Can’t See the Forest for the Trees

Jack Bell Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Rodel Tapaya, 'Can’t See the Forest for the Trees'. This will be the artist's first solo show with the gallery.

"In this new series of portraits filled with lush flora and fauna Tapaya signals an intellectual turn to the ecocentric, spotlighting nature as the primary actor in the folklore that fuels his artistic imagination. The composition recalls a peculiar Southeast Asian artifact: Wat Mahathat's Buddha head that emerges from tree roots in Ayutthaya. Art historian Gregory Levine discusses this Buddha head to challenge our appreciation of art amidst the Anthropocene. Understood as the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems, the Anthropocene has occasioned human self-reflection about the consequences of this degeneration, reorienting the objectives of art and activism to criticising immense biospheric destruction and unequally distributed harm to people and other species." - Geronimo Cristobal