(UP TO MARCH 30, 2024) Potential, Potency and Woman Printmakers: Selection of Prints from the CCP 1st Century Art Museum (21AM) Collection

Opening: October 6, 2023 | 4:00 PM

The title of the exhibition comes from the essay written by Imelda Cajipe Endaya for the Association of Pinoyprintmakers’ 50th anniversary show Tirada: 50 years of Philippine Printmaking 1968-2018. In the text, Endaya recalls the involvement and contribution of women printmakers in the founding of PhiIippine Association of Printmakers (PAP) in the 70’s and evaluates how female labor and sensibilities inform and deepen the artistic practice of printmaking. The gathering of works by women artists from the collection hopes to highlight the values that are practical in the creative process such aptitude for repetitive processes, replication, attention to detail, and modest but impactful experimentation.

A part of the collection exhibition aims to focus on Ileana Lee’s conceptual and abstract explorations in printmaking that visually capture the tactility of her artistic process. Lee was born in Sarabia, Negros Occidental in 1952 and has spent her childhood until her high school days in Visayas. In 1977, she made an installation work using dotted tapes to demarcate a space in various spaces such as Shop 6, MOPA and the CCP Main Gallery. This was described by a critic as “an act of reclaiming the space of women artists in the art world.” The major part of the exhibition will be a selection of works from the section Women Expressions in WOMAN: Thesis and Antithesis held at the Yuchengco Museum that are artworks made with a wide range of printmaking techniques. They reflect the artists’ different concerns of their times from the sociopolitical commentary works to works that also deal with eco-political and the planetary primarily. Also to be part of the exhibition to converse with the prints from the collection are those from the 20/30: A Limited Edition Print Portfolio in Celebration of the 50th Year Anniversary of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. This print portfolio is a collection of fine prints using traditional printmaking techniques by practitioners who have contributed to the development of Philippine contemporary printmaking and who represent a wide range of generations in Philippine art.