Charlie Co

(b. 1960, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, the Philippines)

Charlie Co has produced more than 40 solo exhibitions since 1983, presented internationally in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and The Philippines. A mature and prolific career, Co established his own distinctive style early on, an individuality that has awarded him many accolades among them the 13 Artists Award (1990), Juror’s Choice of The 6th Philip Morris ASEAN Art Awards (1999), an Artist in Residence in Japan, China and Australia, Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan (Pintura) (2003), and the Dr. Jose Rizal Award for Excellence (2007). Furthermore, Co has represented the Philippines in important regional surveys including Brazil’s 23rd Sao Paulo Biennale (1996), 2nd Asia Pacific Triennial (Australia 1996), “Asian Modernism” at the Japan Foundation Asian Cultural Centre, Tokyo (1995, traveling to Bangkok and Jakarta). Despite his successes Co’s practice has remained deeply rooted to his home of Bacolod City, where he runs and co-owns Orange Project  and Art District supporting emerging Visayan talent. Co was a founding member of the 1980s group Black Artists of Asia (BAA) and was also pivotal in establishing VIVA EX-CON (Visayan Visual Art Exhibition and Conference) in 1990 and is currently the longest running biennial in the Philippines. 

Through his career, Co has consistently recorded our times: socially alert, politically astute, and globally concerned. His paintings are loaded with symbols, deeply personal and allegorical with a vibrant palette and quick sketchy style. Co is also known for his multi-disciplinary works, turning to clay and mixed media, oil pastel,  pen and ink and most recently, acrylic on modelling paste on canvas.  Charlie Co is represented in major public collections including the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Singapore Art Museum, Queensland Art Gallery Australia, Metropolitan Museum and Lopez Museum Manila, the BenCab Museum Baguio, Philippines and private collections globally.

_{Artist profile photo courtesy of Aeson Baldevia.}