Exhibitions

Tropical Gothic offers an accessible introduction into the visual art of Angelo Valmoria Roxas. The title, borrowed from a Nick Joaquin book, nods to a masterpiece that explores hidden desires and truths unspoken. Here, Valmoria seeks to highlight a collective, unspoken yearning for legitimacy within a colonized culture. His counterpoint is a distinctive blend of nostalgic portraiture and pop art, accentuated by a defiant, insistent playfulness.

The playfulness appears as a recurring twist, referencing a character, or an object really, from an 80’s American comic strip about high school life in a town called Riverdale. The referent is obscured by its diminished popularity thus iconicity strikes the viewer with an odd sense of arbitrariness.

Yet Valmoria’s art is far from arbitrary. He paints portraits of everyday subjects—ordinary people—all adorned with crowns. In these works, the mundane is juxtaposed with a shiny symbol of legitimization, subtly drawing the viewer's attention to questions of worth and identity.

In an age of hyper-narcissism, who among us is immune to the allure of a golden crown? This recurrence stirs anticipation in the viewer—nostalgia mixed with a cool cocktail of facetious suppositions. Valmoria presents scenes such as a laughing martyr, a native man with his cock (no pun intended), a Maria Clara-esque figure in a pub, an indigenous warrior donning a paper crown, and a native beauty choosing her crown. These iconic portraits of a fast-fading past are resurrected and infused with a sly, facetious edge.

More evocative than provocative, Valmoria’s recurring visual symbols are less disruptions and more subtle invitations—a suggestion, if you will—of his still-unveiled weltanscahuung.

In Tropical Gothic, the artist depicts the mundane, drawn from his real and virtual encounters, and melds it with a pop-comic sensibility. The result is a unique blend of Filipino-ness woven with a rhetorical what if—a visual wink at contemporary Filipino life, bombarded as it is by hyped social media and fabricated histories.

For those who might dismiss the artist as a fool, Valmoria welcomes the compliment. To him, the Jughead is both king and philosopher, while the one who parades in a "real" crown may very well be the true clown.

“Tropical Gothic” is on view at Galerie Joaquin BGC from December 12 to 23 with an Artist Reception on December 12 at 5 pm. The gallery is located on the Upper Ground Floor, One Bonifacio High Street Mall, 5th Ave. Corner 28th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. For inquiries, contact +63 915 739 1549 or email galeriejoaquinbgc@gmail.com.