ArtSpeak: Defying Gravity for Non-Billionaires with Jose Tence Ruiz

Ateneo Art Gallery and the Ateneo Fine Arts Department present 

Defying Gravity for Non-Billionaires
an ArtSpeak session with Gawad Tanglaw ng Lahi Recipient Jose Tence Ruiz

04 May 2024, Saturday
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Ben Chan ArtSuite, 2F Ateneo Art Gallery, Soledad V Pangilinan Arts Wing, Areté

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC | Limited slots only!
Register now at: https://go.ateneo.net/DefyingGravity2024

Billionaires have, by virtue of their accumulations, power over time and gravity — the latter demonstrated in the last decade by three of the most flamboyant ones: Bezos, Musk and Branson, as they compete very publicly to create the next best vessel of extraterrestrial travel. But the defiance of gravity can be a less expensive, even more attainable enterprise if one saw it from the framing proposed by Camus’ Sisyphean trope.

The defiance of gravity might be more equitably practiced by those who learn to defy their defaults, limits, comfortable tendencies, and assumed teleologies. That is the crux of what our button pushing discussion will try and activate: It does not propose to be a lecture, but rather a group encounter where we, hopefully, collectively, will explore tactics, even strategies to deal with mindsets of inevitability based more on privileged complacency than creativity. We may not fly out of Arete, but we may just have grown fledgling wings on the imaginations that we brought in. Countdown begins. 

This ArtSpeak session is organized in line with the 2023 Traditional University Awards. A recipient of the Gawad Tanglaw ng Lahi, Jose “Bogie” Tence Ruiz (b.1956) is a Filipino painter, sculptor, editorial illustrator, performance artist, graphic designer, writer, and curator. An alumnus of the Ateneo de Manila, he also has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Santo Tomas. Throughout the years, Ruiz has exhibited his works in numerous local and international exhibitions and projects. In 2015, he was chosen to represent the Philippines in its historic return to the Venice Biennale. Ruiz is also known for his editorial illustrations, which have been featured in various Manila- and Singapore-based publications. He also published and edited transit (1999-2002), a quarterly of art discussion, and a book on the life and installations of Filipino visual artist Junyee.

For inquiries, email aag@ateneo.edu.