On View/About
Portrait courtesy of Quelquefois Photography
BIO
Reniel Del Rosario (b. Iba, Philippines) is an artist that primarily uses ceramics, quantity, and satire to discuss themes of commodification and value. His projects range from interactive mimicries of consumer establishments, reimaginings of artifacts, and imperfect copies of already-existing objects. He holds a BA in Art Practice from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a 2019 recipient of the Center for Craft’s Windgate-Lamar fellowship, a 2022 SFMOMA Artists Soapbox Derby racer, and has been featured in writings such as ARTFORUM and Bon Appetit Mag. His work has been exhibited internationally through traditional and alternative venues such as West Coast Craft, Meta Open Arts, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Catharine Clark Gallery, other places Art Fair, Load Na Dito, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Jane Lombard Gallery, and simply on the public sidewalk.
ON VIEW
California Clay @ Bedford Gallery | Walnut Creek, CA | January 13th 2024 to March 31st 2024
In Feast or Famine @ Palo Alto Arts Center | Palo Alto, CA | January 20th 2024 - April 6th 2024
79th Scripps Ceramic Annual: the idea of feeling brown @ Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery | Claremont, CA | January 27th 2024 to April 7th 2024
renielRdelrosario@gmail.com
ARTIT STATEMENT
Reniel Del Rosario creates objects in clay and ceramic that playfully recreate or re-imagine familiar objects. From cakes to cigarettes to burial jars, these hand-built objects are made in the tens to hundreds and are full of imprints and inconsistencies. These objects are then gathered and put into a huddled crowd/pile or in socially interactive installations in public — mimicking consumer establishments, both highlighting the abundance of the objects as an antithesis for the love of the mass-produced. These objects each carry the histories of the goods they mimic whether it’s making forgeries of luxury objects, selling art as if it was a consumer object, or recreating lost artifacts in a contemporary setting, Within Del Rosario’s works there is consistently an exploration of value—cultural, monetary, and historical. What’s worth money and what’s not? Which objects throughout history have importance and which ones have been deemed useless? Which objects carry a loaded meaning subdued amid their common usage and acceptance? Value is toyed with and it’s up to the viewers to readjust their own valuation of the objects.