Lizza May David is a painter and multidisciplinary artist interested in gaps and silences in personal and collective archives and experiments with forms of activation or disturbance through abstract painting. She navigates through affects and moments that elude representability, leading to experimental approaches for the very same reason. She does not assume the existing binary simplifications of the world, but rather thinks relationally in crossroads, turning points, overlapping and branching out, finding further expression in collaborations, architectural interventions or installations.
Lizza May David (born in Quezon City, Philippines) lives and works in Berlin and studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Nuremberg, the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon (France) and at the Universität der Künste Berlin. Currently, she is a lecturer at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee.
Education
2008 Meisterschüler degree | Class of Prof. Maria Vedder | Berlin University of the Arts | Germany
2001-2006 Video Art, Visual Communication | Berlin University of the Arts | Germany
1999 Exchange semester | École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon | France
1996-2001 Painting, Fine Arts | Class of Prof. Rolf-Gunter Dienst | Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg | Germany
Solo Shows
2020 Bahala Ka [What do I know?] | Kunstverein Hildesheim | Germany
2020 Untitled Painting #1- [infinity] | 1335mabini | Manila | Philippines
2016 Mangrove | Galerie Michael Janssen | Berlin | Germany
2016 TRIAS | NON Berlin | Germany (weekly solo-exhibition series)
2015 Umwelt | Galeria Duemila | Manila | Philippines
2014 Tabula Rasa | 1335mabini Studios | Manila | Philippines
2014 Artist Unknown | Cultural Center of the Philippines | Manila | Philippines
2012 On Surface | Green Papaya Art Projects | Manila | Philippines
2008 The Model Family Award | Galerie Metro | Berlin | Germany
2005 Away from Home | Kunstverein Hof | Germany
Selected group shows and screenings - short version -
upcoming: Galeria Duemila | Manila | Philippines
2024 MATRIX II: Women artists from the Collections of the Ateneo Art Gallery and Ambeth R. Ocampo | Ateneo Art Gallery | Quezon City | Philippines
2024 Out of the Box 3: Traces of Interest | ifa Gallery | Stuttgart | Germany
2024 Narben der Erinnerung | Museum Reinickendorf | Germany
2023-24 Snare for Birds | Ateneo Art Gallery | Quezon City | Philippines
2023 Sea Behind the Wall | Oyoun | Berlin (screening)
2023 Snare for Birds | Alfredo F. Tadiar Library | San Fernando | La Union | Philippines
2023 Last Laugh | nationalmuseum | Berlin | Germany
2023 Prussian Palaces. Colonial Histories. Biographies and Collections | Charlottenburg Palace Berlin
2023 Snare for Birds | Ang Panublion Museum | Roxas City | Philippines
2022-23 Beyond Nuclear Family: Home Sweet Home | EFA Project Space | New York
2022-23 The No Name Show | Gravity Art Space | Quezon City | Philippines
2021-23 Recent Acquisitions | Ateneo Art Gallery | Manila | Philippines
2022 Beyond Nuclear Family: Recipes for Happiness | Display gallery | Prague | Czech Republic
2022 Chains of Interest | ifa-Galerie Berlin | Germany
2022 Spheres of Interest* (curated by Susanne Weiss and Inka Gressel) | ifa-Galerie Berlin | Germany
2022 Die Vibration der Dinge | 15. Triennale Kleinplastik Fellbach | Germany
2021-22 Transition Exhibition | Brücke Museum | Berlin | Germany
2021 RESIST! Die Kunst des Widerstands – CINEMA RESIST! SNARE FOR BIRDS, Screening and Q&A | with Kiri Dalena & Lizza May David | Filmforum NRW im Museum Ludwig Cologne
2021 Routes of Empathy | Haunt | Berlin | Germany
2021 snare for birds | co-lab project with Kiri Dalena and Jaclyn Reyes | Resist! Die Kunst des Widerstandes | Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum Cologne | online
2020 caring structures | Kunstverein Hildesheim | Germany
2020 NOT VISUAL NOISE | Ateneo Art Gallery | Manila | Philippines
2019 Motions of this Kind: Propositions & Problems of Belatedness | Brunei Gallery at SOAS | London | UK
2018 VIVA EXCON 2018 | the Visayas Islands Visual Arts Exhibition and Conference | Roxas City | Philippines
2018 INCARNATOR: MINIATURE VIEWING ROOM (video screening, invited by Paul Pfeiffer) | Bellas Artes Projects - Outpost | Makati | Philippines
2018 PRECURSE | Curated by John Hodany | Park Place Gallery | Brooklyn, New York | USA
2018 Bastards of Misrepresentation - Planet Merde | Galerie Melike Bilir | Hamburg | Germany
2018 Paintings must be meaningful | Pinto Art Museum | Philippines
2017 SCOPE:Pingpong | Space Ppong | Gwangju | South Korea
2017 SONIC SOUNDINGS | VENICE TRAJECTORIES | Venice | Italy
2016 Never Shown on Purpose | Circle1 | Berlin | Germany
2016 They have come to escort me on the dangerous pathway of the intermediate state | Art Museum of Nanjing University of the Arts (AMNUA) | China (video screening, invited by J&K)
2016 Graduale 16: No new kind of Duck | Rosa-Luxemburg Platz | Berlin | Germany
2016 Abortion of Cute | 8.Salon | Hamburg | Germany
2016 Don´t Panic It´s Organic | Galerie Zimmermann-Kratochwill | Graz | Austria
2016 Topsy Turvy | Finale Art File | Manila | Philippines
2016 Electric Bulalo: Painting in Exile | Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery | Manila | Philippines
2015 Deluge 5 | nationalmuseum | Berlin | Germany
2015 UGAT-AGOS | NON Berlin | Germany
2015 STOP LOOK LISTEN | 1335mabini | Manila | Philippines
2015 Exoten-AdAptation_AdOption | WARP | Sint-Niklaas | Belgium
2015 Contemporary Transnational Journeys and Liaisons | Metropolitan Museum of Manila | Philippines
2014 They have come to escort me on the dangerous pathway of the intermediate state | Power Station of Art | Nikolaj Kunsthal | Copenhagen | Denmark
2014 They have come to escort me on the dangerous pathway of the intermediate state | Power Station of Art | Shanghai (video screening, invited by J&K)
2014 Die Ästhetik des Widerstands | Galerie im Turm | Berlin | Germany
2014 Brave New Worlds | Metropolitan Museum of Manila | Philippines
2014 Die Ästhetik des Widerstands | IG BILDENDE KUNST | Vienna | Austria
2013 YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT | Ateneo Art Gallery | Manila | Philippines
2012 Rebus New York | Emely Harvey Foundation | New York (artist group Global Alien)
(please email me for the complete version)
Awards, Grants and Residencies
2024 KUNSTFONDS_Stipendium | Stiftung Kunstfonds
2022 Stipend | Stiftung Kunstfonds | Neustart Kultur
2014-16 Stipend | Fellowship Graduate School for the Arts | Berlin University of the Arts
2014 Artist in Residency | 1335Mabini | Manila
2014 Global Exchange Grant | Berlin Senate Cultural Affairs Department
2013 Exhibition funding | ifa - Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations
2011 Travel grant | Berlin Senate Cultural Affairs Department
2007-08 NaföG grant (Landesgraduiertenförderung des Senats Berlin)
2007 DAAD (travel grant in combination with NaföG)
2007 Artist in Residency | Sodaart/Nomad | Villa Arson/Nice and Vienna
University-related activities (selection)
2024 Artist presentation and panel discussion | KuK-Tuesday S3: Dislocation & Object Lives | Technical University Berlin | Germany
2024 Artist presentation | Tales of the Diasporic Ordinary. Aesthetics, Affects, Archives | Humboldt University Berlin | Germany
Since 2023 Lecturer | Sculpture Department | Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee | Germany
2023 Q&A with students of Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee on Chains of Interest at ifa-Galerie Berlin | Germany
2022 Q&A with students of HBK Braunschweig on Spheres of Interest* at ifa-Galerie Berlin | Germany
2021 Lecturer | "Routes of Empathy" | Class of Prof. Stella Geppert | Burg Giebichstein Halle | online
2021-22 Graduate Advisor | School of Fine Arts and Design | Philippine Women's University | Manila | Philippines
2019/2020 Lecturer | Planetary Perspectives | Stiftung Universität Hildesheim | Germany
2017 Participation at the AG Dekoloniale Ästhetiken | Graduiertenkolleg "Das Wissen der Künste“ | Universität der Künste Berlin | Germany
2017 Artist presentation | House of Memories | Transdisciplinary workshop/symposium at the
Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) | Germany
2015 Initiator, Organizator | Salon for Aesthetic Experiments: Tropes in Painting | House of the World
Cultures Berlin | Germany
2015 Initiator | Artist talk | Philippine Studies Series Berlin |„Moments and Gestures: Capturing Subject
and Gender in Philippine Cinema“ | Graduate School | University of Arts Berlin| Germany
2015 Participation | ARTISTIC NEEDS & INSTITUTIONAL DESIRES | Symposium with exhibition and
performances from international artistic postgraduate programmes | House of the World Cultures Berlin
2014 Lecture | Soongshil University | Seoul | South Korea
2011 Lecture at Class of Linda Wysong | Pacific Northwest College of Art | Portland | Oregon (for Global Alien)
Lecture Performances and Workshops (selection)
2024 Workshop | Asian-diasporic perspectives on decolonial memory culture | Dekoloniale Residency 2024 | online
2024 Workshop | Growing up abroad | FILIPINX FESTIVAL VOL.1 | Spore Initiative | Berlin
2023 Two-Days-Workshop Snare for Birds | Alfredo F. Tadiar Library | San Fernando | La Union | Philippines
2021 Lecture Performance | Snare for Birds - artists Lizza May David (Berlin), Kiri Dalena (Manila) & Jaclyn Reyes (New York) | 9. Asientag: Monolog oder Dialog | online
2021 Lecture Performance | MEGA Seminar „FORGET US NOT – Widerständig und kollektiv Erinnern aus Asiatisch-Deutscher Perspektive | online
2021 Lecture Performance | Snare for Birds - artists Lizza May David (Berlin), Kiri Dalena (Manila) & Jaclyn Reyes (New York) | Engaging Colonial Archives Launch event | Spreefeld Berlin
2021 Lecture Performance | Snare for Birds - artists Lizza May David (Berlin), Kiri Dalena (Manila) & Jaclyn Reyes (New York) on artistic approaches to decoloniality | webinar: Towards Decolonizing Filipin@-German Solidarity and Cooperation | online
2020 Lecture Performance and Talk with Fiona McGovern beside the exhibition Bahala Ka [What do I know?] | Kunstverein Hildesheim | Germany
2019 Lecture Performance | Alles ist interessant #2 | Kunstraum Ossastraße | Berlin | Germany
2019 Workshop by Lizza May David & Gabriel Rossell-Santillán | The Koppel Project Central | London
2018 L-STELLEN | Performance-Workshop at Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin // for more information see here
2013 Lecture Performance | Cultural Centre of the Philippines | Manila
2009 Workshop (with Myriam Eckart) | Tongue Laden | Berlin
Presentations and further activities (selection)
2024 Artist presentation and panel discussion | TRANSNATIONALITIES: THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF MIGRATION (invited by Green Papaya) | DAAD Galerie Berlin | Germany
2023 Artist talk | Snare for Birds | Ateneo Art Gallery | Quezon City | Philippines
since 2016 Jury member | Berlin Senate Cultural Affairs Department, University of the Arts, bbk-berlin e.V.
2023 Artist talk | Spurenlesen: Zugänge zur Geschichte und Aktualität des ifa-Kunstbestandes
2022 Artist presentation | Transcultural Academy | Japanisches Palais Dresden
2022 Panel discussion | Transformative Archives | Grassi Museum Leipzig
2022 Artist talk | Chains of Interest* | ifa Gallery Berlin
2022 Presentation and Q&A | Taking Care Project | Accessing, Sharing and using collections | MARKK Museum Hamburg
2021 Screening an Q&A | RESIST! Die Kunst des Widerstands – CINEMA RESIST! SNARE FOR BIRDS, with Kiri Dalena & Lizza May David | Filmforum NRW im Museum Ludwig Köln
2021 Radio broadcast LATITUDE ON AIR, “New approaches to museology – Databases (re)loaded” by Goethe Institute, Link on Mixcloud
2020 ArtSpeak Online - Not Visual Noise Diaspora Panel | Ateneo Art Gallery Philippines | online
2019 Artist talk | SEA Currents | Raven Row | London
2016 Book launch | the canvas and the monkey | Galerie Michael Janssen | Berlin | Germany
2016 Artist talk | ASIAN ART TALK SHOW 2016 | NON Berlin
2013 Artist talk | ArtSpeak Ateneo Art Gallery | Manila
2012 Presentation (as artist group member Global Alien) | Where we meet: Cultural Translation and Art in Social Transformation | ifa - Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen | Werkstatt für Kulturen | Berlin
2012 Presentation | As in Shop | Manila
2011 Curator Philippines | Asian Filmfestival Berlin | House of the World Cultures | Berlin
2009 Presentation | Migration, East Asian Identity and Environmental Diplomacy | Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (ICD) | Berlin
2008 Presentation | Teams & Subjects - Über Autorschaft in Künstlergruppen | Heinrich Böll Stiftung | Sophiensaele | Berlin (as artist group member Global Alien)
2008 Artist talk | We aren't commodities for sale - Filipino Overseas Workers in Japan and Hongkong
Talk and screenings by Kaoru Yoneyama, Moira Zoitl and Lizza May David |
Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien | Berlin
Further Affiliations (selection)
2020-2023 Board member korientation e.V. - a postmigrant self-organization and network for Asian German perspectives with a socially critical view on culture, media and politics
Member of Mapping Philippine Material Culture.Germany research group, activist group ALPAS, Neue Deutsche Museumsmacher:innen, Philippine Studies Series Berlin, Saloon Berlin
2008-2015 Member of artist group Global Alien
Collections: Ateneo Art Gallery, Kienzle Art Foundation