“THE ARTIST is a creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim,” Oscar Wilde wrote in the preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray. In his work, an artist values how the audience sees not its creator, but rather themselves and their environment.

“We look at the artist’s intent, how it is achieved, and if it’s something that offers a new perspective in art practice and art appreciation,” said Victoria “Boots” Herrera, director and chief curator of the Ateneo Art Gallery (AAG), of the criteria for a “strong work” in visual arts.

It is these strong works that earn the recognition of the Ateneo Art Awards (AAA), now on their 16th year.

Established in 2004, The Ateneo Art Awards — Fernando Zobel Prizes for Visual Art is given to Filipino visual artists under the age of 36 whose works were exhibited within the previous year. Since it began, it has honored artists who have gone on to earn great reknown such as Ronald Ventura (2005), Mideo Cruz (2006), and Leeroy New (2009).

In this year’s exhibit, the artists’ styles and mediums used continue to evolve. “I think [that] in modes of practice, we are seeing more contemporary artists getting out of the usual painting and sculptural materials,” Ms. Herrera told BusinessWorld, on the sidelines of the AAA exhibit of works by the artists on the awards’ shortlist during the press launch at the Shangri-La Plaza mall on July 17.

“We’re quite happy at how the variety of practices have been highlighted among the shortlisted [artworks],” she added, noting that young artists have explored mediums such as ceramics and printmaking.

THE NOMINEES
Twelve artists made the shortlist from 85 nominations submitted by museum and gallery directors, artists, and art educators residing in the Philippines.

The 12 artists and exhibitions on the shortlist for the Ateneo Art Awards 2019 — Fernando Zobel Prizes for Visual Art are:

• Zean Cabangis, Somewhere, Anywhere (Artinformal Makati), The works’ whimsical and dreamlike landscape is a collage of monochrome photographs transferred onto canvas which is colored with lines in acrylic paint.

• Lesley-Anne Cao, The hand, the secretary, a landscape (Cultural Center of the Philippines). An installation which includes bells, plants, mirrors, and rocks in video projection and photographs, The hand, the secretary, a landscape presents the exercise of tactility and making sense of what we perceive.

• Keb Cerda, Super Nardo: False Profits (Untitled, Art, San Francisco, USA). An integration of new media and augmented reality in a painting, Super Nardo: False Profits depicts a parody of the Super Mario video game. Its monochrome industrial landscape represents the financial industry and the never-ending quest for gold.

• Ronyel Compra, Luta: Imprint of Lola Masyang’s House in Forest for the Trees (Fundacion Sanso). Ronyel Compra pays homage to his late grandmother with a representation of her home through print techniques of rubbing and frottage on Amakan bamboo sawali and coconut lumber.

• Doktor Karayom, Isla/nip in the 2018 Thirteen Artists Awards exhibit (Cultural Center of the Philippines). The drawing of dismembered parts of Jose Rizal’s body is used to represent the whole nation; while miniature human figures represent the Filipinos that either disrupt or rebuild the nation.

• JC Jacinto, A Crack in Everything (Artinformal Makati). JC Jacinto uses sap, roots, bark, and elastomeric paint on canvas to portray unfamiliar terrains of Mother Earth.

• Lilianna Manahan, Frame in The Garden of Earthly Delights (Aphro, The Alley at Karrivin). Crafted in collaboration with Czech glassblowers, Lilianna Manahan’s Frame series include objects that represent milestones in her childhood growing up as a devout Christian.

• Krista Nogueras, Lake Predicament (Art Informal Makati). Krista Nogueras’ pool of grotesque creatures made from ceramics induce feelings of fear which shift to admiring the beautiful and pleasing.

• Archie Oclos, Lupang Hinirang in the 2018 Thirteen Artist Awards exhibit (Cultural Center of the Philippines). Lupang Hinirang deviates from exaggerated caricatures and depicts images of current social realities such as extrajudicial killings and stories of the marginalized.

• Henrielle Baltazar Pagkaliwangan. Timestamps (Finale Art File). Timestamps records the passage of time from sunrise to sunset in 30 pieces of 5.75×10 inch monoprints of the panoramic view of Manila Bay.

• Jel Suarez, object reader (MO_Space). The artist paints images of artifacts and specimens that were collected during hunts and mines.

• Costantino Zicarelli, Years of Dust Will Build a Mountain (Art Informal Makati). Costantino Zicarelli’s drawings in graphite and installations present a mise-en-scene between beauty and ruin.

Since 2014, the Ateneo Art Gallery has also recognized art writing and provides opportunities for art writers to contribute to publications. Named in honor of writer and Art Association of the Philippines founder Purita Kalaw-Ledesma, this year’s award for the Purita Kalaw-Ledesma in Art Criticism has shortlisted the following four writers:

• John Alexis Balaguer, “Everywhere is Here: The Museum as Heterotopia in Mark Lewis Higgins’ Gold in Our Veins” (Gold in Our Veins: Mark Lewis Higgins, Ayala Museum)

• Janina Gwen Bautista, “‘Nasaan Ka Na, Mara-Bini? ’ Drawing Out Women and Comics Out of the Periphery” (Nasaan Ka Na, Mara-Bini? Francisco V Caching Centennial Exhibition, the Cultural Center of the Philippines)

• Jeckree Mission, “A Confrontation with Gendered Bodies in Southeast Asia” (Gendered Bodies in Southeast Asia, Metropolitan Museum of Manila)

• Mariah Reodica, “Saltwater Trajectories: Bisan Tubig Di Magbalon, and Viva Excon as Cartographer” (Bisan Tubig Di Magbalan [Don’t Even Bring Water], Viva Excon Capiz 2018)

PRIZES AND INCENTIVES
The three winners of the Fernando Zobel Prizes for Visual Art will be eligible for international artist residency grants funded by Ateneo Art Gallery and its partner institutions: La Trobe University in Bendigo, Australia; Artesan Gallery + Studio in Singapore; and Liverpool Hope University in the United Kingdom.

Alongside the three winners, one artist will be the recipient of the Ateneo Art Awards-Embassy of Italy Purchase Prize. A partnership between the AAG and the Embassy of Italy as away to compile a collection that promotes Philippine contemporary art, the artist’s works will be displayed at the Italian embassy’s headquarters.

The Purita Kalaw-Ledesma Prizes in Art Criticism will be given to two winners who will each contribute to The Philippine Star and ArtAsiaPacific Magazine. They will also contribute to Perro Berde, an annual publication of the Embassy of Spain and lnstituto Cervantes.

“For many of the artists I have talked to who were past winners. They would say that winning the Ateneo Art Awards led them to other opportunities. I think that’s part of the prize we are able to give them,” Ms. Herrera said.

The winners will be announced on Aug. 18, 4 p.m., at the Suthira B. Zalamea Lobby, Soledad V. Pangilinan Arts Wing, Arete in Ateneo de Manila University.

The Ateneo Art Awards 2019 exhibit is on view at the Grand Atrium of the Shangri-la Plaza mall until July 25, then it will be moved to the third floor of the Ateneo Art Gallery in Arete where it will be on view from Aug. 6 to Oct. 27. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR