Vision Petron: Fifteen Artists for the First Fifteen

BY JAY BAUTISTA |

It’s that intangible quality in a painting, a quality so distinct, so unique that onlookers would say, ‘Now that’s a Filipino painting!’

Arturo Luz, 1953

A recent study conducted by the University of Oxford concluded that it is neither class nor status that makes one an artist. Rather it is in the manner one is educated that inspires him; how conducive his community influences him that enables his thoughts and feelings expressed on canvas or paper and create value in art. 

When Vision Petron National Student Art Competition (formerly called ArtPetron) was conceptualized 15 years ago, its sole desire was to inspire the next generation of painters to hone their art, excel and n the process, rediscover and appreciate Filipino culture, the long-time advocacy of Petron. While other existing art contests catered only to fine arts students, Vision Petron opened the opportunity to all college students and those enrolled in a museum-based art classes believing that creativity is not exclusively confined in artist studios and the academe. Petron thus positioned itself as an art patron of the talented youth.

In the course of running the contest we have been witness to some young artists who have shown promise at the onset of their soon-to-be flourishing careers. Here are fifteen of our best painters who we had the privileged of seeing them break their first light in art.    

El Viaje Familoia by John Paul Antido

JOHN PAUL ANTIDO (b.1982)

John Paul Antido is a hall famer having won in 2002 and 2005. A member of Antipolo-based Sanviaje Japs has a peculiar style of painting which is done by impasto technique laying thick paint with finite textured brushstrokes using vivid colors with light hues. With five solo exhibitions travelling has been his constant theme. He has also done illustrations for a children’s book and lately he has dabbled photographer where portraiture is his forte. His paintings were recently featured in a children’s book.

ROBERT BESANA (b.1976)

Manwal by Robert Besana

One of our first grandprize winner in 2001, Besana has always investigated the contemporary possibilities of materiality and perception. His winning work Manwal makes the viewers rotate their gaze as he captures children play a game of slippers giving this a unique perspective. He is now a director at the School of Multi-Media Arts at the Asia Pacific College where he is respected and has proven the best teachers of art are those that actively practice it.

CHARLES BUENCONSEJO (b. 1984)

Multi-media preoccupies Buenconsejo’s work while employing his deep foundation for photography where he was first recognized being first hall of fame in this category. He has won the Ateneo Art Awards two consecutive years and has done residencies in Visual Arts Center in La Trobe University in Australia. His art was shown in his solo exhibitions such as Unending Void, Destination Unknown, and Reality is a Hologram is infused with his inquiries on science. Sometimes to question is enough response. 

Children of the Fields by Charles Buenconsejo

 JOEY COBCOBO (b.1983)

The call of the indigenous is intrinsic to Cobcobo who come from a lineage of Ifugao wood carvers in the north. He has rediscovered his technique by employing a multiple layer of images done thou various media done in heavily indented prints. His subject matter pays homage of his tribal roots to the personal relationships we Filipinos value like our elderly and families. A CCP 13 Artists Awardee he now teaches in his alma mater Technological University of the Philippines.

                                                                   MARK ANDY GARCIA (b.1984)

Punong Puno ng Pag-ibig by Mark Andy Garcia

A graduate of Technological University of the Philippines, Mark Andy Garcia has won three runners up and a grand prize win. A recent CCP 13 Artists Awardee for 2015, he won grandprize in Metrobank Art and Design Excellence in 2007 and Juror’s Choice Award of Excellence for Philip Morris in 2008. Garcia paints autobiographical works bordering on his personal tragedies and joys despite the ruggedness and the raw texture of his works Garcia remains optimistic in his process, a kind of salvation Garcia wants us all to have.

FLORENTINO IMPAS (b. 1970)

What make Vision Petron unique is it is open also to students of museum-based painting classes where we discovered homegrown talents like Florentino Jun Impas. One of Cebu’s most sought after artist. He is also portraitist of choice of cardinals, bishops and has even been invited to the Vatican for a sit down with the religious there. Impas has done the official portrait of St. Lorenzo Ruiz of what we all are familiar with. He had significant solo exhibitions at the SM Art Center in 2009- “Portraits and Figures” and 2011- “Circle of Life”, Metropolitan Museum of Manila and 2014- “Kalendaryo Festival”, SM Art Center, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City. This year he participated in painting Art and Anthropology at the Chicago Field Museum Mural Painting “Art ad Antropology” in the United States of America.

JEFFREY SALON (b. 1986)

Salon is a hall of famer having won in 2005 and 2010. Mark by his own realism and monotone palette, Salon is old school with his palette focusing on children and their plight and welfare. He has had solo exhibitions at the SM Art Center, Nineveh Art space and Singapore. He won in Sining PSE National Art Competition and the Miguel Malvar National Art Competition.

 
MARK SALVATUS (b. 1980)

Balwarte ni Lolo, Aming Munting Kastilyo by Mark Salvatus

Even when he joined ArtPetron and submitting wall bound paintings, Salvatus was always one step ahead of his contemporaries. For his winning piece in ArtPetron 2 he used red car paint Salvatus won the most white he etched with a white primary base his figures to come up with a toned down but still celebratory image of the Pahiyas from his hometown in Lucban. Always on the experiment for new technologies to debunk old myths found in history or even memory, he now and then gets to be invited in biennales and residencies while keeping his focus on his contemporary practice here. A product of UST Fine Arts where he taught for a time, Salvatus is a CCP 13 Artists Awardee and runs his art collective 98B virtually or wherever he is. 

ARTURO SANCHEZ (b. 1980)

Sanchez is proof that someone so technical can be the most artistic. Sanchez took up architecture at the Technological Institute of the Philippines. Mirrors have always fascinated Sanchez in fact his pieces are meticulously done by etching selected magazine images to reflect his art on the mirror. Based in the art town of two national artists, Sanchez has exhibited in local galleries and his artworks have participated in the auction houses in Hong Kong and Singapore. He won the Grand prize Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards 2013.

Market in Motion by Paul Quiambao

 CJ DE SILVA-ONG (b. 1987)

De Silva-Ong is a graduate of UP Diliman College of Fine Arts and award winning creative director at TBWA\Digital Arts Network. Right after graduating, she handling brands where she has been recognized in local and international shows: she has won in AdFest, Spikes Asia, One Show, D&AD and is part of the team that bagged the country's first Webby.

CJ is also a well-known painter. Versatile in her own illustration, her book covers for Sen Miriam Santiago “Stupid is Forever” have recently been lauded.

Ober Ober by Orley Ypon

RONALD JERESANO (b. 1984)

Social realism served its artistic purpose the turbulent times during Martial Law. With its strong political content the movement’s aesthetics revolves around anatomies of people as allegories to the dark perils of our country. Jeresano is a proud heir to social realism as his images speak of  our emancipation as a nation. He has won other major art competition and had solo exhibitions locally and abroad. 

RAFFY NAPAY (b. 1986)

From two-dimensional works, EARIST graduate Napay shifted into threads and fabrics into his canvases. Often dealing with his personal life, he stitches, tufts and weaves stories from memory. He has won in Metrobank Arts and Design Excellence, Ateneo Art Awards 2013. He had artist residencies in Artesan Gallery and Studio in Singapore in 2013 and Liverpool Hope University in Liverpool United Kingdom last year. He just attended the Florence Biennale in Italy. 

JAMES ONA (b. 1986)

Tulay ng Kalakalan at Hanap Buhay by James Ona

Despite the surplus of the DSLR cameras it takes an amount of time and dedication for a master lensman to emerge. Trained as a photojournalist in his alma mater PUP Manila, Ona would eventually cover more important events for his corporate clients. He does art photography for Studio 5 Designs coffee table book projects. He continues to work and teach for PUP Manila.

PAUL QUIAMBAO (b. 1991)

There are only three photographers in this list Quiambao is the one who seeks to elevate photography the most into an art form it rightfully deserves. School spirit runs deep for him UST in particular where he graduated with a degree in architecture. With his loyalty and perseverance Quiambao has been bestowed as UST’s quadricentennial photographer during its celebration in 2011. Motion and depth best describe his images. Remote islands has of late fascinated him most specially Batanes which he has visited many times over and he has photographed extensively.

ORLEY YPON (b.1973)

When Ypon won in the first ArtPetron in 2001 National Artist Napoleon Abueva commented that “he has Amorsolo’s light.” Based in Cebu, Orley is one of ArtPetron’s first grand prize winners and our first hall of famer for painting. A self-taught artist, realism has been Ypon’s trademark having been influenced by the master Martin Abellana. He has had an art residency last year at the Artist Renewal Center in New York. Our first hall of famer in Painting Ypon has come full circle as was our judge in the recent and previous Vision Petron. His first solo exhibition Bidlisiw ( -->sunrise) at the Altro Mondo Gallery is still ongoing. 

Orley Ypon: When Realism Still Matters

BY JAY BAUTISTA |

Flesh was the reason why oil paint was invented.

                                               Willem de Kooning

Bidlisiw (sun rays in Visayan) may yet be an appropriate title for a first solo exhibition of a painter whose artistic sunlight has highly basked us for more than 15 years now. Realists like Cebu-based Ypon have often been taken down for being too literal in expressing their paints on canvases that they are often been relegated to the just confines of a commodified art. In Bidlisiw, Ypon escapes from this strangle laying claim as probably the last heir to this great tradition in Philippine figurative painting.     

It was from a water buffalo plowing in the mud in the ricefields of Toledo that Ypon first conceptualized Ahon. In fact his first Ahon painting won for him 2^nd place at GSIS National Painting Competition. Another Ahon-inspired piece The Searchers would eventually win for Ypon the Art Renewal Residency in New York a few years after.

Compared to the first ones this current Ahon series has matured further and aesthetically expanded creating more movement and depth. Maybe in a less formal manner (some are even laughing at the satire they are into) but more forceful in his rendition, Ypon’s images show more vulnerability in prowess representing our collective struggle for that so-called genuine emancipation. Although they outwit, outdo and outscore one another as the fittest survive, certain individuals corrupt the community spirit for personal greed and selfish interests.

Ypon laments: Tayo yung nasa putikan, gusto natin makaahon. Dapat malampasan ang krisis. Tumitibay tayo sa bawat  trahedyang napagdadaanan. As a painter di ka pwedeng hindi masaktan. Di ka dapat matakot. Dapat harapin mo dahil yun din magpapatibay sa’yo. Yung wisdom mo dito papasok.

The nature of Ypon’s brushstrokes almost reaches fever pitch that the people throw mud at each other including the viewer looking in. Enclosed in a gallery enclave the viewer may even take a step back as splashes of mud come off the canvas and might just stain him. They are ethereal in actuality, ephemeral in posterity. The way an Ypon piece makes you feel in being part of the Philippine quagmire that as you squint in his toiling figures one witnesses a realism that is seldom replete these days. This comes at a time when much of art being produced is emotion-ridden feng shui-enthused or arguably auction bound. As the in-your-face-bodies have often been celebrated in nudes, portraits, and anatomical fixtures the validity of Ypon’s figures does not hark on the usual celebration of the physical skin and bountiful muscles but how the prowess of collective bodies can portray a people wallowing too long and too deep in a marsh, a political entanglement of their own making. A lieu of how brute and superficial we can almost be. How Ypon combined them in sequential and consequential movement with an enduring and endearing light that warmly embraces them are indices of that long arduous practice of his true craftsmanship.

Tall Toledo Tales

If one were are to paint the life of Orley Ypon it will be an impressionist painting he is now known for. He was always trying to capture the movement, the drama of the moment that came his way.

The second in a brood of eight, Ypon has always dreamed of being an artist. He would envy illustrations from the sari sari store komiks or characters on wall calendars of his hometown Toledo in Cebu.

He says: I have to credit also my parents who unlike other parents did have faith and courage in their children to have a career in the arts. Some parents will not have their sons to be artists. Ako, walo kami but they trusted me.

Toledo, however, will be too small for Ypon’s eagerness to learn art. At 17, he took his chance to go to Manila responding to a newspaper ad for production artists in a crafts shop for export.

The experience will prove to have a double purpose. As he was coloring baskets, he was learning the process of mixing colors and drawing in detail. With much fire in his belly, he rose from being an apprentice to be the head of production staff. Perfectionist as he is, he relied on his doing sample works that would be sent to investors abroad interested in his company’s products.

After a few years of working however the call to be an artist heeded more intensely. What little amount he saved in working he invested in his dream of becoming a painter. He quit work and went back to Cebu. Taking up Architecture at the Cebu Institute of Technology, he heeded upon the advice of some artist-friends as having a fall back for an artist if he was an architect. Ypon, however, found the subjects too technical for his fancy. He was just too eager to paint he took up fine arts at UP Cebu to have the proper academic training in art. Here he mastered the rudiments that would guide him where is today.

Ypon had always been a realist in life as well as in art. He emphasizes: Gusto ko kasi realism para madaling maintindihan ng lahat. Parang may sense ka sa tao. Hindi biro ang realism kasi you have to consider many things like technique, depth, color, and most importantly composition. You have to be an observer, kaya mahalaga lahat ng experience ko dahil I have to feel my work when I’m painting.

The cost of being a fine arts student was too much to carry. Upon the invitation from a relative he went to Davao and immerses himself with the rich and diverse culture the province had to offer. It was here that he tasted his first win, in a mural contest. A social realist by nature, Ypon painted what was around him like the many refugees that were prevalent there.

He later joined an on-the-spot painting in Carcar when he came back to Cebu. Earning him confidence from this, he learned there was a new contest for students in ArtPetron, he enrolled in Casa Gorordo Museum and in a week’s time painted what would be his masterpiece, Ober-Ober.

Ober-Ober, 2001

The story of Ober-ober is a tale worth re-telling. The popular slipper game, the topic of his painting, was played everyday by young boys just outside his tiny studio in Toledo where he painted daily.

What makes this painting so special is how Ypon instead of rolling up his canvas, he chose to hand carry it and endure a 21-hour boat ride from Toledo to Manila.

In the book Brushstrokes from the Heart: The First Five Years of ArtPetron, author and art critic Alice Guillermo commented that Ober-Ober for its “strong sense of humanity and fellow-feeling for the masa or children of common people. Ypon seems to intimately know them well. Even the light that underlines their contours is not harsh but is kind and insightful.”

It is this same bright rays of the sun that National Artist Napoleon Abueva, chair of the board of judges, to “he has Fernando Amorsolo’s light.”

Light on Water, Later on Mud

Ypon mentions that his happiest moments is when he is with water. He has lots of fond childhood memories at sea. He remembers he would tag along with his grandfather who was a fisherman in the morning and be enthralled by the colors of the sky and the sea. It was in this that he wanted his paintings to have movement. It is no surprise that most of Ypon’s works have water as background or revolves around it.

Ypon dreams that “someday to paint masterpieces like Juan Luna and Felix Resurrecion Hidalgo those large works like Spoliarium with themes dealing with history. I want to make a statement about the Philippines.”

Truly the light in Ypon’s paintings continues to shine in the high noon of his life. 

Bidlisiw by Orley Ypon is ongoing at Altro Mondo in Greenbelt 5.