Filipino sculptor Jinggoy Buensuceso was recently named Outstanding Designer of 2016 by Wallpaper Magazine for his collection of hand-woven accessories exhibited in Bangkok. He is known for his abstract sculptures and installations made from metal and wood, as well as functional home pieces. Whang-od, from the Philippines, is the last remaining traditional Kalinga tattoo artist at 101 years old, having tattooed members of the indigenous community since age 15. Gary-Ross Pastrana is a conceptual artist from Manila who combines found objects and photographs in subtle woven tales and transformations to create new textual meanings. Martha Atienza is a mixed-media artist interested in social change who was among the finalists for the

1. CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS
(LUZON)

2. Filipino Sculptor Jinggoy Buensuceso Nabs ‘Wallpaper’ Outstanding Designer Award
BY JACQUELINE ARIAS
*Sculptor and visual artist Jinggoy Buensuceso was
recently named Outstanding Designer of 2016 by
Wallpaper Magazine.
Jinggoy is currently exhibiting “Constellations,” a
collection of hand-woven accessories, at the Thailand
Innovation and Design Expo in Bangkok. There, he was
given the Outstanding Designer award by Wallpaper
and Asia Talents.
*He is known for his abstract sculptures and
installations made from metal and wood, and he also
creates functional home pieces. You may have seen
some of Jinggoy’s works at local galleries and during
Manila FAME.

6. Whang-od born February 17,
1917), also known as Maria Oggay, is a Filipina
tattoo artist from Buscalan, Tinglayan, Kalinga,
Philippines. She is often described as the "last"
and oldest mambabatok (traditional Kalinga
tattooist) and is part of the Butbut people of the
larger Kalinga ethnic group.
She has been tattooing headhunters and women
of the indigenous people of Butbut in Buscalan,
Kalinga since she was 15 years old but the
Butbut warriors who used to earn tattoos through
protecting villages or killing enemies no longer
exist. Despite that, Whang-od continues to apply
her traditional art form to tourists visiting
Buscalan.

9. Gary-Ross Pastrana’s
art has been one of the most persistent in terms of
combining concepts with objects. His conceptual
pieces, although loaded with poetic intensity,
remain unobtrusively subtle and even almost quaint
in its appearance. Coiled or folded photographs, his
woven tales from found pictures in the internet, the
sawed off parts of a boat shipped to another gallery,
his shirt tied into a pole to commensurate a flag,
these are the slightest of turns Gary-Ross has his
objects make to create a new text within. Born in
1977 in Manila, he received his Bachelor’s degree in
Painting from the University of the Philippines and
was handed with the Dominador Castaneda Award
for Best Thesis, and was granted with residency
programs in Japan and Bangkok.

13. Martha Atienza
Born to a Dutch mother and a Filipino father, Martha Atienza
has moved between the Philippines and the Netherlands
throughout her life and her mixed background is reflected in
her video work. Somewhere between imagination and
understanding, her work is a sociological study of her
environment. Atienza is interested in investigating the
potential of contemporary art as a tool for instituting social
change. Along with Rodel Tapaya, she was among the
finalists for the 2013/2014 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, where
she presented her work endless hours at sea. The video
installation pays homage to the history of ocean voyages,
inspired by her father’s past as a sea captain. With a moving
video of the sea refracted through a glass of water and
accompanied by the sound of the ocean, this work captures
the illusion of moving waters and suggests a sense of
hallucination brought on by the isolation of a life at sea.