Art, Coffee, Reading Group and Discussion! Join us for Café of Letters with Lena Cobangbang on September 20 at Lopez Museum and Library

Lopez Museum and Library invites everyone to join artist/curator Lena Cobangbang in Struggle for Philippine Art: Winners of Losers, a reading group and discussion on September 20, Saturday, from 2 – 4 p.m.

For the first session of the reading group, the seminal text Struggle for Philippine Art written by Purita Kalaw-Ledesma and Amadis Guerrero will ground the discussion on existing systems in the art scene, and how economics and political contexts of the past mold current structures.

Café of Letters will be held in conjunction with Lopez Museum and Library’s exhibition Articles of Disagreements curated by Lian Ladia and Sidd Perez of Planting Rice. The exhibition brings together works of the collective of young filmmakers Tito and Tita, conceptual artist-curator Nilo Ilarde, Germany-based artist Maria Cruz, and 2013 Ateneo Art Awardee Buen Calubayan in conversation with the archives of the library, along with the museum’s collection of works by Raymundo Albano, Fernando Zobel, Nena Saguil, Roberto Chabet and more; including the ever present masters Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo.

An interesting feature of the exhibition is a reading laboratory cum coffee shop (Reading Lab) that aims to elicit discussion and written contributions that will zoom in on the generation of narratives that make up the body of texts of Philippine art history, art criticism, and broad art writing.

Lena Cobangbang took Fine Arts (Major in Painting) from the University of the Philippines and is a CCP 13 Artist Awardee (2006). She is one of the members of the seminal alternative space, artist-run Surrounded by Water (1998-2006). As an artist she has exhibited in Singapore, Austria, New York, Hong Kong and Manila to name a few. In 2010 she took part in an artist/curator research residency in Slovenia. She has curated many contemporary curatorial projects and led contemporary art dicussions within her surrounding art community, reflective of current and relevant art practices. She currently engages in curatorial projects for Pablo and Post Gallery in Manila, Philippines.

The Lopez Museum and Library is at the ground floor, Benpres Building, Exchange Road corner Meralco Avenue, Pasig City. Museum days and hours are Mondays-Saturdays, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., except holidays. For information and registration, call Thea Garing at 631-2417 or email lmmpasig@gmail.com.