Here at Galleria Filipiniana, you will find and discover famous artworks by various Filipino artists who attained the highest recognition for their significant contribution to the development of Philippine Arts beginning 1884 through 2002. 

Exhibition Presented By: Natasha Roces
Located at nroces.blogspot.com

"Everyday Filipino Life"

The exhibit is a tribute to various Filipino artists from the last 100 years to contemporary times, who represent the breadth and depth of Filipino talent in Visual Arts. This exhibit aims to commemorate Philippine national artists who are not merely famous, but have, more importantly, achieved accolades due to their significant contribution to the development and progress of Filipino Art.  

As an American of Filipino heritage and ancestry, I wanted to get a better appreciation of Art from my nativeland. By embracing the subtlety and nuances of my ethnic culture, as captured by the artists’ paintings about everyday rural life in the Philippines, I was able to derive a sense of nationalistic pride. Beyond that, I believe I am beginning to gain the unexpected gift of understanding the importance of Art in a people's continued struggle for freedom against its oppressors: from the Colonialists of past centuries, to the unseen enemy of contemporary times-- the monotony of everyday life left unexamined. 

List of Philippine National Artists:

1. Juan Luna (1857-1899)
2. Fabian de la Rosa (1869-1937)
3. Victor C. Edades (1895-1985)
4. Hernando Ocampo (1911-1978)
5. Fernando Cueto Amorsolo (1892-1972)
6. Vicente Manansala (1910-1981)
7. Ang Kiukok (1931-2005)
8. Antonio Ko Jr. (1956-1999)
9. Mariano “Chito” Madarang (1937-2008)
10. Max Adlao (1925-2009)

Max Adlao

was born in December 26,1925 on the small, obscure island of Maria Siquijor, Negros Oriental, and died on 2009. Max remembered that he first started to draw even before he went to school, using on the sly, crayons and pencils of his older brother.

Max Adlao

 “Tinikling”

2002

Oil on Canvas

36x72 in

Dancers imitate the tikling bird's legendary grace and speed by skillfully maneuvering between large bamboo poles. Tinikling roughly translates in English to a kind of "bamboo dance". 

I chose this artwork to celebrate the Philippine National Folk Dance, the Tinikling, inarguably the most popular and well-loved among the Philippine dances, deserving of its distinction and honor. The dance imitates the graceful movement of the tikling birds as they walk among the rice fields, run over tree branches, or dodge bamboo traps set by rice farmers.

Mariano "Chito" Madarang

was born in Kiangan, Ifugao, Mountain Province, Philippines in 1937 and died in 2008. Well versed in Visual and plastic arts, he studied at the East-West Center, University of Hawaii, on a John D. Rockfeller III study grant and a Felicing Tirona grant. He was greatly influenced by geometrization of form through transparent layers of color, as taught by Vicente Manansala, one of the Filipino Masters.

Mariano “Chito” Madarang

“Banaue Rice Terraces”

2000

Acrylic on Canvas

25x35in

Mariano Madarang also created semi-surrealistic compositions through detailed drawing and brushwork in pen and ink. In his final years, he painted realistic genre scenes highlighted by layers of color applied in straight bands that evoke the linear patterns of the Banaue rice terraces.

I chose this artwork “Banaue Rice Terraces”, because for over 2,000 years, the high rice fields of the Ifugao have flawlessly  followed the contours of the mountains. The fruit of knowledge handed down from one generation to the next, and the expression of sacred traditions and the delicate social balance, the ethnic Ifugao tribe in the Mountain Provinces helped to create a landscape of great beauty that expresses the harmony between humankind and the environment.