Unfamiliar Territories by Arnel P. Brillantes

The Metro Manila, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao regional winners of the prestigious nationwide visual art competition, the Philippine Art Awards (PAA), have been proclaimed recently at the National Museum, the Museo Sugbo, and the Provincial Capitol of Misamis Oriental, respectively.

 The 10 Metro Manila winners are: Arnel P. Brillantes (Makati City) Unfamiliar Territories; Camille De La Rosa (Mandaluyong City); Those Who Have Ears, Hear.Those Who Have Eyes, See; Joey V. Cobcobo (Mandaluyong City) Crown Him  King; Raffy T. Napay (Mandaluyong City); Ang Liwanag At Ang Pakikipaglabanan; Jaime Jesus C. Pacena, Jr. (Quezon City) In Denial.; Maximo O. Balatbat II (Caloocan City) Avenida Karnabal; Dan Raralio (Quezon City) Brain Drain; Dexter Sy (Quezon City) Oro, Plata, Mata;  Thomas Daquioag (Makati City) Magnet; Froilan Calayag (Marikina City) The Mother’s Revenge (After Rizal).

The 10 Luzon  winners are: Rodelio “Toti” Cerda (Binangonan, Rizal) Broken Vows.; Teoderico Cumagon III (Lipa City) The Root Cause; Augusto Elorpe (Baguio City) The End of the Black “IN-HEARITANCE”; Yuan Mo’ro Ocampo (Santiago City) Pentecost;Vincent Paul Padilla (Binangonan, Rizal) See Through The Barong Tagalog; Rommel Sampana (Plaridel, Bulacan) The Following Program Is Not Suitable For Very Young Audiences; Reynaldo Samson (Antipolo City) Sustansya Ng Langit; Arturo Sanchez Jr. (Angono, Rizal) Tragic Playground; Isidro Diaz Santos (Angono, Rizal) Binigkis; Crispin Villanueva (Antipolo City) Considering That It Is Already Changing.

 From the Visayas, the 10 award-winning artists and their works are: Lucilo Sagayno (Cebu) for his work entitled  Twisted; Eliseo Libo-on, Jr. (Bacolod) for Water is Life; John Paul Castillo (Iloilo) for State of Complexity; Frank Alexi Nobleza (Guimaras) for Stapled; Marvin Chito Natural (Toledo City) for The Filipino Art of Problem Solving; Nomar Miano (Lapu-Lapu City) for Milagrosa; JZY Tilos (Iloilo) for Mari-it; Cezar Arro (Iloilo) for Deception; Edmar Colmo (Iloilo) for  Connected; and Jovito Hecita, Jr. (Talisay City) for Balik-loob.

The judges have chosen as Mindanao’s best from Davao City, Michael Bauzon for his work entitled Bombings: Man’s Cruelty Against Man; also from Davao City, Bryan Cabrera for his work entitled Consumed; from Bukidnon, Soliman Poonon for his work entitled Cultural Identity; the painting entitled A Story for Lola Basyang is by Michael Bacol of Cagayan de Oro City; the work entitled Katawan at Kaluluwa by Edgar Carreon, of Davao City; the winning work entitled Generations of Women: The work entitled Adapting the Attempts to Proliferate by Rodney Yap of Davao City; the work by Jericho Vamenta, of Cagayan de Oro entitled Ang Paglalakbay ni Ino; the work entitled Relasyon, by Marcelino Necosia of Bukidnon.; Nicolas Aca of Cagayan de Oro for his work People’s Flower; and Oscar Floirendo of Cagayan de Oro for his work Self-Portrait, Too.

National Artist BenCab, who is one of the members of the Panel of Judges, commended the Philippine Art Awards for being “always in the forefront when it comes to giving the Filipino visual artists the best opportunity to make their entries truly competitive, especially now that it has  expanded the contest to include multi-dimensional works.” He is joined in the Panel by Mercedes Vargas of the Lopez Memorial Museum; Cid Reyes, renowned art critic and author of several books on Philippine Art; Nestor Vinluan, former Dean, UP College of Fine Arts and well-known abstractionist; Dr. Patrick Flores of the Vargas Museum; Tina Colayco, art book publisher and Dean UP College of Fine Arts, Julie Lluch, renowned terra cotta sculptor, distinguished artist Jose Tence Ruiz and Ambie Abano, a Grand Prize awardee of the PAA.

The Philippine Art Awards is jointly presented by Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. (PMPMI), National Museum (Pambansang Museo) and Asian Tigers Philippines and supported by regional collection centers in Angono, Angeles City, Malolos, Baguio and Taguig.

“The Philippine Art Awards cannot be done by Philip Morris Philippines alone. And through the years, our partners, our distinguished Panel of Judges, our collection centers nationwide and our provincial hosts, have provided the needed infrastructure of expertise and resources on which the consistent credibility of the Awards is founded,” said Chris J. Nelson, Managing Director of PMPMI.

“Philippine Art Awards, now on its 15th year, has served as gateway for emerging artists to be recognized nationally. It is also the only competition that showcases the winning works regionally, where local communities are given the chance to view the homegrown creative works,” Bayen Elero, PMPMI  Corporate Affairs Director added.

The winning works will be on exhibit until January 30, 2010 at their respective venues. For more information log on to www.philippineartawards.org.