"Topak" -- It's all in the mind

Calling all art aficionados! Troop down to UP Diliman starting Feb 22 until March 15 and visit this very interesting exhibit.

Press Release:

The University of the Philippines Vargas Museum will open Topak, all in the mind on 22 February 2011, Tuesday, 4 in the afternoon at the Basement of the Vargas. Participating artists include Sherwin Coronado, Simkin de Pio, Anton del Castillo, Riel Hilario, Elmer Roslin, Jeric Sadullo, Jerson Samson and Julius Samson. Artists in this exhibition find common ground—each has suffered anxiety, depression, stress, or trauma in the past seven years, disrupting their artistic practice. This psychological disorientation is topak.

Rush Hour

Harlequin - pastel on paper

The project provides an alternative space where artists can dialogue and where experiences can converge. With the process of artmaking and exhibition as platform, episodic experiences of topak are recounted to confront the social stigma attached to it.

Drawing on the complexity of the emotion, participating artists work on images that represent their struggles and negotiations during such an encounter. While translating their struggles in visual form, the project reflects on artistic process as psychological, cathartic, and to some extent, spiritual.


Topak runs until 15 March 2011. For more information, please contact the Vargas at (+632) 928-19-27, (+632) 981-85-00 loc. 4024, (+632) 928-19-25 (fax), or e-mail vargasmuseum@gmail.com. Please visit www.vargasmuseum.wordpress.com for more details.