Romeo Lee's Stylistic Ancestry ?

Romeo Lee has stylistic ancestry and it's Jaime de Guzman! I noticed this on this painting (directly above, center) hanging in the dark 4th floor hallway of the CCP. I don't know what it meant, it's pretty much symbolic, yet it looked like either a punk or a metal album cover. The strokes are quite similar - fuzzy , the figures both looking like they were lifted from Tales from The Crypt, only Lee's more vividly colored and more fantastical. It's a whole new way of looking and liking this quickly- dismissed-and-vaulted-into-the-SR-folder painting of Jaime de Guzman. though I wouldn't know about his other works.

Much Ado About Crap

Much Ado About Crap

People will always tend to over-react moreso if that stems from an extreme disdain from a certain voice. Not meaning to distill and delude popular opinion, it will probably help a great deal to first read between the lines of a review or perhaps go over and around some certain terms that were used. Take for instance the word "abject". Abject is defined on the MSword word search as " 1)miserable - allowing no hope of improvement or relief; 2) humble - extremely or excessively humble, for example in making an apology or request; 3) despicable - utterly despicable or contemptible; its synomous to the ff: hopeless, miserable, wretched, dismal, horrible, utter. That was how one reviewer wrote of LC's work which is actually quite apt. There's nothing sublime about B-movies, scatology, jeepney graffix and porn. (although how he wrote it, he's like shocked himself, but there's nothing to be shocked about it really if one's surrounded by such stuff everyminute of one's existence).

I would think that LC is even more SR than most SRs would claim to be even if he won't admit it or even adamant to even realize it himself. Horror vacui is so very Pinoy. LC is just describing in graphic detail that cramped, horrid feeling. He's just painting from the gutter. And he doesn't really care and doesn't even pretend to aspire for trascendence. Sometimes, his symmetric compositions still end up looking like vomit. But what of it? MO paints shit and even alludes his painting process as an excretory exercise. AAT once conceptualized a show about her dog's poop preceding a show about cakes. JO's paintings oftentimes end up looking like shit. Painting itself is very much like shit anyway. Manzoni canned his and sold them to the moneyed gullible.


For all these pandering on the low, he's the one laughing all the way to the bank. People like to live vicariously off these things really.

*For more reference about LC get a copy of Giant Robot issue # 43 yr 2006 and if you can get hold also of a rare copy of Lunar Landing issue #i forgot, the punk issue.