Ocampo, Manuel

Manuel Ocampo (born 1965) is a Filipino artist renowned for his provocative and visually striking works that merge Baroque religious imagery with political allegory. Drawing inspiration from art-historical figures such as Géricault, Goya, Daumier, Leon Golub, Philip Guston, and contemporary satirists like R. Crumb, Ocampo’s dark, Gothic paintings transform horror into beauty, history into art history, and purgatory into salvation. His work often incorporates cartoon-like forms, punk aesthetics, and bold social commentary, exemplified by pieces that have courted controversy, including a swastika-laden painting censored at Documenta IX in Kassel, Germany.

Ocampo has exhibited extensively across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Notable solo exhibitions include a large-scale survey at Casa Asia in Barcelona and Lieu d’Art Contemporain in Sigean, France (2005). His work has been featured in major international surveys and biennials, including the Venice Biennale (2001), Berlin Biennale (2001), Seville Biennale (2004), Biennale d’art Contemporain de Lyon (2000), Kwangju Biennial (1997), and the Corcoran Biennial (1993). He has also participated in landmark group exhibitions such as Helter Skelter: LA Art of the 1990s (MOCA, Los Angeles), Asia/America: Identities in Contemporary Asian American Art (Asia Society, New York), and Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity, 1900–2000 (LACMA).

Ocampo has received numerous prestigious awards and residencies, including the Rome Prize at the American Academy (1995–96), Giverny Residency (1998), grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1996), the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (1995), and Art Matters Inc. (1991). His work has also been featured in popular culture, appearing on album covers for Skinny Puppy’s Mythmaker and the Red Hot + Latin benefit album.

Documentary filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez captured Ocampo’s life and career in the one-hour film Manuel Ocampo: God Is My Copilot. While his earlier work critiqued Western colonialism through allegory and metaphor, Ocampo’s more recent pieces embrace simpler imagery, reflecting his evolving artistic vision.