ArtSpeak: Manuel Ocampo in conversation with Angel Velasco Shaw

In 1815, Spanish court painter Francisco Goya was commissioned to paint La Junta de la Compania de Filipinas, his largest work, to commemorate the annual meeting of the Royal Company. To mark the painting’s bicentenary in 2015, the Musée Goya in Castres, France invited Manuel Ocampo to do a five week residency to react to this work. His profound interest on Goya has since informed his recent projects.Working from the landmark aquatint etchings Los Caprichos and the Ateneo Art Gallery’s collection of Los Disparates, also known as Los Proverbios, Manuel Ocampo and Jigger Cruz, collaborate on divining into the medium of painting, invoking the spirit of uninhibited artistic activity.

Working from Francisco Goya's landmark aquatint etchings "Los Caprichos" and the Ateneo Art Gallery’s collection of Goya's Los Disparates, also known as Los Proverbios, Manuel Ocampo and Jigger Cruz, collaborate on divining into the medium of painting, invoking the spirit of uninhibited artistic activity. Capriccio or caprice, a term used to refer to works that combines elements to form a fantastical tableau, is used by Goya far beyond its whimsical denotation to comment on “ the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilized society, and from the common prejudices and deceitful practices which custom, ignorance or self-interest have made usual" ( The Sleep of Reason, Linda Simon). Making the most of the medium’s qualities, the series draw out such grotesqueries in the interplay of shadow and light, casting their resonance ever more profoundly from 200 years ago from their first printing, laying bare the same “anxiety, violence, sadism, lust, and ambivalence that continue to haunt our present times.