Cholo Cardenas’ works ‘in one’s mind’s eye’ and ‘carpet rollers’ awaken childhood memories of frolicking outside and rolling about in the comfort of one’s home. Free and easy, whether outside or in, Cardenas sees ‘serious play’ as a matter of mind over environment or circumstance.
The imagery for these latest works is culled from Cardenas’ own childhood “living a slow life”. He found his artistic niche as a young adult entering the University of the Philippines Diliman’s College of Fine Arts, citing Sir Benjie Cabangis as a major influence in developing his visual sensibilities. His painting The Allegory of Gynandromorph Butterflies later earned him the Outstanding Thesis Award. Unlike the days he had cherished, things for the young Cardenas were moving fast, and, not very long after, the painting inspired a whole collection of works that was then mounted as his first solo exhibition at Vinyl on Vinyl.
The evolution of The Allegory of Gynandromorph Butterflies into a series of narrative paintings demonstrated the artist’s keen talent for storytelling. In it, as the title suggests, he builds a metaphorical world marked by lived experiences and interactions—particularly within a society unaccepting of non-binary gender. The work had been the product of a deeply reflective journey toward self-actualization. “I want my point of view and experience to be shared through visual art,” the artist says. “I felt that painting is the best way to communicate those narratives since it has always been my preferred medium.” Among the many entrancing and distinctive qualities of Cardenas’ make-believe world are his “candy-colored palette” and a miniaturistic approach to landscapes reminiscent of Pieter Breughel’s works. These lend themselves to a faux-naïf aesthetic that welcomes a viewer, perhaps a little beguilingly, and implores them to stay. Playfully persuasive in immersing his viewers in otherwise difficult interactions and uncomfortable (or unfamiliar) realities, “Ultimately,” he writes in his exhibition notes, “this series aspires to spark realizations and conversations on empathy—a reminder that we are all parts of the same painting.”
These personal and interpersonal explorations continue in ‘in one’s mind’s eye’ and ‘carpet rollers’, his works for Serious Play, as he grapples with adulthood “where play isn’t visible in our day-to-day”. Despite the pace of his artistic development, Cardenas is in no hurry to box his progress and his art into any one category or define it. Play is free and freeing, and so he continues to grow and grapple with various generational influences, particularly in pop culture. At the heart of his practice, rather, is a striving for familiarity, a chance to identify, to awaken “the kind of imaginative process that everyone can relate to”.
Closing the year off, Cholo Cardenas is one of the participating artists at the third run of ‘The No Name Show’ held every year since 2021 at Gravity Art Space. The artist will also be on show as part of the gallery’s presentation at next year’s Art Fair Philippines.
Cholo Cardenas joins BITTO, Littlespaceboi, Rachel Anne Lacaba, Naburok, Angelica So, and Karyl Nerona in the group show Serious Play, which runs from November 7 to December 7.
About the artist
Cholo Cardenas examines and takes inspiration from the relationship between humans & nature, the real and the imagined, being and thought, Life and Death—fusing complexities of biformity; synthesizing organic abstractions and creating a new hybrid entity.
His undergraduate painting Thesis "The Allegory of Gynandromorph Butterflies." was awarded with Outstanding Thesis Award at the University of the Philippines Diliman, then later exhibited as his first solo show at Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery the following year.