Pintô Art Museum
ANTIPOLO CITY
Selfie in Pintô Art Museum
Date of visit in Pintô Art Museum on December 23, 2019
History of Pintô Art Museum
Pintô Art Museum is an exhibition space and contemporary museum located in
the Philippines’ historic pilgrimage city of Antipolo outside of Manila. The museum
was founded in 2010 to publicly exhibit the art collection of Filipino neurologist and
patron of the arts, Dr. Joven Cuanang. The museum (pintô means door in Filipino)
was founded on the principle that art plays a diplomatic role in bridging distinctive
nationalities, worldviews, and communities.
Dr. Cuanang began collecting in the spirit of local artistic patronage in the late
1980s when he championed a revolutionary Filipino artist collective, The
Salingpusa, through dedicated connoisseurship and acquisitions. The political
movements associated with the People Power Revolution in 1986 and the fall of the
Marcos Regime ushered an era of creative expression and artistic exploration. Dr.
Cuanang became a proponent for other practicing artists in the region and earned a
reputation as a patron in the Filipino artistic community. The museum collection
includes works by artists Elmer Borlongan, Mark Justiniani, Jose John Santos III,
Emmanuel Garibay, Rodel Tapaya, Geraldine Javier, Marina Cruz, Joy Mallari and
Antonio Leaño among others, whose ouvres compose a veritable record of the
evolving contemporary cultural milieu.
The collection and its context
The aesthetic traditions represented in the collection trace their roots to the history
of Spanish colonial occupation and reference the tenets of academic and religious
art, yet demonstrate a markedly different stylistic and technical trajectory following
the proliferation of modernism in the mid-twentieth century. Artworks in the
foundation’s collection reflect personal investigations of modernist movements such
as surrealism, expressionism, minimalism, social realism, and conceptual art. The
works are, however, distinguished by an innately Filipino adherence to cultural
identity and national history.
Today, the Pintô Art Museum presents rotating exhibitions of the foundation’s
collection and oversees an adjacent gallery space that continues to exhibit and
promote contemporary Filipino artists. The museum is housed in a complex
designed by artist Antonio Leaño and located within a two hectare botanical garden
known as the Silangan Gardens, an ecological haven for the appreciation of local
flora and fauna.
Painting inside the Pintô Art Museum
Karnabal by Salingpusa Group
Karnabal by Salingpusa Group
Rolly Acuňa
Elmer Borlongan
Karen Flores
Emmanuel Garibay
Mark Justiniani
Antonio Leaňo
Erwin Leaňo
Joy Mallari
Neil Manalo
Andy Orencio
Jim Orencio
Anthony Palomo
Mikel Parial
Jose Santos III
Gemo Tapales
Description:
Salingpusa. Karnabal. Acrylic on canvas.
144x480 inches.1992
This large canvas, made by several artists of the group Salingpusa in 1992, is one of
the seminal works of the contemporary Filipino art. The theme of a carnival (a popular
form of entertainment in the country from the late Spanish colonial period until the
1980’s) with its freak shows and games was utilized in this work as visual device to
register the artists’ dissatisfaction with the divisive socio-political realities that deflated
the euphoria following the end of the Marcos regime by a popular uprising. The
composition is divided into different cubicles the same way the post-Marcos Philippines
was “carved up” by different powers, each with its own rules and domain. Each of these
sections are populated with figures representing what the artists perceive as the new
governing forces of the period, namely the Church, the lurid Entertainment business,
private armies and powerful landlords. Some images are direct in their description of
actual events; for instance, a large man in a business suit oversees a game where toy
soldiers gun down people are every reminiscent of massacres of farmers who demand
agrarian reform (Mendiola Massacre). In the far left bottom, dolls in Filipina costume are
hauled out in a wheel barrow are refers to the forced exodus of Filipina women to work
as domestic help in various countries at the height of labor exportation that created the
phenomena of the Overseas Filipino Worker. An icon of Philippine pop comics, the
heroine Darna (a vernacular version of Wonder woman) is shown as a red-light
entertainer on a pole-a sad commentary on the state of women in the economics of the
late 80’s. All the while religion offers no help, as the scene of a priest hearing a
confession from a clown makes us wonder what impish tricksterism is at work. A red
papier mache carabao (a ubiquitously appears in the work to highlight the irony of the
decadent celebration of the return of oligarchies.
Reaction:
This painting shows that the Filipino people have suffered under the leadership of the
Marcos administration and therefore women have been forced to work and it is also
shown that even the oversees workers have low wages even though they have been
hard at work not in their capacity. So other painters have created this picture to show
why we have suffered under the Marcos leadership so this painting is beautifully
interpreted as it shows the sufferings of the Philippines.
So this painting is called a carnival because of all the hardships of the Filipinos even in
their own country.
Holy on Sunday by Geraldine G. Javier
Description:
Geraldine Javier. Holy on Sunday. Oil on canvas. 125x 93 cm.1999
In the 1990’s the artist Geraldine Javier used color- photo negative as subject for her
painting. The surprising contrasts of unfamiliar hues on common place subjects were
the artist’s signature coup for her works. This particular painting, however, possesses
peculiar grist, as it seems to poke fun on the rabid kind of Catholicism (a relic of
Spanish colonial culture) that was extreme in its observance of rites and rituals, and a
fascination for divine retribution and eternal damnation as tools for emotional blackmail
and social herding. Painted here, in a typical blue, is a veiled woman who is bedeck in
an unusually large rosary. Her hand grasps the bar of gate, whose fiery red hue is
matched by the presence of stylized flames at the bottom. In the background, under a
psychedelic sky are silhouettes of what appears as playful demons and portraying and
other creatures. What does the painting imply? Is the artist portraying an ironic portrait
of a believer of hell-and-brimstone faith actually suffers the cage of her own unkind
piety? That such preoccupation with hell actually leads one to live in that kind of life?
Holy on Sundays is a bickering response to those who self-righteousness runs counter
to the spirit of Christianity in its emphasis on kindness and compassion.
Reaction:
This painting is a type of woman's behavior that she describes as hard as she may have
been. And it says that we should not do bad things that are not desirable to do so this
law shows people fire and bars. We should do the wrong things we should do or we
should not do to get out of the workforce. It also illustrates how evil spirits might have
moved us to the pavilion and hence why is it painted? is it because we don't believe in
hell or is it a rosary symbol in this area? and what is the fire in this place? because the
rosary held by the woman proves that we must trust in the god that will guide us to
destruction and that we must not be overwhelmed by the demons around us and the
strange creatures around us. So it is said that we should not believe the false prophet
around us.
So this painting is depicted in a man who must believe in God.
Nanay (Mother) by Mark Justiniani
Description:
Mark Justiniani. Nanay (Mother). Oil on canvas. 92x 122 cm. 1999
Emerging softly from haze and depth of a blue-green, algae-hued garden is the lithe
body of woman. Her skin glistens from lunar and stellar lights-her nakedness assuming
more mythic corporality than merely human. She lies on her side, cradling the body of a
small withered old man, who glows like a phosphorescent animal, on the throes of
death. But across the pond, in the reflecting, the woman embraces not a man, but a tiny
boy, seemingly newly built from the matter of life. Mark Justiniani’s Nanay takes us on a
metaphorical spin on the nature of motherhood beyond its denotative meaning of child-
rearing. Mother is a natural force, a principle of universal scale that embraces and
nurtures soul in every state of growth. Thus every man or woman is under the caring
watchfulness of the maternal force. And in this state of affective embrace, every person
is a newborn, and all souls have a child within that should be nourished as well.
Reaction:
This painting is a symbol of a mother as she would care for her child even if it was hard
work. Being a mother is not easy because a mother will do all she can to care and love
her child no matter how difficult it is. And a mother will do everything for their child even
if they are poor as long as their child is good and life is as beautiful as a mother saying
"give it away you will give it to your child and even if I undress my child must be
dressed" so we children should love our mothers and give back we love that they give
so much and that is just the joy of a mother or a parent to make our children good and
love them faithfully.
Forest by Antonio Catral Leaňo
Description:
Antonio Leaňo. Forest. Installation. 2012
Viewers and visitors to the Pinto Art Museum experience at the end their tour, a coup de
grace by Antonio Leaňo: an indoor bamboo forest. The work, simply titled Forest, is a
multisensory experience. With near-dark illumination, one has to touch the dozens of
bamboo poles erected in the room to navigate across one space to another. And also
guided by touch and by footing across the floor of dry leaves we encounter ponds of
bright water where suspended rocks drip water endlessly, and the sound of bamboo
music disorients as much as it provides ambience. The fragrance of dry bamboo leaves
and they sound they make when stepped upon create subtle layers of smell and texture
that is often impossible to create in the most detailed of paintings or sculptures. Leaňo
has achieved in creating a world apart, an inner sanctuary that invites people to pause
and explore the density of the sense.
Reaction:
Forest is not a painting but it is made by Antonio Leaňo because it means that if you
want to do something hard or do it because it will make you happy even when it's hard
to do it you will never sell it because you want to fulfill your dream like creation this
bamboo music and light that will light up your dream even when it is difficult.
Untitled by Eugenia Alcaide
Description:
Eugenia Alcaide. Untitled. Embroidered thread on canvas. 94 x 124.5 cm. 2015
Two portraits are rendered simultaneously on parallel surfaces of silky white cloth, each
skein stretched taut over the ends of a box frame. The cloth serves as the pictorial
surface for the heads, whose faces are traced in outline. But rather than paint, Eugenia
Alcaide sews the contours of her subjects in black thread, where the series of stitches
produce the illusion of lines, in a contemporary method that alludes to the craft of
tapestry. Alcaide’s deftness in stitching minutes details on the weft and woof of the silk
surface creates a delightful illusion of levitating drawings. Although looking emphatically
like a digital rendition, owing to technical quality of its lines, the work descries wit of the
artist’s mind. The work is conceptual, and allows the viewer to see the process in its
unfolding, rather than a deliberately finished piece. Because of this presentation, the
portraits are left slightly incomplete, and accrue their gestalt wholeness solely in the
perception of the viewer.
Alcaide’s work departs from the limits of a two-dimensional frame( the area of a piece of
paper, canvas, board or panel). In fact the piece stands on a pedestal, like a sculpture.
It has volume, although it does not emphasize it, and rather celebrates the translucent
space that occurs within her box construction. Alcaide places questions against the
primacy of unilateral worked surface, and thus provide us with an experience of
simultaneity, or the parallel occurrence of phenomena within a matrix of facets. It is a
kind of perspectivism, so it seems, which provide the artist several dimentions to access
and build
Reaction:
To succeed these two images symbolize how you can build yourself into a life-like
endeavor that you want to achieve you must strive to reach what you dream of in life.
Like the pictures that the artist made that even though it was too difficult to do, he still
created it to show the true meaning of this picture.
Fluvial Parade by Elmer Borlongan
Description:
Pencil and Ink Drawing. Fluvial Parade. Elmer Borlongan. 10 x 14 inches. 2010
Reaction:
To me painting is meaningless because it's simple but the depth of meaning is that no
matter how hard you have to travel to get where you want to go and no matter how big
or small a problem you can get over it when you have the desire fulfilled as in a Boat
aboard two of us carrying a boat that they could not stand their way till they had just
landed.
Kubli by Elmer Borlongan
Description:
Elmer Borlongan. Kubli (Shelter). Acrylic on canvas. 61 x 76.5 cm. 1993
With its face and bodily proportions stretched out like the figure of Edvard Munch’s The
Scream, Elmer Borlongan’s painting of a child sleeping in a dimly-lit corner on a bare
concrete floor possesses a foreboding drama that is rare in the artist’s oeuvre. The
single source of light casts a long shadow of a post that runs across the feet of the
dormant boy, like an ominous presence that watches over his slumber. Yet, with his
palm as a pillow and the other nestled for warmth between his knees, our sleeper is
unaware, almost dead to everything else in the world. It is the sleep of extreme
exhaustion, from going through a day’s worth of work, or of endless meandering and
seeking for aims and food. It is a sleep of an animal that has run out of energy to
scrounge and is content to find the darkest, most secure place it can find, as shelter.
Reaction:
This picture is of a child sleeping in a dark corner. And yet, in her palm as a pillow and
the other nest for warmth between her knees, our sleeper is unknown, almost dead to
everything in the world. And it is the sleep of excessive fatigue, from the passing of a
day's worth of work, or the endless departure and pursuit of goals and food. And it
illustrates how important it is for each child to be taken for granted.
Black Sheep by Ronald Ventura
Description:
Ronald Ventura. Black Sheep. Edition 3/8. Digital Print on Hahnemuehle Fine Art
Paper, with Flexi Frame. 48.5 x 72.5 inches. 2017
Reaction:
This picture depicts an event in the life of a man who is hiding in a dark embers that he
tries to hide even when it's hard to do but to hide. But even in the dark, the real sadness
of this show is that even in the dark, there is still the real emotion shown in this picture
of the sadness and pain it has caused. So these kinds of emotions should be so
important that children do not go through a depression because of the emotions they
feel every parent should be aware of, and so we should identify or release the emotions
and pain that they are experiencing. not even with our family or with our friends to know
what we are going through so that we do not become complacent in the situation like in
this picture.
Stop Looking Down at the Ground Pick it out of the Ground By Jett Osian
Description:
Jett Osian. Stop Looking Down at the Ground Pick it out of the Ground. Oil on
canvas. 48 x 48 inches. 2013
Reaction:
You only dream of reaching the goals you want and you must look back to where you
came from because you have begun to work hard for your life and you must work hard
to achieve everything you want to achieve. That said this painting is Stop Looking
Down, because if you want to achieve your dreams go for it, and at the Ground Pick it
out of the Ground, because if you want look back where you are came and thanks to
that place and Family that you achieve your dreams because of it.
Introduction
Pinto Art Museum is the brainchild of Dr. Joven Cuanang and is currently run by
Silingan Foundation of Arts, Culture, and Ecology. The museum currently operates
without any financial grants from private and public sectors and and strives to remain
self-sustaining.
You will find white structures in the middle of lush greenery for galleries housing art
pieces of contemporary and cultural.
CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERIES
It has art pieces from present modern artists. You will find art in different mediums from
canvas to sculptures.
CULTURAL ART & PIECES
On separate galleries you will also find wood and/or metal carvings, painting, and
textiles from the different tribes in the Philippines.
