FOUR Thomasian visual artists featured a diverse set of artworks ranging from paintings to installations at the Art Fair Philippines 2024 at The Link in Makati.
In its 11th year, the art fair had UST alumni Ramon Orlina, Anthony Victoria, Edward Arce, and Ang Kiukok as part of the roster of artists, along with 50 other exhibitors.
Arce, a fine arts graduate who specializes in sculptural painting, featured six oil on canvas artworks rendering a three-dimensional effect.
His exhibit’s centerpiece was the 83×115.5-in. “Letting It All Out and Everything In,” which depicts a dark brown wooden frame sinking into a large, milky-white canvas.
“The idea came up when [I saw] my kids dunk Oreo cookies [into] a glass of milk,” Arce told the Varsitarian. “I correlated it with faith, how you must surrender yourself 100 percent to him to have that innermost contentment in life.”
“You dip, dive, and submerge into uncertainty, and you’ll be alright as long as you hold on to [that] 100 percent,” he added.
His other works include the 48×40-in. “Seeing Fullness with What is Only Left,” the 71×85-in. “Beaming with Fearless Confidence with His Absolute Grace,” and the 60×47-in. “Leaping Blindly Into the Abyss.”
Also drawing inspiration from his spirituality was Anthony Victoria, an advertising alumnus who delved into the Filipino concept of “loob.”
“It is a traditional Filipino concept about our interiority and why we have mabuting loob, masamang loob,” Victoria said. “Its meaning is deep to us.”
As an etching artist and a person with a disability, Victoria used the medium of mirror-finish aluminum, which he said he discovered after noticing the scratches on a pair of metal crutches he had used for several years.
His centerpiece, “Digmaan,” featured a woman standing amid thorny vines and filigree leaves, with a sword pierced through her flaming heart.
Victoria said he explored his spirituality and how he attempted to redefine it on his 59×34-in. work.
“It is about how I relate to the personal challenges and hardships of other people; finding a different meaning in the symbolism I grew up with that was influenced by my family,” he said.
Other pieces he displayed at the exhibit include the 20×24-in. “Korona,” 20×24-in. “Pagsusulit,” and 20×24-in. “Aba.”
Orlina, a graduate of the University’s architecture program, put on exhibit his trademark glass sculptures.
The sculptor’s works were displayed under Art Cube Gallery.
A posthumous exhibit featuring the works of the late Thomasian painter Kiukok was also mounted at the fair.
Founded in 2013, Art Fair Philippines is a platform for “exhibiting and selling the best in modern and contemporary Philippine visual art.”
This year’s edition ran from Feb. 16 to Feb. 18. Jan Alyanna G. Tamaray with reports from Patrice Jerica A. Beltran
