PENUMBRA WORKSPACE PROGRAM | US-Based Artist | 2024
Ryan Frigillana
Image © Ryan Frigillana. Courtesy of the artist.
“Contemplating the legacy of Filipinx migration to the United States, Manong explores family, faith, and home in the diaspora as centered on the life and experiences of my ailing mother.
I work from a place of overlap across preceding generations—shared experiences of migration burdened by U.S. imperialism, racism, and mythology. Filipino nurses filled the healthcare gap of the 1960’s and beyond. Migrants of the Manong generation powered the agricultural labor force of the West Coast in the early 20th Century, working the vineyards, orchards, sugarcane fields, and pineapple farms. Subverting the gaze and black-and-white language of FSA photography from that era, I bridge the experiences of those pioneers with Filipino-Americans today, humanizing and echoing our collective dreams and memories in relation to our displacement.”
Ryan Frigillana, b. Iligan City, Philippines, is a Long Island-based visual artist working with photography and bookmaking. Drawing from collective memory and a heavy religious upbringing, his work explores the shared nuances of faith, loss, and home in the Filipinx diaspora primarily viewed through the lens of family.
He is the author of two monographs: Visions of Eden (self-published, 2020) and The Weight of Slumber(Penumbra Foundation, 2021). His books have been collected by the Museum of Modern Art Library, Getty Research Institute, The Morgan Library & Museum, and The Smithsonian among others. Select awards include a Penumbra Foundation Risograph Print & Publication Residency (2021), the NYFA / JGS Fellowship for Photography (2021), the En Foco Photography Fellowship (2023), and the Aperture & Google Creator Labs Photo Fund (2023). He holds a BFA in Photography and Related Media from the Fashion Institute of Technology (2020).
SPONSORS
This program is supported by Henry Nias Foundation, Joy of Giving Something, The Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, and Roz Leibowitz.
