10 Questions with Michael Vincent Manalo

Born in Manila, the Philippines, in 1986, Michael Vincent Manalo is a visual artist who recently focused on acrylic paintings, photo manipulation, and installations.

In the past, he has exhibited in several countries - Australia, England, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Philippines, Poland, Serbia, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK, and the USA. He has also won a few prizes like the 2010 1st prize in the Digital Art Category at the Art Museum of Chianciano Terme, Italy, and 2011 Best Photography Illustration from The Redmond Digital Arts Festival in Washington, USA, 2015 2nd place in the Secret Art Prize from the Curious Duke Gallery in London and Nominated for the APBF Signature Art Prize of 2014 from the Singapore Art Museum. He was also named as one of 2014 and 2017 Asia's Top Ten Most Inspiring Visual Artists in Asia by the Top 10 Publications in Malaysia. He was also a 2020 Arte Laguna Prize Finalist. Recently, he has worked with GIANT to create bicycles based on the stories and life experiences using bicycles of people who work in the cycling company GIANT. He currently lives in Taichung, Taiwan, where he has been doing a lot of public art installations.

www.michaelvincentmanalo.com | @michaelvmanalo

ARTIST STATEMENT

In his work, the subjects are represented through a mix of imagined and realistic images, playing with the expectations of the viewer and raising questions about the role that human emotions play in memory. The scenes reflect on psychological impulses and on the way they are depicted and fused with everyday reality. His photographs and paintings explore the traditional boundaries of visual representation, where the creative powers of the unconscious are unleashed to reveal a different reality.

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. What is your background, and how did you start getting involved with art?

Hi Al-Tiba9 readers! I'm MVM (Michael Vincent Manalo), a visual artist who started manipulating photos in 2008 from stock photos. I then transitioned to using my own photos because I was able to afford a decent DSLR. Later, I started painting using the mouse on the photographs, so I decided to invest in a decent Wacom tablet, which took me to the realm of digital painting. Finally, now I paint using acrylic on canvas, going from digital to analog. During these years, I have made installations too, had some gigs as an electronic musician (producer), and did some community art projects. I did many things cause life is short, YOLO. 
Now, for my background - I didn't study art. I'm just a wild creature who likes to be creative. I have a degree in science as a nurse but never practiced it. Although, as a student, I interned in many hospitals for two years and saw a lot of people dying in front of me, helped a surgeon remove a breast that unfortunately had a cancerous tissue, assisted in eye surgery, and many more. I got involved in art because in 2010 I had my first solo exhibition in Manila, Philippines, and also that same year joined a national art fair called Manila Art. Then I was introduced to art residencies, and I sent so many applications and fortunately got one in Poland in a gallery in Bielsko. However, it was a struggle because I had some difficulties with money. Still, I asked the local government for some funding and finally got it. After that, it was like in the movies where so many amazing things happen, so many adventures in Europe and Asia - so much life, and then it slows down, and now I'm in Taiwan doing public art and paintings. 

What do you wish you knew about contemporary art before you got started?

Contemporary art has good and bad. What I wish I knew would not change my passion for art, I believe.

And what experiences shaped your artistic practice?

There were so many, like what I mentioned earlier, the experiences I had working at a hospital. It was like a summary of life put in front of me, and there was nothing I could do to avert my eyes. I took a bus from Bielsko and arrived in Berlin at 3 am. This was around 2011, and back then I didn't have a smartphone and could only check google maps using a laptop, but then the bus stop didn't have wifi, so I waited until sunrise. Then this petite blond woman sat near me with a big backpack, and I asked her for directions to the gallery/art residency I wanted to go to. She said she was not a local but then told me she was going to find her hostel too, so I asked her would you like to go together? She said yes. Then at 5 am, in the empty streets of Berlin, we walked together to find the places we needed to be. I asked, "Why did you trust me?" she replied, "Why did YOU trust me?". We laughed and continued. This shaped the installation I made in a gallery in Kreuzberg, Berlin. 
I would love to share so many great and crazy experiences that shaped the artworks that I produced, but I'll pick another one, which is more recent. Let me tell you first that before 2018 I DID NOT KNOW how to ride a bike. So I joined a How To Ride A Bike for Adults training session, and boom - I finally learned how to ride a bike, and then I got so addicted to riding the bike that I cycled far and wide, then I bought a road bike in Taiwan and cycled far and wide. For some reason, the bicycle company GIANT took notice of my art and asked me to use my art to design bicycles for their museum in Taiwan, and of course, I said yes. I conducted a workshop in the GIANT main office together with the people who worked there, chose six interesting cycling-related stories, used these stories + my life-changing experience of cycling, and applied them to my designs. You can see the bikes on the cycling museum website. 

Your paintings are contemporary takes on romantic scenes, and can remember artworks like Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. Where do you get your inspiration from? Is there any artist or movement that you feel particularly influenced by? 

Back in 2008, I was heavily influenced by Dali and Magritte's works but to be honest, I didn't know that yet. As mentioned earlier, my background was in nursing, and most of the influences I had at the start were from the crazy hospital life I had pre-2008. Then I slowly read through art history so I won't look like a fool, and then I felt so good knowing my artworks were like the masters, so I had some confidence to apply to some galleries. Luckily I was accepted. At present, I am influenced by various artists like Aron Wiesenfeld, Andrew Wyeth, Zhao Ming Wu, Vladimir Motsar, Zdzisław Beksiński, Random International, Jakub Rozalski and more. 

Your work reflects on the subjects of memory and emotions. In your paintings, how much is real and how much is imagined? And how do you mix the two together? 

To be honest, it's mostly imagined, as most of the paintings are representations of subjective and objective experiences, which usually mostly answer the query - "What if?" 

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What aspect of your work do you pay particular attention to?

Since I started with photo manipulation and photography, my painting process begins with the latter. I first make a photo manipulation, then I use that image and paint it on the canvas. At first, I didn't care much about the textures in the painting. Still, I've recently paid attention to the texture of the artwork, warm, muted colors, and the overall feeling of nostalgia, melancholy, and loneliness in a positive way. I care a lot about symmetry in my work as I think I do have mild OCD. 

You also work with photo manipulation and installations. How are those different from your paintings? And how do you approach the different techniques? 

With my photo-manipulation works, I usually create using a technique called "Automatic Drawing", which according to Andre Breton, is drawing with no preconceived subject or composition in mind. Like a medium channeling a spirit, he let his pen travel rapidly across the paper without conscious control. He soon found hints of images—fragmented bodies and objects—emerging from the abstract, lacelike web of pen marks. In my case, it was using the mouse and tablet to create with no preconceived subject. Now, with installations, it's a totally different ball game. It's usually a preconceived, well-thought-out, and well-planned project where I have to calculate the size, materials, and safety for the viewers/users. Recently, my installation involved a group of people from different backgrounds.

What are your thoughts on digital presentations, like fairs and exhibitions, for artists? Do you think these are good opportunities? And have you participated in any over the past couple of years?

Digital presentations are great; we have to embrace them. Although it's totally different from a brick-and-mortar show, digital shows also attract many visitors, probably more than the physical ones, and it also attracts buyers/collectors. So, yes, I've participated in several digital shows. A special one, in particular, was at Munich Science & Fiction Festival, Einstein Cultural Center, wherein my work, aside from being in the physical space, was also shown digitally through a VR gallery for people who can't attend the physical exhibition.

What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about?

Now, I'm working on a site-specific sound art installation, an eco-friendly structure made of driftwood that will be placed in wetlands in the north of Taiwan. It is a space where people can listen to the amplified sounds of this distinct ecosystem. Inside this circular space will be a bench with a window that only shows the horizon and the sea. This space, I believe, will be an audio-visual treat for the visitors. I will have some shows, too, mostly in Taiwan this year. If you are interested, you can just email me. 

Finally, share something you would like the world to know about you?

Everybody has a story to tell - and I'll try to keep mine short. In high school, most of my classmates' families were rich, and mine was just average at best. When my father died when I was 12, my mother and my older brother, 15 years older than me, did their best to raise our family. At school, I didn't get bullied because I fought back fiercely. However, sometimes I could overhear those classmates saying things about the economy of my family indirectly and stating that they've been abroad, etc. 

Up until I was 23, I'd never left my country. When I flew abroad for the first time, it was a life-changing experience. From the Philippines, I flew to Europe, and my first destination was Poland, to go to the first art residency that I would join. The shift from the dusty and humid capital of the Philippines to the cold and clean streets of Bielsko was so surreal. It was like a dream I could never forget. During those times, I used my photo manipulations and installations to travel (so thank you, my art) and bounced on different art residencies in several cities in Europe, Asia, and Australia for several years. During these times, I had some crazy adventures, fell in love, and I also felt that some people really liked my work. But I also had some scary experiences, especially in Azerbaijan, where I was detained, and the border police wanted to take money from me. They didn't allow me to leave their country until I paid a huge sum of money, which I was not stupid to give them (during that time, I was living in Tbilisi, Georgia, and went to Baku to join an art residency). I felt scared, so I asked for help from the family, and I flew to Tbilisi asap. 

Then the colorful life continued again, I applied for a residency in Taipei, Taiwan, where I lived in the mountains for two weeks with very lovely and earth-loving folks. I did a project about experimental instruments using recycled materials, and after weeks of creating these, we traveled around Taiwan playing these instruments in the streets. People were shocked and amazed at the same time, mainly because the friends I was with were barefoot, not wearing shirts, and, you know, the hippie kind of vibe. The year after, I joined another art residency, also in the same city, and did a similar project. But this time, I asked the residency folks to help me find people interested in joining me and playing the recycled instruments in the streets and promoting recycling, so we did. We made a small parade, and people again had the same reactions as the year before. I didn't wear any shoes this time. Onlookers started to dance with us too, and it was an amazing time. After this, I joined two more residencies yet again, but in different cities. This time I made some site-specific installations (this was the start of me preparing and planning really carefully for the installation). 

After this, I went to Denmark in 2016 and 2017 and had some shows, but this time there was no luck for me, as it turned out. When I left the country and asked for the money that I made from my artwork sales, the gallery director would ignore my message and not reply for several weeks. Then one day, he replied saying that the gallery had some issues and a year had passed and the money still hadn't reached my bank account, and he would still reach out saying the gallery again had some issues, and then I realized that he would never give me the money at all. Then, the question was asked, "Where do I go next?" 

Fast forward to the present time, I have been living in Taiwan for the past four years but not touring residencies anymore. Rather just staying in one city called Taichung, where I am based but would usually go to the capital or the other cities to do some shows and also to free-dive. I still am active in showing my works in cities in Europe, though.