Livin’ in a surreal world

BORN IN 1941, artist Raul H. Lebajo is still a kid at heart. For his ongoing exhibit, he invites viewers into the world of his imagination, of fantastic worlds and phantasmagorias.
His show, Shades of Green, is on view at the Ayala Museum’s ArtistSpace until Dec. 19. Here, he presents surreal figures like birds, butterflies, worms, and flowers with worlds built in their centers, as spherical bouquets, with lush foliage dripping from trellises.
The artist’s imagined world and mystical realms are inhabited by motley characters with boughs growing out their heads or wearing bright red hats.
Earlier this year, a coffee table book called Enter His World showcased the surrealist painter.
Launched at the Ayala Museum and published by LC: Questor Worldwide Corp., it was authored by art critic and historian Dr. Alice Guillermo of the University of the Philippines Diliman.
Ms. Guillermo said: “Raul Lebajo is a true artist of nature, but this does not mean that he does traditional landscapes and still life paintings of flowers. He does not paint valleys of earth, trees, and sky as though they stretched out before him, or does he paint flowers bunched together in a vase for his personal delectation. Not for him is linear perspective, for, in fact, he plays with perspective, and his views are often warped, telescoped, spiraling, and spinning into multiple worlds.” — NFPDG