KAREN
FLORES (born 1966, Kalookan City) graduated with a Bachelor of Fine
Arts degree, major in painting, from the University of the Philippines
in Diliman, Quezon City in 1989.
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Fruit
39" X 26.5" acrylic on canvas
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Despite
the select number of group shows she has joined since she was a student,
she has managed to maintain a considerable, if not formidable, presence
in the Philippine contemporary art scene. Flores gave her first solo
exhibition in 1994. She has received several awards and grants. She
was artist-in-residence of the Australian Regional Exchange (ARX) held
in Perth in 1994. Recently she participated in a conference with four
other women visual artists from Singapore and Australia. They have established
a collective called SURGE (Southeast Asian Union for Research & Regenerative
Exchange) and the initial effort is to establish a web-based forum that
will tackle the five Rs - Race, Religion, Region, Rhetoric and Realities.
Flores admits that as a painter, she is an impulsive borrower. She is
particularly partial to using mid-19th-century Philippine colonial costumes
made famous by the most popular artist at that time, Damian Domingo.
She likens these beautiful elegant costumes to portable gilded cages
that she believes smack of the ridiculous and yet speak as much of our
predicament then as our predicament now. Despite the select number of
group shows she has joined since she was a student, she has managed
to maintain a considerable, if not formidable, presence in the Philippine
contemporary art scene. Flores gave her first solo exhibition in 1994.
She has received several awards and grants. She was artist-in-residence
of the Australian Regional Exchange (ARX) held in Perth in 1994. Recently
she participated in a conference with four other women visual artists
from Singapore and Australia. They have established a collective called
SURGE (Southeast Asian Union for Research & Regenerative Exchange) and
the initial effort is to establish a web-based forum that will tackle
the five R's - Race, Religion, Region, Rhetoric and Realities. Flores
admits that as a painter, she is an impulsive borrower. She is particularly
partial to using mid-19th-century Philippine colonial costumes made
famous by the most popular artist at that time, Damian Domingo. She
likens these beautiful elegant costumes to portable gilded cages that
she believes smack of the ridiculous and yet speak as much of our predicament
then as our predicament now.
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