Draft:Jeffrey Augustine Songco

Jeffrey Augustine Songco (born 1983) is an Asian-American multidisciplinary artist whose mediums include sculpture, installation, digital photography, video, and performance. His work has been exhibited at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle, SPRING/BREAK Art Show in New York City, and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. He lives and works in Michigan, USA.

Education
He holds a B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.F.A. from San Francisco Art Institute.

Early Life
Songco was born and raised in New Jersey to devout Catholic Filipino immigrants. He studied dance at the New Jersey School of Ballet and at the age of 10 made his professional acting debut as Jerome in the 1994 production of South Pacific at Paper Mill Playhouse. He subsequently appeared as a performer in Paper Mill’s 1997 production of Stephen Schwartz’s Children of Eden and the 1998 production of Gypsy starring Betty Buckley and Debbie Gibson. He has said “As a child actor, I would go into New York City to audition for roles that were primarily for white people. As a young kid, I would read these casting calls that my mom would share with me, and I would hope that the very end of that paragraph said, ‘All ethnicities welcome.’”

Career
Songco's artwork has been exhibited at venues including the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle, Spring/Break Art Show in New York City, and FLXST Contemporary in Chicago. His large-scale sculpture series “Facets” is on permanent display at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

ArtPrize

In 2015, Songco's work titled “Revelry” was accepted by art competition and festival ArtPrize. Songco's installation was a temporary site-specific outdoor work presented at Calder Plaza that consisted of 27,000 plastic beaded necklaces knotted to a 200-foot long metal chain link fence. In addition to the installation, Songco distributed thousands of necklaces to visitors inviting them to wear them, share them, or add them to the fence. On the fourth day of the competition, visitors to the installation began removing the necklaces and by the evening, most of the necklaces were gone. “When you put a work of art in the public space, you never know how the public will react,” Songco said, “much like the initial reception of the citizens of Grand Rapids when Alexander Calder's 'La Grande Vitesse' was installed in 1969”. Following the dismantling of the fence, Songco’s experience was widely circulated in the local media. He continued the conceptual parameters of the work and distributed necklaces and encouraged visitors to add the necklaces to the fence. Visitors also returned to the artwork to bring back their necklaces. "Someone came by, and he apologized for him and his sons and that they were kind of following other people and they didn't know, and he came back with the beads and really gave me a sincere apology," Songco said. "It's been really lovely to have people come and bring their beads back, and now other people can enjoy the process of adding to the art." Songco also stated "Is it vandalism? Or is it the evolution of art? In an amazing turn of events, people began to add to the fence once again. The work of art evolved with the public, and the public evolved with the work of art."

In 2017, Songco received the Installation Category Juried Award for his artwork “Society of 23’s Locker Dressing Room”. The artwork was shortlisted for the Juried Grand Prize by artist, juror, and previous ArtPrize winner Anila Quayyum Agha who described the installation as “finesse to the last detail. It was amazing to walk in, see the materials, the space being utilized so beautifully — it was just like everything was in its place and it just felt right.” She added, “It’s talking about something really important about diversity, our sexuality, and the way we are, and the way we live in this world, and how kindness is sometimes absent when we are dealing with each other”.

Writing
Songco has been a contributing writer to art publications including Art21 Blog, Bad at Sports, and Hyperallergic.