Melted City 2
Curated by Jordin Isip & Louie Cordero

In 2004, a young, up-and-coming artist from the Philippines met  with one of the well-known illustrators in New York from whom he was able to get a glimpse of the famous city’s art scene. As both began to develop interest in each other’s city’s vibrant art practices, they began to stage a two-man exhibition called ‘Adobo Republic.’ Adobo is a well-known Filipino dish that has made its way into the palate of many New Yorkers as a strong-flavored delicacy. In the Philippines, where it originated, it has become a staple mainly because it is one of the most imperishable and versatile of dishes. Almost anything edible can be made into an adobo. ‘Adobo can be anything and anything can be adobo,’ is what it connotes with its usage. And in the years that followed, these two artists would continue to mix different combinations of other artists’ fresh and stimulating works that would turn the gallery into a sweltering pot of raw imagination—drawings, objects, and paintings. This was the new dish Jordin Isip and Louie Cordero would inevitably concoct, and it was to be served by mixing two distinct flavors—that of Manila and New York.

In 2005, a set of paper-based works by New York artists curated by Jordin Isip made its way into Cubao, Philippines where Louie Cordero had just put up an independent gallery called Future Prospects Art Space together with other artists. The show was called ‘Mystery Meat,’ and this would be the first time whose raw, groundbreaking works by New York illustrators such as Matt Leines, Barry McGee, and the Clayton Brothers, among others, would be shown to an entirely Filipino audience.

In 2010, a show called ‘Happily Unhappy’ at Blanc Gallery in the Philippines would then start a series of group shows which Louie Cordero and Jordin Isip would curate together, bringing together both known and unknown talents from New York and Manila. The show became an interesting mix of the city-dweller’s sensibilities. Both works from opposite sides of the globe demonstrated an affinity not through matters of styles, which was rich and without any common theme, but towards the outlandish possibilities two different worlds can generate through paintings and drawings. Inside the gallery walls were works, which, at least for the show’s entire duration, seem to narrate how life moves within a singular city—a city whose imagination is unbound.

In 2012, Louie Cordero and Jordin Isip’s strange rhapsody of bringing together artists had come into full swing with the first version of Melted City. These were works on paper by emerging artists inside the new Blanc Compound. The drawings of Manila’s Vic Balanon are shown right next to Brooklyn’s Matt Leines; Jacob Lindo’s next to Rob Leecock’s, while works of Japanese artists Yuji Maruyama and Hiro Kurata were also included.

In Melted City 2, over more than 50 artists from the States and the Philippines are gathered to produce works that are made within a 9 x 12 inch frame. Artists from the Philippines include Poklong Anading, Nona Garcia, Paul Mondok, Manuel Ocampo, Roxlee and Romeo Lee to name a few. While artists from the States include Melinda Beck, Alex Lukas, Paula Searing, Georganne Deen, Rich Jacobs, and Eric White.

Melted City 2 is the continuation of what Jordin Isip and Louie Cordero has started as two artists who tried to find their vision in their own particular cities. This is the outcome, when two artists, who are hoping to find more about themselves try to meld with their counterpart on the other side—on a same, broken, incomprehensible city defined by nothing but its own seduction.

– Cocoy Lumbao