When artist Rodel Tapaya was a small boy growing up in the small town of Montalban, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountains in the Philippines, it was his job to collect newspapers to wrap up the smoked fish his family would sell at the local markets.
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One of seven children, he would sometimes notice the arts pages, notice the stories about paintings and sculpture. He began to cut out the photographs of the art and put them in a little notebook, thinking that one day he might be able to create his own works of art that someone might write about in a newspaper.
Now, at 36, he is one of Asia's most successful contemporary artists, his striking paintings and sculptural works have been exhibited around the world, and, now, for the first time in this country at the National Gallery of Australia.
Rodel Tapaya: New art from the Philippines features the newly commissioned triptych, The promise land: the moon, the sun, the stars (2016), as well as paintings, works on paper and sculptural installations.
Tapaya's work reimagines traditional myths, weaving them within contemporary issues. The promise land: the moon, the sun, the stars looks at the Mindanao region of the Philippines, folk tales of winged creatures and the underworld, intertwined amongst modern political, social and environmental issues.
"My challenge to myself is always … how to make a huge work complex in composition and detail yet with harmony and unity, inspired by stories of past, true or not, from myths, legends and current events," Mr Tapaya said.
The triptych touches on the anti-drug campaign by President Rodrigo Duterte, decades of the Moro conflict, and environmental issues and social displacement arising from the natural resource boom
NGA senior curator of contemporary art, Jaklyn Babington said Mr Tapaya was a major talent from a progressive and unique contemporary art scene within the Philippines.
"His ability to weave the complex present day socio-political issues of his country with pre-colonial creation myths delivers an unnerving balance that, at times, questions the current political agenda and the future of the Philippines," she said.
Rodel Tapaya appears "In Conversation" with NGA Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Jaklyn Babington, on Saturday March 18 at 2pm.
Rodel Tapaya: New art from the Philippines is open until August 20, in the Contemporary Art Galleries on Lower Ground 1, NGA. Free entry.
