A unique highlight of the ongoing, mostly virtual celebration of UE’s 75th Foundation Anniversary takes place this Tuesday, September 28, 2021, at 10 a.m.: the inauguration of the Chua King Ha Galleries, a multi-space art venue for past, present and future works by constituents of the UE College of Fine Arts, Architecture and Design (CFAD)!
Named after the late mother of UE’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Lucio C. Tan, the Chua King Ha Galleries is a dream come true, as it finally provides the UE CFAD a genuine, permanent art and design space for constant showcasing of a wide variety and collection of works by its graduates and alumni as well as of faculty members and students.
The two-floor Galleries are located on the fifth floor of the Caloocan Campus’s main edifice, the Tan Yan Kee Academic Building—itself named after Chairman Tan’s father, and whose fourth and fifth floors have been the home of the former UE College of Fine Arts since 2005. To be exact, the Chua King Ha Galleries is a 675-square-meter expanse on the fifth floor and a 285-square-meter space on the mezzanine floor.
The overall design of the Chua King Ha Galleries is that of the art world-specific concept of the white cube. Credited to artist and critic Brian O’Doherty and dating back to 1976, the white cube is—per an essay by Elena Filipovic titled ‘The Global White Cube’—“an indelibly inscribed container. Far more than a physical, tectonic space (monochromatic walls delimiting a certain geometrical shape), the art world’s white cube circumscribes an attitude toward art, a mode of presentation, and an aura that confers a halo of inevitability, of fate, on whatever is displayed inside it.” UE Caloocan’s Chua King Ha Galleries is, in effect, the White Cube of CAMANAVA.
The Chua King Ha Galleries, which was initially conceived and initially constructed during the term of now former UE CFAD Dean Celino B. Santiago, with blueprints collaborated on with architect-CFAD Professor Art G. Barroca, is now a grand reality through UE Board of Trustees approval following the recommendation of UE Caloocan Chancellor Zosimo M. Battad and under the incumbent deanship of UE CFAD Dean Don S. Amorsolo.
The Galleries is four spaces in one—containing as it does a main gallery; a presentation gallery, a small gallery, and a hall of fame gallery.
To be exact, the Chua King Ha Main Gallery is where UE CFAD’s cultural workers will present their main cultural works. The Presentation Gallery, meanwhile, will be for music, literary and allied presentations.
For its part, the Small Gallery will be for visual arts and allied presentations, while the Hall of Fame Gallery is set for the presentation and permanent collection of works of art and design by UE arts and design alumni.
The Main Gallery also serves as the new home of the Caloocan Campus’s Lualhati statue, which had previously stood at the lobby of the Administration Building, and is the seat of the UE-Soka University Friendship Clock, which will also be unveiled during this Tuesday’s program.
Congratulations to the UE Caloocan and UE CFAD community on the realization and inauguration of the White Cube of CAMANAVA, the Chua King Ha Galleries!
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