At the heart of Rodel Tapaya’s work is his ongoing amalgamation of folk narrative and contemporary reality within the framework of memory and history. Utilizing a range of media — from large acrylic on canvasses to an exploration of under-glass painting, traditional crafts, diorama, and drawing — Tapaya filters his observations of the world through folktales and pre-colonial historical research, creating whimsical montages of his characters.
Each work has its origin in Tapaya’s reflections on a particular time or place that possesses an enduring resonance, from its correspondence with the formalistic and psychological implication of the grid in his earlier works to protracted ventures which excavate and interpret myth and folk aesthetics. Inherent in the work is a tension between objective investigations of art and the subjectivity of perception and experience, providing his work with an enigma that comes from the impossibility to paint a story without revealing inflections made by the painter’s hand.
Tapaya has recently been included in a two person exhibition at the He Xiangning Art Museum Shenzhen, China. His work has been acquired by the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Singapore Art Museum; Bencab Museum, Benguet, Philippines; and the Ateneo Art Gallery, Manila, Philippines.