{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":26565,"auction_id":31,"set_id":52,"lot_number":"134","artist":"Jigger Cruz (b. 1984)","title":"Untitled","starting_price":2000000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 2018 (lower right)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"66” x 55” (170 cm x 140 cm)","property":null,"coa":"Accompanied by a certificate issued by Primo  Marella Gallery, Italy confirming the authenticity  of this lot","provenance":"Private Collection, Italy","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"Visual artist Jigger Cruz is often considered one of the most important Filipino artists in the scene today. A graduate of Far Eastern University, unlike his peers, Cruz did not see painting as a full-time profession from the get-go. It wasn’t until 2011, when he met the acclaimed artist Manuel Ocampo and took up an apprenticeship offer under the renowned Neo-Expressionist master, that Cruz decided to take up painting full-time in order to pursue his interests and passion. Since then, Cruz has mounted numerous solo and group shows at renowned institutions such as Tala Gallery, Blanc Art Space, and Ayala Museum. Cruz’s unique and singular contemporary style has also rocketed him to international acclaim. Cruz’s works were exhibited in cities such as Singapore, Switzerland, and New York. Cruz was also part of the groundbreaking group exhibit entitled WASAK! Filipino Art Today. The aforementioned show curated and produced by ARNDT showcased the best of what contemporary Filipino art has to offer in order to contextualize local narratives and aesthetics for a wider audience.<br /><br /> Cruz’s claim to faim was his signature use of materials to create tactile and sensorial masterpieces. He does so via an act of overpainting in which uses a variety of techniques such as impasto, cutting, burning, and spray painting in order to achieve his desired effect. Though chaotic at first, a closer and more nuanced look reveals a cohesive whole that has been transformed through methods of destruction and defacement, giving the piece a whole new meaning. In other words, Cruz’s works seemingly breathe in new life by shedding its former self. Though this seemingly juxtaposed treatment can be considered novel, what Cruz is dealing with here are timeless and age-old themes. In one of the earliest and most important texts of art theory, the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy writes in his seminal book What is Art “To evoke in oneself a feeling one has experienced and having evoked it in oneself then by means of movements, lines, colours, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit this feeling that others experience the same feeling -- this is the activity of art.” Cruz’s synthesis of creation and destruction can be seen as a metaphor for self expression. Echoing Tolstoy, Cruz continually creates, destroys, and creates himself and his art with each stroke, cut, and jab, and in the process, takes the viewer along with him through this transformative process. His work contains the seeds of an expressionist thematic wrapped in contemporary flair.<br /><br /> Despite Cruz’s basis within modern artistic theory, his works do not only contain inherently modern ideals. Though his works are best seen as an expression of pure emotion and ideas, the content of these visual messages are undoubtedly contemporary. We can see this first through the materials used. Though Cruz also works with traditional media such as oil and acrylic paints, he also layers his pieces with enamel, spray paint, and other unorthodox materials. Thus, Cruz effectively confronts and subverts our traditional notion of what art can be by using materials not inherent to the art world but to other forms of production. Second, Cruz also creates art as a form of history-making. By adopting canonically western styles and techniques as his base, Cruz performs a ritualistic act of subversion through his unorthodox and destructive treatment. By doing so, Cruz confronts the hegemonic blanket that has enveloped most of the art world by uncovering new and even lost forms of expression. From his novel use of materials to his nuanced interplay of ideas and symbolisms, Jigger Cruz has the makings of a Contemporary Classic whose works will be praised and analyzed for years to come.","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":null,"alias":null,"hp":4000000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":4000000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":4672000,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":23964,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/31/52/lot/134.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":133,"next":135,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}