RM DE LEON
NOVEMBER 10 - 28, 2017

Archivo 1984 proudly presents "No Plans", a solo exhibition by RM De Leon featuring his new paintings which runs until 28 November 2017. The exhibition takes a direction of randomness from which no specific visual agenda or narrative is imposed. Here, discontinued or unseen permutations archived through the years are repurposed, only stopping when the composition has achieved a sense of formal elegance. The outputs have resulted in vibrantly humorous paintings, which embody an unexpected order amidst the offbeat. All this manifests a playful irony, as seen in found images reworked with blotted lines, and repetitious stamp-like figures.

De Leon’s practice has often tackled established formal standards of painting and image-making. He explores the possibilities of crossbreeding painterly acts and graphic design sensibilities. Pop culture images, the cartoonish and kitsch, and even the banal are processed with a seemingly personalized Warholian approach. De Leon presented just that in his first solo exhibition at Archivo 1984: “Dust Drawings and Other Works” (2015), which showcased a survey of several early period pieces. These were produced under the mentorship of Roberto Chabet in the 1980s, combined with recent works based on rudimentary images he has collected overtime. In his practice, De Leon has mastered the cancellation of the obvious; the result is an amalgamation of images that straddle the boundaries between representation and abstraction; painting and graphic design. He creates works that seemingly embody the contemporary nature and obscurity of the overwhelming bombardment of fleeting images in today’s technological armageddon.

RM De Leon finished a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, Major in Painting at the University of the Philippines in 1984.  With an artistic practice that spans almost three decades, his work has been exhibited in numerous solo exhibition and group shows both in the Philippines and abroad. An accomplished artist, De Leon was one of the recipients of the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Thirteen Artists Awards in 1990. He was the first Filipino awardee of the Vermont Studio Center, Studio Arts Program for Painting. He is currently an art professor at the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde.