[WEBCAST] Ocean as Boundary: Filipino American Artists' Perspectives from Three Coasts

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Checking in from the East, Gulf, and West Coasts, artists Jeanne F. Jalandoni, Matt Manalo, and Charlene Tan will discuss their current perspectives on visual arts in their areas. In a broad-ranging conversation, each of the artists will share insights on how their practice and their approach to creating has been impacted in recent months, and what they are focusing on through their current work and research.

These three artists work across a broad spectrum of media and draw from their Filipino American heritage in their respective practices. Charlene Tan’s work is inspired by her Filipina-Chinese-American identity, reconnecting her with the artistic cultural heritage of tribal weaving patterns of the Philippines. Through his work involving elements of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and printmaking, Matt Manalo discusses his first-generation immigrant experiences navigating around the physical and social structures of society while exploring social issues like erasure, colorism, and colonial mentality. Working primarily with the combination of paint and textile, Jeanne Jalandoni reflects on her Filipino American history and personal experiences to establish her own bicultural identity.

Schedule

Tuesday, June 16, 2020
7:30 p.m. Moderated Discussion
8:15 p.m. Audience Q&A — Questions welcome via YouTube Live and Facebook Live

About the Artists

Jeanne F. Jalandoni (b. 1993, New York, NY) received her BFA in Studio Art from New York University (2015). Working primarily with the combination of paint and textile, Jeanne reflects on her Filipino American history and personal experiences to establish her own bicultural identity. In 2019 she was a Real Art Ways Grant Recipient (Hartford, CT), as well as a recipient of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Creative Engagement Grant, which was used towards her curatorial debut, Cultural Cousins: a show of Latinx and Filipinx artists (2019).This Fall she will be an artist in residence at the Textile Art Center (Brooklyn, NY).

Website: Jeannefjalandoni.com
Instagram: @jfjalandoni.art

Matt Manalo is an artist and community organizer. He was born and raised in Manila, Philippines and has called Houston, TX home since 2004. He received his BFA in Painting at the University of Houston. He runs a community-based alternative art space called the Alief Art House and founded Filipinx Artists of Houston.

Matt Manalo creates work which involves elements of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and printmaking. Being a first generation immigrant, Manalo discusses his experiences navigating around the physical and social structures of society while exploring social issues like erasure, colorism, and colonial mentality in his work.

Website: http://www.mattmanalo.com/
Instagram: @mattmanalo

Charlene Tan is an interdisciplinary artist, whose work is thematically focused on the immigrant diaspora and its repercussions, post-assimilation identity, and anthropological investigations of nationalism and cultural heritage. Her work is inspired by her Filipina-Chinese-American identity reconnecting her artistic cultural heritage of tribal weaving patterns of the Philippines. Using found images by means of digital scanning these images are edited to pare down to the essence of the pattern. Once free of scale and color, Tan retraces the patterns to attempt to create a muscle memory of a cultural expression that was once commonplace with her ancestors.

Her work has been included in solo and group exhibitions in the US, and is part of several private collections. She holds a BA in History and Theory of Contemporary Art with a focus on New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute. Houston, Texas born, she lived in the Philippines before moving to San Francisco for her education and work, and is currently a visiting artist at Minnesota Street Studios.

Website: http://charlene-tan.com/index.php?/cv/
Instagram: @char.art.tan

Moderated by Bridget Bray, Nancy C. Allen Curator and Director of Exhibitions.

Business and Policy programs are endowed by Huffington Foundation. We give special thanks to Bank of America, Muffet Blake, Anne and Albert Chao, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Nancy Pollok Guinee, United Airlines, and Wells Fargo, Presenting Sponsors of Business and Policy programs; Nancy C. Allen, Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, and Leslie and Brad Bucher, Presenting Sponsors of Exhibitions; Dr. Ellen R. Gritz and Milton D. Rosenau and Wells Fargo, Presenting Sponsors of Performing Arts and Culture; and Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), Presenting Sponsor of the Japan Series. General support of programs and exhibitions is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc., The Hearts Foundation, Inc., Houston Endowment, Inc., the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, McKinsey & Company, Inc., National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, Vinson & Elkins LLP, and Mary Lawrence Porter, as well as Friends of Asia Society.

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