, ecological, terrestrial, and so on. The response was overwhelmingly vast and varied. That so many artists are toying with these ideas should make us take notice. They are among our most important world-builders.
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For press inquiries, please contact Jon Santos at jon@commonspacestudio.com.
Follow and tag Bhen Alan @bhen_alan and
Ontopo on Instagram: @on_topo
Bhen Alan website: https://www.bhenalanart.com/
Participating Artists
Bhen Alan
