MANILA, Philippines – Filipino art is alive in France, if Manuel Ocampo’s recent achievements are any indication.

The Filipino painter’s solo exhibit opened last May 30 in Montpellier, the 8th largest city in France. It was a follow-up to his successful “Manila Vice” exhibit held in Sète, France.

Held in Carré Sainte Anne — a 19th-century neo-gothic church turned premier art exhibit hall — Ocampo’s latest exhibit features 31 of his works, some of which were created in Montpellier.

The exhibit will run until September 15.

The Montpellier Tourism Office write-up on the exhibit describes Ocampo’s art as “a colorful art between anarchy and surrealism, with references to comics, to popular arts…to Christian iconography.”

The veteran artist has taken his art to Europe many times before since the 1990s. His art has provoked audiences in Asia and the Americas as well. One of his more controversial works featured swastikas and was censored at the “Dokumenta” show in Kassel, Germany.

According to the Tyler Rollins Fine Art website, Ocampo is one of the most internationally active contemporary Filipino artists, based in Manila but working extensively in the US and Europe. 

In an interview with Susan Gibb for ArtAsiaPacific.com, Ocampo shared that before becoming an internationally-acclaimed artist, he worked at McDonald’s after moving to the US at the age of 20. He would paint at night and saw the fruits of his labor when he held his first solo show in Los Angeles in 1988.

Ocampo is the subject of a one-hour documentary by Phillip Rodriguez titled, “Manuel Ocampo, God is My Copilot.” – Rappler.com