BLUEPRINT

A SOLO EXHIBITION
MAY 23 – JUNE 4, 2023

Blueprint, a word that inspires the image of a built structure or establishment-–construction in its preliminary stages of planning, discussing, and sketching. TAO Butao recontextualizes this idea with his pieces, making use of a material often used for its durability and strength, crumpling it in an imitation of the flimsiness of paper. His straightforward but nonconformist attitude bleeds into his artistry, evident in his process and, by extension, his works.

Digging deeper into his background, Louie P. Butao aka TAO Butao is a self taught artist, working on a boat as an officer while conceptualizing different pieces of art for the appreciation of the viewing public. With research and his environment as his cargo, he took the contemporary path and made use of the available resources around him in the form of a compressor and various metallic materials.

Instead of imitating life and its figurative forms, TAO Butao makes use of inanimate objects and crumples them into unpredictable folds— an echo of the volatility and uncertainty of reality, a vital component of life itself. A counterbalance to the polish and opulence of others in the market, he forges his own course and establishes his place in the art world.

As a whole, Blueprint is a series of works that resonate with existence itself at its base nature, and TAO Butao invites us all to reexamine our perception on art, creation, and life.

Text by Melissa Uy