Ninety works of art of 40 Baguio artists are on display in a café known as the “media center”.
National artist for film Kidlat Tahimik with Baguio Creative Council vice chairman and University of the Philippines (UP) Baguio chancellor Rey Rovillos and Baguio tourism officer Engr. Aloysius Mapalo opened the month-long arts exhibit titled “Ibagtit” on Saturday.
Sculptor and curator Kigao Rosimo converted Luisa’s Cafe on Session Road into an arts gallery.
The works on display are located on the second floor which, for nearly two decades, has been home to Baguio-Benguet media.
Media, particularly photographers became part of the exhibit launched during the second full moon of the year on February 8, to help boost the city’s hold as a creative city.
“This is also a throwback to when Baguio and its creative people was at its peak,” said Rosimo, referring to the late 80s when Baguio’s who’s who in art founded the Baguio Arts Guild (BAG).
Rosimo, then a young artist, became part of the growing Baguio art scene that included Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera, who just relocated to Baguio, Kidlat Tahimik, sculptor Roberto Villanueva, Santiago Bose, Dave Baradas, one of the founders of the BAG.
“There were real galleries in the city,” he recalled, as he curated for the first time a five-medium exhibit — painting and sculpture — performances, literature, photography, and music.
“That is why we held [the opening] on a full moon and the title because that connotes something crazy, luna thus lunatic,” Rosimo said.
Rosimo said the exhibit also encourages a new wave of artists to pursue art.
One of the exhibit’s participants includes artist Benjie Mallari’s grandchild, Ryelle, who made an oil pastel on paperwork titled “Filipina”.
The youngest artist participating in the exhibit is 11-year-old Sakura Alangui, Rosimo said.
Kidlat Tahimik was joined by his second child in the exhibit, Kawayan de Guia, who has made a name for himself as an installation artist and who was a toddler when the BAG was founded in the late 80s.
New York-based Perry Mamaril traces his roots to the 80s BAG with his mixed media work.
One of the city’s well-known artists, Leonard Aguinaldo, had a work on display even as noted stone sculptor Gilbert Gano Alberto was one of those who heeded Rosimo’s call to participate and had a work on display too.
Baguio photojournalist Andy Zapata unearthed a late 80s photo of Bose, one of the most celebrated Baguio artists, who passed away in the late 2000s.
Poetry will be provided by the Baguio Writers Group led by two-time Palanca awardee Frank Cimatu, who co-organized the event with Rosimo.
Award-winning play director Angelo Aurelio unveiled his first work on watercolor, right after his operation on lymphoma and the completion of his mural of the late president Ramon Magsaysay at the Magsaysay Elementary School.
Most of his artworks are on display at the Rumours Bar just below the café.
Noted Ibaloy painter Roland Bay-an submitted a small ink on paper of an Ibaloy mother with her child bundled at her back.
The Tam-awan Arts Village in Quezon Hill also opened an exhibit on Saturday. (PNA)
