Jose (Jojo) Legaspi

Jose (Jojo) Legaspi plays with the light of pastel to create dark portraits that seem to dramatize the explosion inevitable after the repression of a society, sexually and otherwise. His pastel drawings express with a sense of great pathos and drama the internal conflict within the Philippine psyche, as he seems to experience it.

Legaspi’s work is informed by wide interests. His university education in the Philippines included biology and zoology, and he once planned a medical career. This scientific background is evident in the detachment with which Legaspi presents his images of violence and horror. His work is concerned with the investigation of personal psychological states, and his sculptures and drawings build on disturbing childhood memories. Legaspi’s bleak and obsessional imagery can be confronting, but is often filled with tenderness and pity, evoking the dualism of love and hate that exists in daily life. There are several sources for Legaspi’s images, such as the religious fascination with the gruesome details of Christ’s crucifixion and the martyrdom of the Saints. The daily reality of poverty, corruption and violence for many Filipinos is another source. The artist’s own sense of sexual alienation, being an openly gay man within a society generally intolerant of homosexuality, also inflects his work.

Born 1959
Manila, The Philippines
Lives and works in Manila, The Philippines

Solo exhibitions*
2001 ‘Phlegm’, Art in General, New York, USA
2000 ‘Aberrations in Monochrome’, Hiraya Gallery, Manila
1999 ‘Nightmare Obsession’, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
‘Nausea’, Pao Galleries, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong; The Philippines (performance)
1998 ‘Knives’, Hiraya Gallery, Manila
1997 ‘Monkey Head’, Studio 10, San Francisco, USA (performance)
‘FlipSide’, Club 64, Central, Hong Kong
1996 Performance at the home of Shirley Nakao, Godzilla West Group, Pro Arts
Gallery, Oakland, USA
‘Whitey’, ProArts Gallery, San Francisco, USA (performance)
1994 ‘The Feast’, San Francisco Art Institute, USA (performance)
1992 ‘Kazushi Kawashima and Other Desolate Gods’, Cultural Center of
The Philippines
‘Profane Corpse’, Galerie Constantinople, Queanbeyan, Australia
Club Dredd, Quezon City (performance)
1990 ‘Diary of a Dead Man’, ArtLab, Manila
1989 ‘My Dearest Kazushi’, Kulay Diwa Art Gallery, Paranaque
1982 ‘Dissertation on Phantasmagoric Biology’, Gallery Upstairs, Makati City
1980 ‘Plantigraphs’, Museum Hallway, Cultural Center of The Philippines

Selected group exhibitions*
2002 ‘36 Ideas from Southeast Asia’, Museum Kuppersmuhle Sammlung
Grothe, Duisberg, Germany; Hungary
2001 ‘From the Sea of Trees’, Ashiya City Museum of Art and History, Japan
2000 ‘El Poder de Narar (The Power of Narration)’, Espai d'Art Contemporani
de Castello, Spain
‘Faith and the City’, Earl Lu Gallery, Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts,
Singapore; Malaysia
‘Confinement, Release and Exuberance’, Tramhuis 1.2.3., Rotterdam, The
Netherlands
1999 ‘Diobok-Obok Continuities and Contingencies in South East Asian Art’, Singapore Art Museum
‘A Matter of Art’, Philippine International Convention Center, Manila
‘Archetypes’, Tramhuis 1.2.3., Rotterdam, The Netherlands
1997 ‘Re-Forms’, Alliance Française de Manille, Makati City
‘Across Borders, Against AIDS’, Hiraya Gallery, Manila
1995 ‘Reframing a Heritage’, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
1993 ‘Kayumanggi Presence ‘93’, Academy Art Center at Linekona, Hawaii,
USA
1992 ‘My Life in the Resistance’, ArtLab, Manila
‘ArtLab Road Tour’, Galeria de las Islas, Manila
’14 Nautical Miles’, Galerie Constantinople, Queanbeyan, Australia
‘The UNESCO Poetry Event’, Café Orfeo, Manila

Qualifications, grants & awards*
2001 Artist-in-residence, Art In General, New York, USA
1986 Graduate Program, College of Fine Arts, University of The Philippines,
Quezon City
1983 MSc (Biological Science), University of Santo Tomas, Manila
1979 BSc (Zoology), University of Santo Tomas, Manila

Kulay-Diwa  is a venue for Philippines and Southeast Asian Contemporary Art. Inaugurated on February 7, 1987, Kulay-Diwa, is strategically located within a cluster of communities South of Manila.  It has five independent exhibition areas able to accommodate large-scale works and a garden ideal for programs, performances and sculpture installations.  The goal of the gallery is to discover and promote the works of young, talented but deserving Filipino Artists and to foster cultural interaction and exchanges with the local regions and other countries.

Kulay (Colour)

Diwa  (Spirit, Thought)

The images below are examples of the artist’s work and are not necessarily available. However, if you are interested in any of the artist’s artworks, please let us know through our feedback form and we will get in touch with you as soon as some are available.

Phlegm 2000– 02 is made up of 1000 intimate, monochrome charcoal drawings on loose-leaf bond paper. They are arranged as a grid on the walls of a room devoted to their display. The images are arranged by the artist in an apparently random sequence, compounding the work’s nightmarish quality by frustrating the viewer’s attempts to construct a linear narrative. These images depict a realm of human behaviour in which sexual pleasure meets pain. The figures in these compositions take part in bizarre and repulsive acts, often appearing to be trapped in a cell-like space.

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