Negros-based artist Nunelucio ‘Nune’ Alvarado’s visual advocacies have never gone soft as the years went by. Testament to this is the artist’s full-bodied and original stylized imagery that continues to haunt, excite, provoke, and affect viewers whenever exhibits of his paintings are mounted up. He is neither elusive nor indifferent, as he has always been curious and observant of the many societal and political ills that plague the country. And his paintings—devilish and cut-throat—serve as retinal mouthpieces and catalysts that tell not one is missed in Alvarado’s sharp eye.

It’s that difficult to remain memorable and at the same time relevant in the local art scene and yet Alvarado has seemingly done so, effortlessly if I may say so. Combining the Filipino folk-inspired aesthetics of the late National Artist Carlos ‘Botong’ Francisco and the nightmarish and inventive sensibilities of 15th Century artist Hieronymous Bosch, Alvarado has created and developed his own style that hits home and transcends it. Fraught with symbolism, Alvarado’s figures are the not-so perfect, surreal, angular, and asymmetrical models that are totally different from his social realist colleagues in Manila.

Unlike Renato Habulan or Antipas Delotavo’s precise and photographic human forms, Alvarado likes his images twisted and bizarre. His figures are highly emotive and color-splashed. The worn-out muscles of his figures are prominent, their veins easily identified—signifying the strength and their affinity to work hard. This is not to say, though, that the situations and circumstances the artist paints are off-tangent from what is really happening in his immediate environment or that what he draws are a far cry from ‘reality.’

In fact, Alvarado arrests ‘reality’ in more ways than one and in his own terms. His ability to do so lies in his roots in Pabrika, Sagay City, Negros Occidental where the young Alvarado witnessed the monopoly of elites in the vast sugarcane plantations near their home and where his eyes were first introduced to the beastly nature of the rich and the powerful towards the peasant class.

And so when Alvarado picked up a brush and a palette, it was only natural that he paint the things that matter to him and those that affected him most—the hardships of the sakada and the unjust treatment they receive. Because of his first-hand accounts of the scourge of the peasants, Alvarado grew vulnerable to activist and human rights causes. Alvarado admits that he could paint pretty pictures of flowers, landscapes, and seascapes, but he chose to eschew them, as there are more pressing social conditions to paint about.

Now, his art thrives in the relentless search for solutions to social injustices, in delineating the issues faced by sugar workers, and in divulging the harsh ironies of that every Filipino suffers from and faces with. In his latest one-man show billed as ‘Arkabala’ (a simple Ilonggo word for taxation), Alvarado shows his uncanny perception and caustic street humor all throughout his colorful and textured opuses.

His ‘Arkabala’ series talks about the seemingly innocent and idyll market life back in his hometown where there is a daily circus, a show of values, personalities, and characters. However, as Alvarado has discovered, the market scene is not spared from controversies and conflicts. What we think of as an exceptionally ordinary place turns out to be filled with sneaky, scheming, and profit-oriented personas that mean business. And their goal is to collect taxes from the market-people in exchange for the space, the ground that the vendors need to sell their goods. While the corrupt tax collectors harangue the blameless vendors for monetary compensation, the latter is left with nothing but putrid and reeking market facilities that are too nasty for comfort.

The artist’s latest oil on canvases, pen and ink, and watercolor on papers post a food for thought: If only the public taxes had been utilized for the betterment of the public and if only they do not end in the savage pockets of ‘rotten tomatoes’ in the government—the lives of these ordinary market-people would not be beleaguered and their family would eat three meals a day without worrying what food they would have on table for the days to come.

However, the issue that ‘Arkabala’ tackles goes beyond the marketplace. It is just a small picture of what is out there. More than the unjust system in the market that Alvarado has translated into visual commentary is the clash between ordinary citizens and the ‘abusive’ powers that be that occurs every single day in the society. And the odd-looking and ferocious animals in almost all of his paintings represent the brutal face of corruption in the country. His representation of deceit is very much appropriate, as its visage is that of a brute fiend that antagonizes and eats whatever it can lock its jaws upon.

Alvarado has definitely taken notice and he is stopping short at nothing to produce mentally gripping and aesthetically stunning social realist works—not because he is forced to, but because he considers it his mission. It may sound all too good to be true and some might consider his cause all too messianic, but Alvarado is stern.

He is so serious about his art that his sheer sincerity is palpably felt in his oeuvres. As such, Alvarado is a class of his own and a cut above the rest. Promising platitudes to unknot the disheveled woes of the society is one thing, but genuinely working for a change is entirely different. Alvarado is the latter. And not until sociopolitical concerns are properly addressed will artists like ‘Nune’ discontinue producing meaningful and evocative oeuvres—those that say, in life, there are much more essential things we should strive for.

‘Arkabala’ by Nunelucio Alvarado can be viewed at the 2/L Glass Wing, Artist Space, Ayala Museum, Makati Ave. cor. De la Rosa St., Greenbelt Park, Makati City. For more information, contact 757-7177 or visit www.ayalamuseum.org.