Galleon Trade 2007

Galleon Trade is a series of exchange exhibitions that I'm organizing, focusing on artists with ties to the Philippines, Mexico, and California. Its full website is here. Taking the historic Acapulco-Manila galleon route as its metaphor of origin, these exhibitions seek to create new routes of cultural exchange along old routes of commerce and trade.

The Acapulco-Manila galleons were Spanish trading ships that sailed the Pacific between the Philippines and Mexico (in part via California) from 1565 to 1815. The myriad connections and histories shared between these three places are tremendous, but rarely acknowledged. Their intertwined postcolonial legacies, transnational relationships, and grapplings with globalization all provide ample inspiration for new creative output, and new ways of creating dialogue across multiple communities.

Galleon Trade I was hosted by Mag:net Katipunan, Mag:net Bonifacio High Street, and Green Papaya Art Projects in Metro Manila, Philippines, in summer 2007. It featured work by 12 California-based artists Julio Morales, Christine Wong Yap, Jaime Cortez, Eliza Barrios, Johanna Poethig, Reanne Estrada, Stephanie Syjuco, Mike Arcega, Gina Osterloh, Enrique Chagoya, Rick Godinez and Megan Wilson.

In addition to the three exhibitions, there were associated lectures and special events at venues throughout Metro Manila, including Ateneo de Manila University, University of Santo Tomas, and The Living Room. 9 of the artists, plus academics Eric Reyes and Lucy Burns, and writer Claire Light, all came to Manila to contribute to these dialogues.