Courtesy of Vik Tejada
For artist Vik Tejada, art is a means to dig deeper, to reevaluate purpose, and to keep creating.
Vogue Philippines invited 10 artists to showcase what “celebration” means to them through their chosen medium. Through art, Vik explores the complex through the guise of the most simple.
At first glance, Viktor “Vik” Tejada’s works seem simple, or abstract. The conceptual artist, whose influences include the likes of Andy Warhol and Martin Margiela, has recently experimented with the likes of all-white Rubik’s cubes, white spheres, a white canvas, and even torn paper. While in words, these objects seem mundane, Tejada composes them in a way that invites people to take a second look.
“I like to give my works a semblance of translucency,” he says explaining that his work represents “something you might see in passing and easily ignore, but also something that you might learn from, should you take a second to look at it.”
The artist who works with multiple mediums actually started out on a different trajectory, as a writer for galleries. “Over time, I grew disillusioned by the process of writing about art thinking that while it supplements [the] artworks, it can also become a dictator of how works are supposed to be understood,” he tells us.
“As a response, I started my own artistic practice and gave my works little to no context or explanation as to what they mean. This creates works that are not bound by any form of writing backed with some artistic theory.”
Like the age-old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, Tejada went on to express his thoughts through his own artworks, preferring not to be obstructed by language. He allows viewers to derive their own meaning from his pieces using their own nuanced experiences of the world before coming across his work.
The artist’s creative process centers around the question, “why does this element deserve to be here?” and the idea of complexity derived from something so simple. He often begins by gathering materials; images, illustrations, and other found objects. Through a process of elimination and intuition, he finds their final form on a canvas.
For his piece featured in the December Issue of Vogue Philippines, Tejada chose a piece entitled “Myself, Included,” a mixed media portrait that both celebrates the self and reminds others that acknowledgment of one’s being is a vital aspect of life. “Acknowledging the existence of something is a celebration in itself. What I don’t need, I don’t think of, and if it meets my canvas, then it’s something worthwhile.”
In terms of what’s next, Tejada hopes to soon exhibit his conceptual work and not just his paintings, though the artist is happy to let the chips fall where they may. No matter what path lies ahead for the young talent, his main goal is simple; to keep creating, in the hopes that that desire to create never fades.
“Right now I’m experimenting on paper works, ripping sheets haphazardly, not knowing how it will look exactly, and figuring things out from there.”
