Paradigmal Traps – Jigger Cruz

Tang Contemporary Art is proud to present “Paradigmal Traps”, a solo exhibition by Filipino artist Jigger Cruz, curated by Michela Sena. This exhibition will feature both paintings and drawings by the artist, created in 2021.

Update: The exhibition has been rescheduled for 7 August – 12 September. Dates are subject to change again.

Jigger Cruz returns with a body of work that challenges perception rendered in his signature style. Tubes of oil paint squeezed onto the canvas, spray painting and decisive, confident strokes create a rough and thick three-dimensional surface that meets in a grid of colored lines, in a nervous tangle. Strips of color overlap, travelling in parallel or intertwining, pushed by the artist’s impulsive gesture.

This exhibition, continuing Cruz’s latest developments, features a color palette subtly desaturated, almost tending to cool tones, which smoothly depart from the artist’s typical use of bold, vivid colors. From the original aim of producing contrasts and shock, Cruz’ palette guides us into a more discreet and minimalist atmosphere, perhaps turning from an explicit dialectic with the external world towards an introspective dimension. Smoothly flowing onto a reflection on his own aesthetic, a more self-referential phase, he makes blunt the original vehemence, allowing his art the state of a statement, still questioning itself to find its own relevance.