“Success doesn’t happen overnight,” shares Bacolod-based visual artist Charlie Co. “To be able to tell your story through your art, passion is essential. In the fast-paced world we live in, there’s no need to rush to the top. Because at the end of the day, it’s your body of work that will define you as an artist.”
Spoken with the quiet authority of experience, these words echo across four decades of unwavering practice. Co’s studio career, one that extends well beyond painting and sculpture, resists easy categorization.
His legacy is not only one of prolific artmaking but of rooting, building, and quietly shaping the contours of a creative ecosystem in Bacolod.
Entrusted to the people of Negros
This year, Co marks over forty years of his studio practice with a two-venue career retrospective titled “Tugyan Sa Tawo: Apat Ka Dekada Nga Obra Ni Charlie Co,” loosely translated from Ilonggo as “Entrusted to the People: Four Decades of Work by Charlie Co.”
Featuring a comprehensive selection of works and archival photographs, the exhibition traces the ebb and flow of Co’s storied trajectory, from early experiments to his most iconic pieces.
Held simultaneously at the Negros Museum and Orange Project, the retrospective curated by Boots Herrera is intended foremost for a Negrense audience, grounding the celebration of Co’s legacy in the community that has long shaped, and been shaped by, his practice.
“When I did my first ‘real’ painting in 1981, it was a defining moment. I told myself, ‘This is what I want to do.’ And I never looked back,” Co recalls.
“I never imagined I would be recognized this way, because I created art simply because it made me happy. Documenting the events around me through my art brought a deep sense of fulfillment, even if my style couldn’t compete with the technical precision of other artists. My hard work felt even more validated when I received the 13 Artists Award in 1990,” Co shares. “I hope I can serve as a living example that a probinsyano artist can make it in mainstream Manila.”
Known for his distinctive visual vocabulary, Co’s awe-striking body of work is anchored in vibrant, childlike iconography and layered, ambiguous allegory, tracing a constellation of thematic concerns: environmental collapse, contemporary spirituality, imperial residue, and political unrest.
Across painting, sculpture, and installation, these themes are not presented as declarations but as uneasy visual narratives that are haunted, unresolved, and shaped by the lingering tensions of Philippine history.
Sugarlandia and the rise of Negrense art
And if unresolved histories, whispered intrigues, and densely layered narratives could define a place, then Negros Occidental might well be the most fitting poster child—a province where the enduring allure of hacienda wealth sits uneasily alongside the unfinished business of agrarian reform.
Negros is the place where the mythos of its cooks and bakers rivals the best in the archipelago, and where some of the country’s most arresting collections of modern and contemporary art reside far from the orbit of Metro Manila.
“The art scene in Bacolod has always been vibrant, rooted in the long and rich history of arts and culture in Negros,” Co reflects. “As early as the 1900s, wealthy hacienderos frequently traveled abroad and returned not only with fine European fashion, furnishings, and decorations, but also with a cultivated taste for the fine arts.”
“Negros was exposed to contemporary art as early as the 1950s, notably through the striking mural by Filipino-American artist Alfonso Ossorio at the St. Joseph the Worker Chapel in Victorias City. In Silay, Ramon Hofileña played a pivotal role by inviting artists from Manila like Vicente Manansala to exhibit in Negros, and by opening his vast collection to the public through his home-turned-museum,” he adds.
The space that changed Bacolod art history
Arguably the most influential Chinese-Filipino artist of his generation, Co’s influence extends far beyond his studio work.
Through Orange Project, he has helped foster a self-sustaining ecosystem of creatives where artists are encouraged not only to make, but to collaborate, experiment, and imagine new ways of showing work outside the confines of the capital.
“If I were to talk about Orange Project, I’d start with the sense of urgency I felt twenty years ago. There was a real need for a proper space where local artists could show their work,” Co shares, “It’s not that Bacolod didn’t have galleries back then, but a space where contemporary art could be presented freely, without inhibitions, was definitely lacking.”
A chance encounter with Chinese-Filipino businessman Victor Benjamin “Bong” Lopue in 2004, who would later become co-founder, sparked a shared vision that would quietly shift the trajectory of contemporary art in Negros Occidental.
“From the very beginning, our goal wasn’t to turn it into a business, but to create a platform where local artists could express themselves differently,” Co recalls. “At the time, I was already a full-time practicing artist. When we started Orange Gallery in 2005, I simply applied what I had learned through the years, especially the importance of a healthy, respectful relationship between the artist and an artist-run space.”
“My favorite metaphor is that Bong Lopue is the bus owner and I am the bus driver,” Co continues, “Many joined the trip, and they all know it’s going to be a long journey. Some stayed on while some got off. At its destination, I’d give each of my passengers their keys to their own buses. In short, the goal here is to spread the spirit of community.”
A non-Manila-centric view of art
The rise of Orange Project as a thriving community of contemporary artists outside Metro Manila has underscored the slow but welcome shift toward a non-Manila-centric lens in understanding Filipino art.
Through this artist-run space, a distinct Negrense ethos has quietly emerged rooted in local sensibilities, shaped by shared provincial and regional histories, and sustained by the steady presence of Co.
“I’d like to think that our Negrense artists have gained something from mounting solo or group shows at Orange over the years, lessons and experiences that they’ve taken with them as they step into the larger art world, both in the Philippines and abroad,” he says.
“We take pride in the fact that our small island has produced many renowned artists, not just in the visual arts, but also in music, theater, and film. Among them are National Artist for Architecture Leandro Locsin, as well as artist Jess Ayco, film director Peque Gallaga, opera singer Conchita Gaston, costume and set designer Eduardo Sicangco, cartoonist Larry Alcala, painters Eduardo Lizares, and Nunelucio Alvarado, to name a few.”
For Co, the pull of Bacolod and Negros Occidental goes beyond the rich, storied past of the Philippines’ Sugarlandia. The city offers a counterpoint to Manila’s frenetic energy, its tightly packed districts, and its prohibitive cost of living.
“I believe our laid-back environment here in Negros gives us more time and mental space to focus on our work. Compared to the fast-paced life in big cities like Manila, life here is less stressful,” Co adds,”We enjoy more physical space, and the cost of living is much more manageable. This slower pace of life is, without a doubt, one of the reasons many of us are able to create meaningful and quality art.”
A focus on the long view
Marking four decades of relentless studio practice, Charlie Co’s legacy reads less like a monument and more like the unfolding of a treasure map: Rooted in Bacolod, yet reaching outward toward undiscovered wealth.
Beyond Co’s surreal and immersive canvases lies a deeper endeavor to build space, hold ground, and imagine new ways of being in community.
