Group art show in Seattle to explore Fil-Am experience

“Mischief Yogin” by Raphael Laigo, acrylic. CONTRIBUTED

SEATTLE — Five Filipino American artists will explore the spectrum of the Filipino American experience in a group show at the M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery in February.

Titled “Aming mga Pangitain (Our Visions),” the exhibit will feature at least 17 pieces across a range of styles and mediums by artists Beija Flor, Raphael Laigo, Sam Rodrick Rojas-Chua, Lisa Castillano Szilassy and Jeanette Tiffanny.

The opening reception will feature poetry readings by Rojas-Chua, who is also a poet, and Louie Vital.

There will also be kundiman (love songs) and harana (serenade) performances by Roger Rigor and the Barriotiques.

The artists

Lisa Castillano Szilassy is a fine art finger painter with oils. She is also the author of young adult science fiction novel Amplified, the first in her Balancing Light series.

“Laigo” by Jeanette Tiffany, acrylic. CONTRIBUTED

Beija Flor is a sculptor and mixed-media artist from the Pacific Northwest. She received her BA in Physics and Studio Art at Lewis and Clark College in 2018.

Raphael Laigo’s mystical mixed-media works, inspired by yogic philosophy and Southeast Asian and Filipino cultures, are surreal pieces of cosmic and natural esoterica incorporating images from photographs taken in the Philippines

Jeannette Tiffany is an artist and owner of Tiffany Graphic Design in Seattle.

Sam Roxas-Chua is a poet and multidisciplinary artist from Eugene, Oregon. His publications include Fawn Language(Tebot Bach), and Echolalia in Script: A Collection of Asemic Writing(Orison Books).

Performers

Louie Tan Vital is a poet and community organizer dedicated to fighting for racially-equitable public policy and harnessing performance arts as a means for political activism. Her words have appeared in The Smithsonianand other journals.

“Chinatown” by Lisa Castillo Szilassy, fingerpainted oil. CONTRIBUTED

The Barriotiques—Abe Legaspi, Alex Urap and Roger Rigor—perform “music of the typical Filipino barrio, traditional and yet contemporary, reminiscent of a golden past.”

Legaspi is the original Barriotique. His childhood home in Barrio Sapang Maragul was the inspiration of songs, popular in Tarlac, a Philippine province.

Urap is from the province of Pangasinan and also a homegrown musician.

Rigor started off strumming a guitar in Manila culminating with a disco band, the VST & Company, known for its OPM (Original Pilipino Music) disco tunes of the 1970s era.

The exhibition is co-presented by Filipino American National Historical Society and Pinoy Words Expressed Kultura Arts.

“Aming mga Pangitain (Our Visions)” runs Feb. 4-28 at M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery, Seattle Central College, 1701 Broadway, Seattle. Visit SeattleCentral.edu/artgallery