Denise de Castro, Principal Architect of DEQA Design Collaborative, believes that designing with equity in mind means starting at the workplace. Values and practices that your studio or office espouse inevitably filter down to the work that you do. Equitable design ensures that people with different needs and different backgrounds are supported through fair access, […]
‘Violent Camote’: Roxlee Paints the Explicit Crudeness of Life
Violent Camote is the new exhibit by filmmaker and painter Roxlee. Being shown at Gravity Art Space from May 3 to June 1, it features a collection of paintings from the artist made between 2021 and 2023.
Roxlee is best known for his work as a cartoonist for the comic strip Cesar Asar between 1980 and 2000. He is also influential in the realm of animation and filmmaking, being a founding member of Animahensyon and Sinekalye. Beyond that, he also founded Cinema Regla, a “guerrilla media outfit” focused on independent art made in the country.
Humanity Untamed and Unrefined
This history of advocating independent art shows up in Violent Camote, as the artist debuts paintings reminiscent of similar artists in the past like Ralph Bakshi, who has a similar background of gritty, boundary-pushing art.
Advertisement
As an exhibit, the paintings featured in Violent Camote give off a great combination of cartoony and indigenous-adjacent styles. The artworks are colorful and bright, and Roxlee draws his figures in large, expressive poses that convey the emotions of each work well.
The paintings contain consistent motifs across them in their use of nudity and nature. A lot of them have a humorous, surrealist bend that seeks to express a visual joke in the simplest terms possible.
As an example, a painting portrays a woman getting cunnilingus from a tree, and the hilarious thing about it is that the tree seems to have eyes, and is looking down at the woman with a mix of apathy and confusion.
Advertisement
Other Paintings of Note
It’s a vivid artistic choice, and it applies to many of the paintings. There are at least two paintings that could easily be interpreted as semen heads surrounding women. Another has two women twerking each other, but their buttocks have turned into lips instead. One painting can be interpreted as people with cameras for heads engaged in doggystyle.
Altogether, they create a demented collection of paintings that provokes a visceral reaction to its viewers in its restless representation of crudeness.
New Horizons to Experiment
The exhibit also contains an audio-visual component in the form of a short film shown in an old CRT television screen. The film showcases different locations throughout its runtime, including an old bar, an art exhibition, and an old theater.
Advertisement
In comparison to the colorful and jokey nature of the artworks, the film has an apocalyptic feel to it, with Roxlee capturing the abrasive and decaying city environment around them. There’s a portion of the film where a man dressed in indigenous clothing calls himself god while walking down the hallway of a dark movie theater.
The heaviness of the film makes you look twice at some of the paintings in an attempt to reconcile the brash nature of the film with the playful nature of the works. And it does connect in certain ways, from the playful nudity, the almost worshipful use of trees, to the use of cameras as they surround many of the figures.
Societal Commentary For Ugliness
It feels like commentary on society’s attitudes with nature and the natural—more importantly, on its obsession on perfection. The works puts them up to task for being unable to represent the inner workings of each human being without removing the unsavory parts of the picture.
Even the humorous visual sex jokes have a deeper intent towards it. It contributes to Roxlee’s uncompromising normalization of imperfection in our bodies. The exhibit as a whole can be viewed in that lens, as an independent artist pushing against beauty standards to show the humanity in our crude imperfections.
Violent Camote works on multiple levels, whether as commentary on society’s attitudes towards imperfection or as a series of humorous visual gags. However one takes it, it’s a memorable body of work from an artist decades into their career still pushing boundaries.
Advertisement
Related reading: ‘Black Paintings’: Shadows of Beauty in the Darkness
Across Metro Manila, residential developments are increasingly designed around proximity. As cities grow denser and mobility becomes more complex, new housing is often positioned near transport nodes, commercial districts, and educational institutions. This approach reflects a broader shift in urban planning. Mixed-use environments allow residents to live closer to daily necessities—reducing commute times while supporting […]
Advertisement
Luxury in design is undergoing a quiet shift. Where once luxury was measured primarily through visual opulence, today it is increasingly defined by responsibility—through the way spaces are built, the materials selected, and the impact those decisions leave behind. At the Philippine World Building and Construction Expo (WORLDBEX) 2026, this evolving definition of luxury takes […]
For more than nine decades, Fisher & Paykel has approached design with a simple but exacting belief: that the best living environments are those shaped by people, place, and purpose. Rooted in New Zealand and deeply attuned to island and coastal living, the brand’s philosophy centres on quiet performance, material honesty, and appliances that integrate […]
At Helm, dining unfolds as choreography. An open kitchen anchors the room, allowing guests to witness the precision behind its Michelin-starred fine dining menu. Designed by Kevin Nieves of Headroom, the 24-seat restaurant reflects that same discipline in its interior design. Tucked within Ayala Triangle Gardens in Makati, Helm brings together culinary recognition and architectural […]
Advertisement
Exhibition designer Baby Imperial of All At Once shaped the spatial strategy of ALT ART 2026, its largest edition to date. The fair occupied Halls 1 and 2 of SMX Convention Center Manila, expanding in both footprint and ambition. Organized by the ALT Collective—Artinformal, Blanc, The Drawing Room, Galleria Duemila, Finale Art File, MO_Space, Underground, […]
Download this month's BLUPRINT magazine digital copy from:
Subscribe via [email protected]