2. In the contemporary times, more and more artists
are trying to find new and innovative ways to
express themselves. Many contemporary Filipino
artists turn to their cultural heritage and
indigenous materials for inspiration. The results
are often exciting and surprising. These artworks
are certainly avant-garde yet rooted in Filipino
culture.
3. CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTIST
Artists can be inspired by many factors. Their work is dictated by the
combination of these elements that most of the time, even if the subject is
the same, the output varies from one another.
One of the strongest factors that influence the work of artists is their
environment. The way they were raised and the experiences they had with
the society they grew up in would be a rich source of subjects and
inspirations they could draw their work from.
There are some artists who do not only use their environment as inspiration
but also their culture and heritage. These artists use familiar materials and
media and connect to them and their country. Their works result in arts that
are both a representation of them and of their country.
4.
5. ★ RODEL TAPAYA
➔ Hails from bulacan, a multi-awarded
Filipino artist winning art contest here
and abroad.
➔ He got his break whn he won the top
prize in the Nokia Art award,
Dominating other artist from the
Asian-pacific region. He was given
the opportunity to study and train in
New York and Finlad, and eventually
graduated at the University of the
Phillippines College of Fine Arts.
8. ★ Dexter Sy
➔ Born in manila in 1979. He uses his mix
heritage of being a filipino- chinese as his
inspiration for many of his works.
➔ These offers personal insight and
commentary on the life of a Filipino
chinese.
➔ The result are artworks that are personal,
self deprecating and honest
➔ He says that art for him is not just about
the piece itself but also the research that
goes with it
10. ★ Ronald Riel Jaramillo Hilario
➔ Born in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur in 1976
Hilario belonged to family who is famous
in creating wood crafting carved santos
and furniture.
➔ He learned rebulto-carving from his
uncle Jose Lazo Jr. a local wood -
carver.
➔ Using his family ‘s woodcrafting heritage
as an inspiration for his artworks, he was
able to distinguish himself as
contemporary
➔ He describes himself as contemporary
artist who uses traditional wood-carving
techniques.
12. ★ Clifford Espinosa
➔ Filipino architect, artist and enviromentalist.
➔ He belives that functional things can be at
the same time beautiful as seen in his
furniture.
➔ His interest arts was already apparent since
he was a child, spending his spare time
drawing and sketching.
➔ Clifford gets inspiration from indigenous
forms of crafts. He applies the techniques he
learned from these traditional crafts on his
own work such as assembling and creating
furniture without the use of nails.
14. ★ John Paul Antido
➔ Born in antipolo in 1982, a Filipino contemporary painter whose
works are characterized by his use impasto technique where
paint is applied so thickly leaving visible brush strokes in the
finished work.
➔ His filipino can be seen in his figurative subjects where people
are in contemporary settings but are depicted wearing
traditional Filipino costume such as the baro’t saya, bakya etc.
➔ His paitings are said to be an allegory of the situation of the
Filipinos where their psyche seem to live in two contradicting
eras when compared to the global situation.
15.
16. ★ Ricky Ambagan
➔ He looks to the present
Filipino daily grind for
inspiration in his collection of
paintings entitled “ Mga
Langgam sa Siyudad.
➔ One of his paintings replicates
a captured candid moments in
the midst of transit using
distortion as a style.
17.
18. ★ Aze Ong
➔ Know for her colorful and organic forms
made of crochet threads. She grew up in
Antipolo City.
➔ As there were no ethics groups in her
community, she always felt that she was
constantly looking for her identity.
➔ Volunteer teacher in Kibangay Lantapan
Bukidnon for a year in 1999 Associate
Missionaries Of Assumption (AMA).
➔ Most of her students belonged to the
Talaandig group and immersed herself in
their culture
Editor's Notes
The following lessons we will be going to discuss are the different contemporary artists from the different areas of the Philippines and their body of work that is inspired by their heritage. The first lesson in this unit deals with a selection of visual artists from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao who are praised not only for their talents but also the innovative ways they use indigenous materials to create artworks that are uniquely Filipino. The second lesson in this unit focuses on the different performing artists and groups in the archipelago and their creative performances that are inspired by the traditional and indigenous culture.
It is hoped and expected that by the end of the unit you will be inspired to find your own way to express yourself through art and will be proud of our rich Filipino culture.
This lesson will showcase contemporary Filipino artists from the different parts of the archipelago who have shown innovation in their crafts, resulting in arts that promote and enhance Philippine contemporary art.
It must be noted that like all things, artists' styles will change. What may be their inspiration now may not be the same one in a few years. The content of their art goes through changes, and many will experiment as they progress in the development of their arts.
The artists and examples set here to be discussed today are some of the innovations the artists have done at one point or another in their careers that showcase elements of their cultural heritage.
It’s a kind of contemporary arts with the combination of culture.
Their current works might not have the same flavor and style, but this does not mean they have abandoned their cultural roots. Rather, they have grown and flourished in other means of their expression. It does not signify that it is not good, rather it is just different. Because we all have our own style on looking for an art.
Though Tapaya's medium is traditional, his paintings are not. He innovatively uses subjects inspired by the culture and history of the Philippines. He also uses folk subjects and myths from Filipino folktales such as manananggals, tikbalangs, and Bernardo Carpio to add symbolic meaning and relevance to his viewers.
ne of Tapaya's notable works is Cane of Kabunian, Numbered but Cannot Be Counted, which was inspired by folk stories and Philippine precolonial history. This won him the prestigious Signature Art Prize in Singapore in 2011. His painting Mountain Fantasies uses the mythical Maria Makiling to warn us about greed and the destruction of the environment.
DNA (2015) is an installation by Sy. He used the ubiquitous Good Morning towels as his chief medium. These inexpensive hand towels made in China with the word "Good Morning" printed on them are often used by Filipino workers and children to wipe their sweat away. These towels were hung from the ceiling and interwoven with textile with indigenous Filipino designs to simulate a double helix strand of a DNA. This installation was an amusing analogy of his Filipino-Chinese lineage.
The Self Recognized by the Others (2015) is a portrait of Sy's family with faces painted in black and white similar to that of the American rock band Kiss. He used this as an analogy to not generalize as he explained that in the Philippines, when people find out that you are a Filipino-Chinese they automatically assume that you are wealthy, which is not always true. The background is filled with symbols and imagery from both Chinese and Filipino cultures.
His collection of fifteen paintings on burlap depicts the chaotic and crowded streets of Manila.
He compared the city dwellers to ants that are overly preoccupied with their own businesses. He finds interest in the impermanence of things, which he tries to capture in his art.
