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The grotesque and beautiful in Rob Cham’s first solo exhibit ‘Headspace’

MANILA – October 2, 2013 – For the past few months, designer, illustrator, comics artist and teacher Rob Cham has been working on "explodey head things," which the public can see at his first solo exhibit "Headspace."

 
The expressive pieces, Cham said, are based on the concept of "exploring ways to depict how someone thinks, or overthinks, or imagines things."
 
"I’ve been obsessed with organic stuff, moments of grotesque and beauty mixed in one. Other than these, I have this obsession with how imagination works, I guess, if you can connect with these pieces somehow as how your mind possibly feels," said Cham.
 
Cham’s work has previously been seen in group shows, including Surprice!, a joint exhibit with JWT’s Apol Sta. Maria. 
 
Cham admitted being nervous about his first solo exhibit, and said he hopes people will like the art they see. "I have some doubts about if what I do is good enough and I sort of always hesitated to try anything this radical (radical compared to how comfortable I am with things going a certain way). If it’s successful, it would make me really happy," he said, adding that the opening night will be fun, and possibly life-changing.
 
"It’s my first solo show and I can say I am proud of the work I’ve done and maybe you’ll have your life changed somehow through art, or maybe you meet someone at the opening who becomes your best friend, lover, comrade, that sort of deal. A lot of things could happen and it could happen there. It could be a thing. Maybe."
 
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A blurb of the exhibit was written by Petra Magno:
 
For many happy years now, Rob Cham has been drawing stuff for a living. All this stuff has found its way into magazines and publications and objects, and now there is wonderful new stuff on canvas, for you to love and behold. After four years of exhibiting in group shows, bright young illustrator, comics artist, designer, and friend Rob Cham fills Vinyl On Vinyl with his first solo exhibit: Headspace. In his characteristic, charismatic, convoluted style, heavy on detail and feeling, Rob has Cham’d his concerns. And there are many. We feel them all. No stranger to overwork or overthinking or overflowing feelings, Rob has painstakingly depicted the pains of possibility and paralysis. Everything piles up, what you could would should have done or said, what others have done and said, the labyrinthine thought — and we carry this on our shoulders. Rob has made portraits of us all.
 
Rob Cham’s depictions of modern confusion take the frilly cake and eat it too. Mmm. Cake. Rob Cham, like cake, is very sweet and universally adored by big businesses and young people, and Rob has Cham’d many things for a wide audience. It is too bad that cake is incapable of art because then the only difference between Rob Cham and cake would be their ingredients. Headspace is more proof that Rob Cham is very capable of art.
 
Headspace opens on October 5 at 8 p.m. at Vinyl on Vinyl, The Collective, 7274 Malugay St., Makati City.

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