Existence | Ged Merino and Aze Ong

Existence
Ged Merino and Aze Ong
12 May to 13 June 2017
1F Lobby and West Wing Gallery
UP Vargas Museum

UP Vargas Museum, with support from The Drawing Room (Contemporary Art), opens Ged Merino’s and Aze Ong’s exhibition titled Existence on May 12. Public reception (which includes a performance by Aze Ong) is on May 24, Wednesday, 6pm at the 1F Galleries.

Existence presents the collaboration between Merino’s and Ong’s works that harness the spider’s mythological origins as “creator”. The industrious and meticulous ways the spider crafts its web become the stimuli for tales of deities likened as the weavers of the universe (such as the Grandmother Spider, or Spider Woman), as well as the dispositions reflective of the creativity of Filipinos who thrive in different environments. At the same time, a spider emulates the cycle from birth (conception) to death (transcendence): the emergence of life on earth.

Supplementing the exhibit are two Artist Talks by Ged Merino and Aze Ong on May 26, Friday, at 10-11:30am and 1-2:30pm at the 1F Galleries of the museum.

Existence runs until June 13.

Ged Merino (b. 1962) studied Bachelor of Fine Arts from PWU School of Fine Arts and Art Students League (New York). He represents Drawing Room Contemporary Art, Multiple Impressions (New York), Miriam Perlman Gallery (Chicago), Galeria Expreso del Arte (Bogotá, Colombia) and Turning Art. He was the recipient of different awards such as Best in Show in the Spirit of New Jersey (1991), Jackson Pollock Memorial Scholarship in Arts Student League, New York (1988), and Top Five in the ASEAN Youth Painting Delegation, Singapore (1987). Aside from local and international exhibitions, he has also been part of art fairs and biennales such as Artstage Singapore (2015).

Aze Ong (b. 1977) received her Bachelor of Communication in Media Production in Assumption College. She has exhibited in local and international galleries and museums, and her works have been part of the collections of Museo Pambata and Jeonbuk Museum of Art (Korea). She is an Asian Cultural Council Grantee (2016) and was named Solar Daybreak Artist of the Week (2014). She was featured in numerous media platforms (newspapers, magazines and TV shows), including BBC Brasil (2011) and the MAPEH on the Go 10, the K to 12 edition textbook (2015).

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