People often expect contemporary art to be dark and shocking. But BBC filmmaker Matthew Collings has argued in his documentary “Impressionism: Revenge of the Nice” that the source of this state can be traced to the 19th century Impressionist practices of the likes of Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and post-impressionist Paul Cezanne. Avant garde precisely because of their insistence that beauty be the starting point of any work of art, these artists have shown that what is nice can also be revolutionary-an interesting proposition in today’s visual art scene.
Artist Carlo Ongchangco works with this idea in his new show at Galerie Stephanie, entitled “Revenge of the Cute.” Not your normal exhibition, the exhibition takes the concepts and characters of Ongchangco’s narrative practice and re-imagines them in a plethora of different styles and media-including painting, sculpture, and video installations. And for this exhibit, Ongchangco has partnered up with fashion giant Mossimo to create one-of-kind clocks with acrylic paintings of his characters.
The exhibit will run until July 2 at Galerie Stephanie located at Unit 1B Parc Plaza Bldg., 183 E. Rodriguez Jr. Ave., Libis, Quezon City. For more information please call: (632) 709-1488 or email [email protected]. Please visit their website at www.galeriestephanie.com.
Cover: Hamid Hassan of IM Models and Dada Wolf 
