Carlo Ricafort CARLO RICAFORT  EDUCATION: 2000 B.F.A. in Pictorial Arts, San José State University, San José, CA  EXHIBITIONS: 2010 “Correct de Mundo”, Pablo Fort Gallery, Taguig, Philippines 2009 “El Regreso de los Muertos”, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, San Francisco, CA “Sorry Friend, This Is No Hemorrhoids ;-{o>”, A440 Gallery, San Francisco, CA “Galleon Turd”, Mag:net Gallery, Quezon City, Philippines        “Asimilasyon Radikal”, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines. “Blowby”, The Cubicle, Pasig City, Philippines. 2008  “Kwatro-Kantos”, 21 Grand, Oakland, CA.  Curated by Lian Ladia. “Bay Area Now 5”, Room for Big Ideas, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA.               “Rendering Capitalism”, Manilatown Center Gallery, San Francisco, CA. 2007  “Hijo de Tuta”, Kearny Street Workshop, Space180, San Francisco, CA.              “HereWe AreHere Now”, Mina Dresden Gallery, San Francisco, CA. “Traidor!”, Esteban Sabar Gallery, Oakland, CA.  Curated by Lian Ladia. “Overmapped:  A Cartography of Filipino American Visual Arts”, SomArts Main Gallery, San Francisco, CA.  Curated by Rico Reyes. Travelled to Remy’s on Temple Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. 2006  “Virus Show”, Lobot Gallery, Oakland, CA 2005  “Recent Work”, Hunters Point Shipyard, San Francisco, CA 2004  “ReMix:  An Exhibition on Humor and Social Commentary”, SomArts Bay Gallery, San Francisco, CA.  Curated by René Yañez. 2002  “Something Becoming Extraordinary”, Sunnyvale Creative Arts Center “Imprints:  A Survey of Traditional and Experimental Printmaking”, Arts Benicia Gallery, Benicia, CA.  Juried by Archana Horsting. 2000  “New Visions:  Introductions”, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA.  Juried by Svea Lin Rodgers, Gabriel Navar and Marty Aranaydo. 2000  “The Holy Show”, B.F.A Exhibition, Gallery 2, San José State University San José, CA 1999  “New Visions”, Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA.  Juried by Rupert García. 1998  “Centennial Celebration”, Herbert Sanders Gallery, San José State University San José, CA.  With guest musician Jimmy Biala. 1998  Portrait Exhibition, Gallery 8, San José State University, San José, CA 1996  Juried Student Exhibition, Ohlone College, Fremont, CA  AWARDS: 1999 Recipient of Violet Speddy Award, San José State University, San José, CA 1998 Recipient of Violet Speddy Award, San José State University, San José, CA 
  BIO  Born in Quezon City, Philippines, Carlo Ricafort immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area at the age of 10.  In 2000, he received his B.F.A. in Pictorial Arts from San José State University and has exhibited at numerous galleries and cultural spaces in the San Francisco Bay Area.  In the past 2 years, Ricafort has collaborated with the artist collective Kwatro-Kantos in organizing exhibits – one of which was recently at the Philippine Cultural Center in January of this year.   STATEMENT  I draw inspiration in my work from popular expressions found in art, current events as well as in music – namely hip-hop and jazz.  Like music, the images form on the surface emanating from an abstract source sprinkled with the subconscious.  The forms produced are malleable and interchangeable the way language functions as a carrier of ideas and experiences. Picture-making therefore is one way to interweave all these contexts allowing me to explore and play with both content and form.   In my current work, the pictorial space has a sense of being cramped as if dictated by a crisis at hand (holding a paintbrush).  The surface is cacophonic with complex players involved in chromatic gestural episodes, textured meta-narratives, time-based tonal developments, and a free associative composition in harmony with the contemporaneous moment.  The crisis – capitalism in limbo after “hitting the fan” – affects the personal to the societal leaving us to confront its claustrophobic ramifications.