RODEL TAPAYA

Rodel Tapaya’s work is an ongoing amalgamation of folk narrative and contemporary reality within the framework of memory and history. Utilizing a range of media - from large acrylic on canvasses to the exploration of under-glass painting, traditional crafts, diorama, and drawing - Tapaya filters his observations of the world through folktales and pre-colonial historical research, creating whimsical montages of his characters.

Delving into the cultural fabric, Rodel Tapaya has traced back old songs that reference cocoa and explored the collective imagination intertwined with chocolate. In his captivating large-scale painting, The Water is Color Chocolate (2023), he depicts an enigmatic creature standing beside a cocoa tree, positioned above a murky river. This composition alludes to the recurrent flooding in the region and the earth's hue, reminiscent of the color of chocolate, akin to the famous Chocolate Hills in the Bohol province of the Philippines.