Artist-to-Artist: Carlos Villa Proposed by Anthea Hamilton

‘I could not at first comprehend what I was seeing – seeing it not as an artwork but experiencing it as something raw, an apparition or manifestation’ – Anthea Hamilton

Presented by Silverlens at Frieze London

In his 1980s body-print series, Villa utilised his own body to create indexical marks on the canvas, as though urging us to acknowledge his Filipino presence. In the mural-scaled What Comes Again, Comes Again, Etc. (1982), three orange body prints circle the corners of a backdrop dominated by shades of blue and pink. Upon careful inspection, collaged face prints on smaller pieces of canvas are revealed and then camouflaged again into the busy, colorful surface. Villa’s works come alive with imprints of the artist, as if he himself is in the room, even a decade after his passing.

Hamilton writes: 'My first encounter with Villa’s work was not with artistic practice in mind. It was via an internet search unconnected to keywords such as ‘Filpino’, ‘artist’, ‘late’, ‘groundbreaking’, 'west coast’, ‘diaspora'. Painted Cloak (1971) came forth in a thumbnail, transgressing data tracking algorithms with a use of material and pattern abstraction which confused my vision so that I could not at first comprehend what I was seeing, seeing it not as an artwork but experiencing it as something raw, an apparition or manifestation, all things I continuously, subconsciously search for. A syntactic lack in my search was complete.

I’m moved Silverlens will be presenting Villa's work at this year’s Frieze London, offering us Villa’s historically rooted, rich use of motif and material to substantiate a western historic insufficiency. It is both of critical importance and an honour for London audiences to experience Villa’s work in real life.'

Carlos Villa

b. 1936, d. 2013, American; lived and worked in San Francisco

Carlos Villa was a Filipino-American artist, activist, curator, author and 40+ year educator in the San Francisco Bay area, whose groundbreaking work challenged colonial perspectives and laid radical claim to a cross-cultural, diasporic identity. In 2022, Villa received the first-ever museum retrospective dedicated to a Filipino-American artist.

Anthea Hamilton

b. 1978, British; lives and works in London

Hamilton was one of four shortlisted artists for the 2016 Turner Prize. Her approach has often focused on extended study into archives, scientific research and popular culture combining these with resonant images and objects in unusual and surreal ways. In addition, Hamilton consistently considers aspects of presentation beyond her objects and images, applying wallpaper, carpet, vinyl and painted surfaces to the walls and floors and introducing costume and performance within her work.

Further Information

Frieze London takes place concurrently with Frieze Masters from 11–15 October in The Regent’s Park, London.

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_{Main Image: Carlos Villa, What Comes Again, Comes Again, Etc., 1982, acrylic on unstretched canvas with chicken bones, 2.4 × 3.1 m. Photo by Jesse Hlebo. Courtesy of The Estate of Carlos Villa and Silverlens, Manila and New York}