ARTIST: RYAN VILLAMAEL

BIOGRAPHY
 Ryan Villamael born 1987 in
Laguna, Philippines, represents a new
generation sought after by collectors. He
has worked across several media before
settling on paper as the primary canvas for
his cutouts, obeying intricate anatomical patterns and unfolding. He is now based in Quezon,
City.
 In one of the interview of Ryan Villamael, he said that when he do his arts it’s like you’re
finding your process, He knew what he wanted to do and He know himself more without
explaining it because it is in his work.
  Villamael has been included in several group shows while still pursuing a Bachelor’s degree
in Painting from the University of the Philippines up to the time of his graduation in 2009.
Since then, his works have been shown both locally and abroad which include Singapore and
Hong Kong, and has staged three solo exhibitions to this date. Although his persistence in
sustaining a discipline more often subjected to handicraft has been evident from his works,
Villamael maintains that his primary interest lies rather on the conceptual significance of
craft in the process of creating contemporary art, and continues to recognize the possibility
of how his works can still evolve under this light. 
 He is a recipient of the Ateneo Art Award in 2015 and the three international residency grants
funded by the Ateneo Art Gallery and its partner institutions: La Trobe University Visual Arts
Center in Bendigo, Australia; Artesan Gallery in Singapore and Liverpool Hope University
in Liverpool, UK. He is participating in the forthcoming Singapore Biennale.
VISUAL TRADEMARK

 Ryan Villamael is a Filipino visual artist who has gained recognition for his innovative use
of the technique of paper cutting – starting from his early two-dimensional and symmetrical
configurations to three dimensional works. His recent works explore the notion of physical
and political geographies using maps and archival photographs.
 One of the few artists of his generation to have abstained from the more liberal modes of
artistic expression to resort to more deliberate handiwork found in cut paper, Ryan
Villamael's method follows the decorative nature innate to his medium of choice. The
province Laguna where the artist hails from is famed for the craft of paper cutting that
originated from the Spanish era. However, from Villamael's intricately latticed constructions
emerge images that defy ornamental patchwork found in the provincial craft. It instead
becomes a treatise of a unique vision that encompasses both inner and outer conditions
occupying the psyche - from the oblique complexity of imagined organisms to the outright
effects of living in a convoluted city.

 In Ryan Villamael’s new exhibition, Isles, he puts together his technique of paper cutting
along with the art of cartography or map-making. These two seemingly opposing things find
themselves a certain commonality. Whether one is looking into the figure of a patch of land
or the surfaces formed out of paper, the process looks into a certain investigation,
imagination and even can be an instrument towards self-discovery. Somewhere between the
created universe of maps in this new exhibition as against the human imagination, one sees
something else forming amidst Villamael’s meticulous paper cutouts creating intricate forms
taking themselves somewhere else as they work from the artist’s own subjective point of
view to that of the viewer’s. Perhaps somewhere along these maps are like a subconscious
actuality about to be unveiled.

SOCIO-CULTURAL IMPACT:

 Villamael's work contests imposed borders, meticulously carving out his own entities. He
transforms the two-dimensional records of the dominant into fantastical delicate sculptures
or a miniature city scape. Ryan is the recipient of the 2015 Ateneo Art Gallery / La Trobe
University Visual Arts Centre Residency Grant.
 Ryan Villamael, one of the three winners of the 2015 Ateneo Art Awards, blurs the
boundaries of art and craft through his sculptural paper cut outs. The menial task of paper-
 cutting is elevated into critically acclaimed artwork that is the manifestation of Villamael’s
views on global politics. In Isles, his 2014 solo exhibition that earned him the award, he
brings to life maps, designing and cutting them into elegant patterns and then molding them
into sculptures encased in vitrines. Although Villamael graduated in 2009 from the College
of Fine Arts, UP Diliman with a major in Painting, his exhibitions since then have mostly
featured his cut out works such as his two exhibitions, Flatland and Kosmik that were
shortlisted for the Ateneo Art Awards. His exploration of current issues through a traditional
craft based medium resonated with the Ateneo Art Gallery’s institutional partners La
Trobe University Visual Arts Centre in Australiam, Artesan Gallery + Studio in Singapore
and The Creative Campus Liverpool Hope University, UK, all of which selected him for
their artist in residence program.

ARTISTIC INFLUENCES

 As a child Villamael said he was always curious about "creating stuff with his hands" and
spent his childhood collecting discarded objects, such as sticks, to build castles. Having an
architect father provided the inspiration for his fascination with structures and his love of
building with Lego. Eventually Villamel went on to complete a bachelor degree in painting
from the University of the Philippines. But it was the familiarity of paper that he was drawn
to, having worked with it not only at university for printmaking and collage but as a medium
from his youth.

 However the artist worked at a number of menial jobs including a stint with a McDonald's
fast food restaurant. He said being a creative person, he eventually went back to his studio
and was inspired — after seeing piles of paper — to create a series of unfinished collages and
paper cut outs. When a friend visited his studio, she suggested he work towards an exhibition.
He has since gone on to hold a number of solo and group exhibitions in the Philippines and
abroad.

SHOWS
Behold A City, 2015
Isles, 2014
Territory, 2013
relikt, 2013
Ley Hunting, 2013
Ley Hunting, 2012
Flatland, 2012
Working in Progress, 2011
On the Radar: Six New Symptoms, 2011
Cut Felt, 2011

Sources:
http://www.silverlensgalleries.com/artist.php?ryan-villamael=15&index=artists
http://ateneoartgallery.org/artspeak-with-ryan-villamael/
http://www.latrobe.edu.au/events/all/art-forum-ryan-villamael-paul-northam
http://www.odetoart.com/?p=artist&a=365,Ryan%20Villamael
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-11/bendigo-art-exhibition-tackles-colonialism-using-paper-
cutouts/7315846