Invitation to Roberto Chabet's 'Dutch Painting', a two-part exhibition at Finale Art Gallery and West Gallery, SM Megamall from 30 March to 18 April 2006.

Dutch Painting refers to Jas Ban Ader, whose titles of works are used by Chabet for his two neons, 'In Search Of The Miraculous' (Finale) and 'I'm Too Sad To Tell You' (West). Images from Ban Ader's Fall videos, attached on clipboards inside dark-tinted box frames, as well as paintings with bands of primary colours, are also part of both installations. Other components of the works include a framed front page of a newspaper with an announcement of the death of Filipino painter H.R. Ocampo (Finale) and a postcard from Chabet's ten-year old nephew, David, (shown above) who wrote about his visit to a museum in Amsterdam (West).

The postcard reads:

'Dear Tito Bobby, How are you, we went to Amsterdam and went into a museum. There are paintings that are as big as your room and they made it for about 61 years and it's about some ancient people who wants to save Amsterdam from enemy. How's Maggy and her puppies? David'

The installation is part of a cycle of works that pay homage to Dutch artists including Piet Mondrian, De Stijl and Johannes Vermeer, which began with Dutch and Other Paintings in 1989. Other works in the series include  Other Dutch Paintings / Still Other Dutch Paintings in 1995, and Untitled 2005 (Notes on Johannes Vermeer).