Roberto Chabet — Philippine Conceptual Art
Roberto Chabet (1937–2013) was a renowned Filipino conceptual artist, teacher, and curator, who played a key role in the development of Philippine contemporary art. Through his expanded art practice, he supported and nurtured the artistic development of several generations of Filipino artists, from his contemporaries in the 1960s and 1970s to his numerous students at the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts.
He is highly regarded for his experimental works, ranging from sculptures and installations made from everyday and found materials, to paintings, drawings and collages. He was the founding Museum Director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) from 1967–70 and subsequently led the alternative artist group Shop 6. He taught for more than thirty years at the University of the Philippines while continuing to be involved with artist-run spaces in Manila. Chabet’s sculptures often drew on and extended conceptual ideas of relational and serial structures, using materials such as plywood for their association with the rebuilding of Manila after it was bombed at the end of World War Two, and implicating the body of the viewer into an experience of the work in space.
