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Layout Design: Carlo Abello
Photos: Carlo Abello & Miguel Villaor
Cover: Carlo Abello
A fundraising exhibition for the benefit of the Fundacion Sanso Stipend Fund for select Fine Art Students of Bulacan State University College of Architecture and Fine Art, in collaboration with Art Lounge Manila.
Since 2018, Fundacion Sanso has had a scholarship program for students studying Fine Arts. This was one of the advocacies of Señor Juvenal Sanso when he agreed to build Fundacion Sanso with the support of his friends. Since then, our program has helped 12 students graduate from the Bulacan State University graduate; and provided some financial aid to those in the program during the lockdowns. An additional 9 students are currently in the program bringing the total to 21 students in the program to date.
We have also expanded our partnerships with other schools, in other ways. Inspired by the sage advice of the late Professor and visual artist Leo Abaya, we have partnered with the families of National Artists Abdulmari Imao and Federico Alcuaz,and created a limited edition giclee set to raise P300,000 to be awarded as a thesis production grant to select students of the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts in Diliman, Quezon City. The funds are ready and just awaiting formal acceptance.
We have also started working at establishing programs with the Far Eastern University Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts, as well as the De La Salle College of Benilde. And we hope to reach out to other schools in 2022 and 2023.
With a museum, good working relations with both established and emerging artists, and several galleries, we have also done a little more than just provide scholarships. We have also provided platforms and opportunities for our scholars to be mentored by artists and art ecosystem practitioners to enable them to get a foothold into becoming full time artists.
This exhibition, “Past Expressing” aims to expand the program to be able to provide more scholarships and opportunities for student artists by raising funds and awareness for the stipend and grants programs
we have. Inspired by the particular work, “Past Expressing” (1960) by Juvenal Sanso, which is one of the 1950’s black series drawings and paintings of skulls with flowers, we have commissioned Pepe Mendoza to sculpt a mold and cast 25 resin skulls with flower sculptures based on the work for artists to use as their medium to express their support. Though seemingly macabre, the notion that new life always flourishes despite finalities and constraints, it is akin to hope springing eternal. And hope is what we intend to bring to deserving art students facing financial constraints.
And we are honored that the following artists have seen the beauty of paying it forward, and have given their support to this worthwhile project. Agnes Arellano, Richard Buxani, Jonathan Dangue, Janos Delacruz, Louie Ignacio, Kenneth Montegrande, Francis Nacion, Roel Obemio, Marge Organo, Melissa Yeung Yap, all responded by painting over the resin casts and embellishing them with materials like cut glass and even pearls! While Michael Cacnio, Anton Del Castillo, Kristine Lim, Jomike Tejido, and the very young artist Teo (the son of Michael Cacnio) all responded in a sculptural manner. Toym Imao’s sculptural interpretation, “Birth of Athena” is a radical reinterpretation of the skull emerging from a sculpted head of Sanso!
Their works are exhibited at Fundacion Sanso, and are sold through our partner gallery Art Lounge Manila, to raise funds for our scholarship program. To these artists, who like Sanso want to pay it forward by helping young artists, we are most grateful to.
Agnes Arellano
Untitled 25 x 23 x 19 cm
Tiranti’s bronze powders with the ff colors: red gold, dark gold, natural copper, light/ dark bronze,silver, and green; Lefranc & Bourgeois gilding wax classic gold
Making things bright 25 x 23 x 19 cm
Additional base material, Copper and brass
Masquerade 25 x 23 x 19 cm
Acrylic on Resin Sculpture
Morpheus - King of Dreams 25 x 23 x 19 cm
Reinforced Resin / Relief Print / Chine-colle’
Homage to Sanso
25.5 x 23 x 19 cm
Mixed media with some real gems 2022
Louie IgancioBirth of Athena 26 x 26 x 24.2
Pepe Mendoza
“Past Expressing (after Juvenal Sansó) 24 x 25 x 19.5 cm
Colored Clear Resins and Lighted Base
“Past Expressing (after Juvenal Sansó) 25 x 23 x 19 cm
Polyurethane on resin sculpture with wooden base
PSALM 27:1
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 25 x 23 x 19 cm
I’am the resurrection and the life 25 x 23 x
Francis Nacion
Sansó Celebrates Mardi Gras 33 x 27 x 20.5 cm
Mixed media with Organo glass
Homage to Baudelaire 46.5 x 29 x 30
The sacred and the mythical, the physical and the erotic, the magical and the mundane, the religious and the profane, and music and song all permeate the art of Filipina artist Agnes Arellano. Drawing from rich personal experience and an extraordinary range of influences, she makes some of the most dramatic art in Asia.Best known for surrealist and expressionist work in plaster (cast and directly modelled), bronze, and cold-cast marble, Arellano’s work tends to stress the integration of individual elements into one totality or “inscape”.*She has participated in international group exhibitions in Berlin, Fukuoka, Havana, Johannesburg, New York, Brisbane and Singapore. Her works are in the permanent collection of the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, the Singapore Art Museum, and the APEC Sculpture Park by the Naru River, Busan South Korea.
BuxaniBorn and raised in Metro Manila, Richard Buxani is an artist who exudes vibrant and explosive artworks that express the state of his mind. He was able to convey his message through metal that looks balanced. Graduate of BS in Architecture from the University of Santo Tomas, Buxani learned sculpture with the mentoring of his artist friend Ronald Castrillo. He held his first solo exhibition in 2018 at Eskinita Gallery and has been active in the Philippine art scene since. He also participated in exhibits in USA, Hongkong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, and South Korea. In 2022, he was also appointed as a cultural ambassador to Korea by the International Culture and Arts Federation of Korea and the International Council of Museums of Korea. He has also been part of the jury of several international art festivals, and has been a judge for a sculpture competition in 2022 in Sochi, Russia, with the Russian Design Federation.
Michael CacnioMichael Cacnio is a reputable social-realist sculptor in the Philippines. His recent works are made out of brass that depict family, nature, community, and being human in the Philippines context. Some of his notable works include the 2006 TOYM Awardee, the first Filipino artist that was featured in European Commission’s headquarters in Berlaymont, Brussels, and sold out solo exhibitions in the Philippines. Cacnio is a staple name in the Philippines sculpture scene.
RichardOil paints and metallic leaves are a signature Anton Del Castillo artwork. His artworks resemble Byzantine icons that critique contemporary and modern life. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees at the University of the Philippines. His works are recognized not just within the Philippines but also in the US, Hong Kong, Japan, Beijing, and Malaysia.
A licensed and practicing Architect in the Philippines who dabbled with sculpture after winning in MADE Art competition in the Philippines with his toothpick sculpture. His major works are described as “uniquely Asian take on the nature (organic) of modernist sculpture”. Treating sculpture as a functional one. Belief in the unification of sculpture, industrial design and architecture can bring birth to a new form and period of arts. “Dangue has been consistent in his abstract expressionism. The act of creating sculptures allows Dangue not only creative expression, but also regenerative retrospection. By channeling his energy into the act of creating, he enables himself the ability to retrospect, and more importantly, to attach positive meaning to experience”.
Graduate of the University of Santo Tomas - Major in Advertising Arts, Janos Delacruz is an artist that is well known for his intricate and vibrant illustrations. He learned the basics of printmaking within the university and expanded his practice after graduation. His works are often self-exploration or social commentary. His subject matter is about the conflicted relationship between the Ethereal Beauty of the Divine and the Frail Reality of Man. As a visual artist, the Urban Landscape and its rich surreal imagery is his continuously evolving muse. He is a member of the Philippine Association of Printmakers (PAP) and the Art Association of the Philippines (AAP). In 2018, he received the Thirteen Artists Award given by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP)
A notable Filipino television director, film director, and artist, Louie Ignacio pours his visual creativity outside the film industry and into the canvas. He has exhibited in different galleries in Metro Manila such as the Crucible Gallery and Galerie Joaquin. His works are connected to the essence of nature using the techniques of impasto and sometimes sculptures as well.
TOYM DE LEON IMAO is multi-media visual artist. He is a sculptor/ painter, and has worked in both film and theater productions. He first trained in the arts under his father Philippine National Artist for the Visual Arts Abdulmari Asia Imao and Napoleon V. Abueva, considered the Father of Philippine Modern Sculpture. His formal training came from the University of the Philippines, and Maryland Institute College of Art under a Fulbright Scholarship. He studied film under premier Philippine director Marilou Diaz-Abaya. He credits his mentor National Artist for Literature Alejandro R. Roces for his passion for Philippine history and culture. Toym in the past several years have collaborated in both film and theater. His recent foray into contemporary public art has been inspired by the works of a close family friend -Junyee, recognized as the leading proponent of installation art in the country.
Toym manages his studio- Estatuarte Sculptures and Artwork and currently teaches at the College of Fine Arts, Studio Arts Department at the University of the Philippines, Diliman Campus.
He is closely allied with human rights advocacy works and promotes national historical narratives through his group, the Philippine Living History Society (PLHS).
Known as an Artist - Missionary, Kristine Lim uses her works to consistently represent God by bringing the Filipino Christian community together inside the white walls of the Philippine art scene. She also extends her talents to orphans and marginalized communities through art workshops and helping NGOs. She grew as a multi-disciplinary artist with painting, drawing, graphic design, photography, and film.
An enigma, Pepe Mendoza has acted as an artisan for many of Philippine contemporary art’s breakout artists and “superstars”. Eschewing the shadows, he is now ready to face the light as an artist in his own right. He has exhibited at Art Lounge Manila and has a recent solo exhibition at ManilArt 2022.
Kenneth MontegrandeLight, place, and environment are the muses of Kenneth Montegrande. He is a pioneer abstract expressionist. “I appreciate paintings with “subjects” (for instance, J.M.W. Turner’s famous “The Fighting Temeraire”). And I certainly feel a strong passion for those “without a subject” (such as an Improvisation piece of Vasily Kandinsky). Maybe it’s important to mention that although I’ve time and again referred to myself as an Abstract Expressionist, I would also say I’m an Impressionist or, in fact, a romantic just like my hero Turner! “ (Kenneth Montegrande, 2020, art+: Figuring, Abstracting… On Extended Wings: A Decade of Kenneth John Montegrande)
Francis Nacion produces dynamic abstract artworks with vibrant colors. He have always dealt with popular Filipino imagery. The typical genre of his works – mother and child, a child at play, courtship, harvest, and other themes of sublime happiness and abundance - are archetypes of the Filipino idyll. They are paradigms based on reality, but idealized to the point of becoming iconic. They are our aspirations; our fantasies for our near or distant future; our hopes by which we pray our present will eventually take shape from. Using his signature sgraffito techniques (scratching and etching designs while the oil paint is still wet); He images traditional Filipino values in a stylized and contemporary way.
A former animator, Roel Obemio’s works are whimsical and nostalgic. He sees his artworks as world-building and wanted to bring everyone together through his works as he is a strong believer that art should be accessible to everyone. Paul Klee and Gustav Klimt are some of the artists that influence his practice. That is why most of his illustrations are heavy-headed.
Marge Organo uses glass to make abstract sculptures that diffuse light. In 2018, she was accepted at the oldest glass-making school The Glassmaking School of Kamenicky Senov, Czech Republic. After studying there, she proceeded to show her works at Solaire and became successful with them. She made commission projects from huge establishments and private collectors.
Jomike Tejido is an architect turned full-time visual artist. He has had 16 solo exhibitions, the most recent one being “Nordic Sky Worlds” in Art Lounge Manila last July. He specializes in imaginative abstraction, where he is able to play around with mid-century modern forms, immersive color schemes as well as symbols from his past career that involved draftsmanship and technical drawing. When not making paintings or building kinetic sculptures based on them, he writes and illustrates children’s picture books.
Melissa (Ruivivar) Yeung-Yap is a Filipina visual artist who actively uses art not just as a medium for self-expression but as a means for empowerment and for bringing her advocacies to the fore. She has been using her art as a platform to share her advocacies, which is mainly the appreciation of nature, culture and to gather support for the communities close to her heart. She has received numerous accolades, such as the CNN Leading Women (2020), Ramon V del Rosario Siklab Award (2019) and The Outstanding Young Person Award (2013) which allowed her to be presented to the Imperial Highnesses Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masaka of Japan in 2013, for her many advocacies which involve empowerment of various marginalized sectors of society such as poverty stricken communities, wartorn communities, disaster areas, and contested indigenous peoples’ lands.
2022 MADE Grantee Award under the Sculpture category, Teo is an emerging artist. His winning piece at MADE entitled Politiko is a commentary on the political climate of the Philippines. His words are “I couldn’t help but notice how politics has become a battleground between facts and ego, constituting a cycle of hate and violence,” he shares. “I thought of this cycle as something dynamic and wanted to express this behavior through the use of raw, liquid forms trapped in space made eternal.”
