
Norberto Roldan
Bio

Norberto Roldan (b. 1953, Roxas City, Philippines) founded the Black Artists in Asia in 1986 and the Visayas Islands Visual Arts Exhibition and Conference (VIVA ExCon) in 1990 both in Bacolod City. He was VIVA ExCon’s artistic director in 1990, 1992, and 2018. He also co-founded Green Papaya Art Projects in 2000 and has remained its artistic director until today.
Roldan is a practicing visual artist and is represented in several landmark surveys like New Art from Southeast Asia, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (1992), No Country: Contemporary Art for South/Southeast Asia, Solomon R Guggenheim Museum (2012); Between Declarations
& Dreams: Art of Southeast Asia Since the 19th Century, National Gallery Singapore (2015); SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, National Art Centre Tokyo and Mori Art Museum (2017); and, Passion and Procession: Art of the Philippines, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2017).
Roldan recently moved his practice to Roxas City where he manages the projects of Green Papaya, among them the ongoing Shri Vishayas project. Shri Vishayas is a platform for the intersections of indigenous, rural, and contemporary cultures, and is a program of VIVA ExCon Antique 2022-2023.
Selected Works
Selected Works






2005
installation with cabinet, mirror with collage, found bottles and lighting fixture
There are no ideas but in things: first communion
2005
installation with cabinet altar, picture frame, found objects and lighting fixture
There are no ideas but in things: 10 hail Mary’s
2005
installation with box altar, plastic dayglo figurines, found objects and lighting fixture
Installation view of 'Passion and Procession: Art of the Philippines' at Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.






Selected Exhibitions
Selected Press
- The Sacred and the Secular in Norberto Roldan’s “Viva España/ Long Live America”
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- Rites & Rituals
- ‘The House Is Still Burning’: Censorship, Pandemic and Art in the Philippines
- Best of 2019: Our Top 15 Exhibitions Around the World
- Multimedia Artist Norberto Roldan Looks Back on Three Decades of Art
- Norberto Roldan: The Sacred Art of History, Politics and Faith
- Southeast Asian art gets its biggest showing in Japan
- Norberto Roldan’s painting in Guggenheim touring exhibit