SILVERLENS is pleased to present Striking Affinities, a solo exhibition by Santiago Bose. This show, curated by Patrick Flores, marks the second cycle of the three-part project planned for the late artist; the first instalment, Bare Necessities occurred in 2019. All spaces within the gallery will be dedicated to this presentation, which features a myriad of works that reflect Bose’s artistic influences from a lifetime of travel and creative experimentation.
The exhibition explores the geographic coordinates of Santiago Bose’s practice: Baguio, Manila, New York, Adelaide, Bali, and Spratly Islands. These places are homelands, contact zones, passage ways, hot spots, exhibition sites – shaping the work of Bose in the same way that the artist in a reciprocal gesture shaped them. They are mapped out in the exhibition to remember the movements of Bose as well as to understand how he likewise speculated on possible worlds beyond the existing cartography within which he circulated with interest, if not with alacrity. Part of the three-part Bose project, this second iteration follows through Bare Necessities, which laid out the groundwork of artistic impulse and the fundamentals of risk. Words by Patrick Flores.
Santiago Bose (25 July 1949 – 3 December 2002; Baguio City, Philippines) was a mixed-media artist from the Philippines. Bose co-founded the Baguio ArtsGuild, and was also an educator, community organizer and art theorist. Bose often used indigenous media in his work, ranging from bamboo and volcanic ash, to the cast-offs and debris (found objects, bottles, “trash”). His assemblages communicated a strong sense of folk consciousness and religiosity, and the strength of traditional cultures in a culture inundated with foreign cultural influences.
Bose worked toward raising an awareness of cultural concerns in the Philippines. After studying at the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines between 1967 and 1972, Bose continued his studies in the United States, at the West 17th Print Workshop in New York. He returned to Baguio in 1986 and began his explorations into the effects of colonialism on the Philippine national identity. In particular, Bose focused on the resilience of indigenous cultures, like that of his home region of the Cordilleras.
Bose was the founding president of the Baguio Arts Guild in 1987. He became president again in 1992. The Guild is an active cultural association in the northern Cordillera region, emphasizing regional tribal traditions and the importance of using indigenous materials. Bose played a formative role in establishing the Baguio International Arts Festival.
Bose was granted the Thirteen Artists Award by the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1976. He has exhibited in major international events such as the Third Asian Art Show in Fukuoka, Japan and the Havana Biennial held in Cuba, both in 1989. In 1993, he was invited to the First Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art held at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia. In 2000 Bose’s work was included in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco’s exhibition At Home & Abroad, 20 Contemporary Filipino Artists. In June 2002, he was presented the “Gawad ng Maynila: Patnubay ng Sining at Makabagong Pamamaraan” (Cultural Award for New Media presented to outstanding Filipino Artist) by the City of Manila. In 2006, he was posthumously shortlisted for the National Artist Award.

mpefm PHILIPPINES art press release