Geraldine Javier

Geraldine Javier is a contemporary Filipina Visual Artist whose work is best known for her work which blends of painting with various media, and is "recognized as one of the most celebrated Southeast Asian artists both in the academic world and in the art market."

She rose to prominence in 2003 when she received the Cultural Center of the Philippines' Thirteen Artists award., notes: "Instead of stretching her canvases, she incorporates her oil painting into her installations, sewing them like tapestries into tent structures that evoke the feeling of 'home'."

Her immediate sources of references are film and photography. "Some of her most vivid memories of childhood include afternoon sessions in front of the television watching classics like Knife in the Water by Ingmar Bergman, or local films such as Kisapmata, Itim, Insiang and Himala by Filipino directors Lino Brocka, Ishmael Bernal, whose sensibilities evoke those of old, moody European films." "She belongs to a new generation of young Filipino artists whose interests are variegated and extensive, and who, unlike their social-realist predecessors, are engaged in pursuing the personal and the idiosyncratic. These voices from the periphery express powerful individual narratives influenced by international media and local pop culture. Their works are charged with tension and provocation, combining cool, calculated sophistication with raw urban grit -“the general low-end third world stuff.” "The Philippines is perhaps now the most staunchly Catholic of countries. Many Filipino artists are virulently opposed to the Catholic Church’s continued domination of society and respond with blasphemous detournements of its imagery and objects. Javier ... has long since stopped attending church but though in a work such as Blood Type C (Catholic), Major Major G (Guilt) of 2011 she has attacked its control she has also made work that recreates her delight as a child in making images of saints or performing ceremonies."

Solo exhibitions Exhibitions in the Philippines include:

“Fearing, Doubting, Wondering, Hoping, Dreaming” at Arario Gallery, Shanghai, China (2018). "Beginnings and Endings" at the West Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines (2017). "Curiosities" at the Vargas Museum, U.P. Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines (2013) "Red Fights Back” at Silverlens Gallery, Makati, Philippines (2012). “2012 Inventory” at West Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines (2012). "Always Wild, Still Wild” at Finale Art File, Makati, Philippines (2011) "Butterfly's Tongue" at the West Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines (2009). "Asia: LOOKING SOUTH" at ARNDT, Berlin (2011). “Incidental Pleasure” at MO Space, Taguig, Philippines (2012). “STRIP Painters as Photographers” at Silverlens Gallery, Makati, Philippines (2011). “Beacons of Archipelago: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia” at Arario Gallery, Cheonan, South Korea (2010). “Prague Biennale 2009” Prague, Czech Republic (2009). “I Have Nothing to Paint and I’m Painting It” at MO Gallery, Fort Bonifacio, Manila, Philippines (2007). “Headlights 2007” at Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2007). “The Way We Get By” at West Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines (2006). “Signed & Dated - our 10th Anniversary Edition” at Valentine Willie Fine Art, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2006).

Achievements Participated at the Prague Biennale, Prague, Czech Republic (2009). Awarded with the Thirteen Artists Award, issued by the Cultural Centre of the Philippines (CCP), Manila. Recipient of the Ateneo Art Awards, issued by the Ateneo Art Gallery, Philippines (2004)