THE 14th Ateneo Art Awards has released its short list of 12 Filipino young visual artists, three of whom will be hailed winners of the Fernando Zobel Prizes for Visual Arts on Oct. 1. And while all of them are superstars in their own right, Ma. Victoria T. Herrera, director and chief curator of the Ateneo Art Gallery, told BusinessWorld that it is also a plus factor if a visual artist is articulate, too.

“While I know some people say ‘kaya nga sila visual artist, eh (that is precisely why they are visual artists),’ [but] it’s also important for young artists to be articulate in that way kasi (because) that is what the art world requires them to be. Personally, I feel it is important to be eloquent, but not in the sense that one has to be good in English, but [that one] can express his or her ideas well,” said Ms. Herrera on Aug. 23 at the sidelines of the announcement of the short-listed artists.

To come up with the three winners from the pool of 12 artists, the deliberation process includes series of interviews, hence her stand on the need to be fluent.

“We get to talk to each artist when we do deliberations, parang [it is like] thesis deliberations, actually. It’s how they are able to translate their ideas and how they talk about it. May cases before when okay ang work but the artist’s ideas, while they are saying the ideas, parang hindi siya nag-jive (they did not seem to jive with their work),” said Ms. Herrera when asked why the art of speaking matters in the visual world.

The Ateneo Art Wards 2017 – Fernando Zobel Prizes for Visual Art are given to three Filipino visual artists below the age of 36, for outstanding works exhibited between May 2016 to May 2017.

In alphabetical order, the 12 short-listed artists, their exhibit, and gallery it was shown at are:

• Catalina Africa – Studies on the Movement of Water (Finale Art File)

• Charles Buenconsejo – Name, Kind, Application, Date Last Opened, Date Added, Date Modified, Date Created, Size, Tags (Artinformal)

• Gino Bueza – Systems of Control (West Gallery)

• Zean Cabangis – Echoes (Discoveries at Art Basel Hong Kong 2017)

• Cian Dayrit – Exposition (Group exhibition at Lopez Museum and Library)

• Gale Encarnacion – Blow Me (UP Diliman College of Fine Arts, Thesis Show)

• Kitty Kaburo – Lifejacket Under your Seat (Group exhibition at Langgeng Art Foundation, Yogyakarta, Indonesa)

• Doktor Karayom – Linya (Cultural Center of the Philippines)

• Czar Kristoff – Configurations (West Gallery)

• Leonardo Onia, Jr. – Microscopic Hysteria (West Gallery)

• Nicole Tee – Quiet Punctuations (UP Diliman College of Fine Arts, Thesis Show)

• Constantino Zicarelli – Prelude to a Billion Years (Artinformal)

Save for Charles Buenconsejo and Cian Dayrit, this year’s batch welcomes a new set of emerging artists, said Ms. Herrera.

“The rest are first timers and I think that is good, which means there are more young artists who are worth recognizing. Every year, it’s a good chance for the jurors to see the kind of works young artists are doing. What’s consistent is how innovative the artists are, not in terms of medium but ideas,” she said.

The three winners will have the chance to get international residency grants in La Trobe Art Institute in Bendigo, Australia, Artesan Gallery + Studio in Singapore, and Liverpool Hope University in Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, six writers were short-listed for the Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prizes in Art Criticism, which aims to develop the genre of writing and to foster critical public discussion about art. Two writers will be chosen as winners. The six short-listed writers are:

• Christian Benitez – “History is Form: On Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s The Serenity of Madness” (on the exhibit held at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design)

• Carlo Pacolor Garcia – “Beaded Gestures” (on Karl Castro’s exhibit Social Fabric at the Vargas Museum)

• Arianna Mercado – “Dalena’s Curtain Call” (on the exhibit Last Full Show at the Cultural Center of the Philippines)

• John Kenneth Paranada – “Tie A String but Cut it Right in the Middle” (on the exhibit Tie A String Around the World at the Vargas Museum)

• Chanon Kenji Praepipatmongkol – “Equivocal Beliefs: Natee Utarit Ayala Museum” (on the exhibit Optimism is Ridiculous – The Altarpieces at the Ayala Museum) and,

• Josephine V. Roque – “Transits of Meaning” (on the exhibit Almost There at the Vargas Museum).

The winner of the Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prize – The Philippine Star will be given a regular column in the Arts & Culture section for one year, while the recipient of the Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prize – ArtAsiaPacific Magazine will contribute six articles in a year in the publication.

The works of all the short-listed artists and writers are on view at the East Wing of the Shangri-La Plaza mall until Sept. 4. They will then be on view at the Ateneo Art Gallery from Oct. 1 to Dec. 2. The Awarding Ceremony will be held in the Ateneo de Manila University on Oct. 1.

The Ateneo Arts Awards were established to honor the Ateneo Art Gallery’s founding benefactor, Fernando Zobel. – Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

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