Alimatuan: The Emerging Artist as American Filipino

To mark the 2006 Filipino Centennial Celebration in Hawaii, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, presents Alimatuan: The Emerging Artist as American Filipino. The exhibition, curated by New York-based guest curator Kóan Jeff Baysa, brings together twenty-six emerging American-Filipino artists from across the United States.

The term alimatuan, is from a mountain tribe dialect in the Philippines meaning “the soul of the spirit.” Guest curator Baysa, purposefully chose this metaspiritual concept to communicate both the remoteness of cultural affinities that American Filipinos share with their forbears and the intrinsic values they impart as hallmarks of history, memory and identity.

In addition, the customary designation “Filipino-American” is reordered in the title to read “American Filipino” underscoring the fact that the artists, whether born in the U.S. or abroad, claim America as their place of residence while proudly acknowledging their Filipino descent.