Born in Manila, the Philippines, Roberto Chabet (b. 1937) is one of the most influential artists and a key figure in conceptual art in his country. An artist, curator and educator, Chabet has been active in the art scene since 1961, after graduating from University of Santo Tomas in architecture. He was the founding Museum Director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (1967-1970), where he initiated the Thirteen Artists Awards, and a lecturer in University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts (1971-2002). His accolades include Republic Cultural Heritage Award (1972), Araw ng Maynila Award for the Visual Arts (1972) and CCP Centennial Award of Honors for the Arts (1998). ‘The Ceiling’ is from the China Collage series Chabet created from 1980 to 1985. The series title is derived from how Chabet had opened a map of China and the difficulties he encountered when attempting to fold it back to its original format. The collages feature elements that are taken from his immediate surroundings, thus assuming the role of a window into his life at a particular point of time.
