Transcend : New Works

I met Eliezer John “EJ” Cabangon a long time ago, in fact what seems a lifetime, with a band of artists who remain great friends to this day. Soon after, he held a show together with colleague Olan Ventura at Artesan Singapore entitled Mirror, Mirror in 2007.

I don’t think I have ever met an artist of such cool and unflappable demeanour. Here is an artist who is shy, sensitive, a perfectionist and a true gentleman. He is an extremely meticulous and detailed artist, and prides himself in his quest for exactness and detail, painstakingly rendering every strand of fur, each and every eyelash of a doll’s eye, and every glimmer of light through a glass marble. And then, everything literally comes to life! He is an artist who can conjure up images like a magician, and leave you stranded in his world.  But even more interesting, EJ captures that moment in time when our imagination drops into a noiseless subsistence and we are in his world, and begin to reach out to grasp the object in front of us. What EJ creates are not just inanimate objects per se, because they are both narrative and emotive.

I am pleased that EJ has tackled the critical issue of today’s media as a wasteland of our children’s heroes, icons in fact that are bait from the capital world. Many artists would agree with satirist and social critic Bill Hicks who once said “watching the black box is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.” I’m all for dissolving that entire wasteland.  It has taken me years to finally show EJ’s latest works to the world. I am very proud to finally present his first solo exhibition with Artesan Gallery + Studio entitled Transcend : New Works by EJ Cabangon; even happier and proud to showcase his solo collection at Art Fair Philippines 2016.

Roberta Dans

Founder and Director

Artesan Gallery + Studio

Singapore

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