MANILA – The eight national winners of the 2014 Philippine Art Awards (PAA) have been honored during the awarding ceremony and formal opening of exhibition at the Yuchengco Museum in Makati City.
The Grand Prize is unanimously awarded to Arturo Sanchez, Jr. of Angono, Rizal for his work entitled In the Hour of Darkness, There is Always Light.
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Five Juror’s Choice of Merit who received P80,000 each are Jan Olympus dela Cruz for his work entitled Sunod Sunuran sa Haring Araw; Karlo Olavides of Taguig City for his work entitled The Key; Rodolfo Torres, Jr. of Bacolor, Pampanga for his work entitled Ang Anak, Ama at Lobo; Roedil Geraldo of Talisay, Negros Occidental for his work entitled Rat Race; and Jonathan Salvatierra of Valenzuela City for his work entitled Bulok.
For the Juror’s Award of Excellence, the panel of judges has selected two winners who received P120,000 each–Raffy Napay of Caloocan City for his work entitled The Light Guide and Marvin Chito Natural of Mandaue City for his work entitled Buhay OFW: Ang walang Tigil na Paghahanap ng Di-matapu-tagpuang Langit sa Daigdig ng mga De-kahong Post.
Bayen Elero, Corporate Affairs Director PMFTC, Inc., said in her message, “As we strengthen our community projects all over the country, we truly take pleasure collaborating with the sectors promoting Philippine culture and the arts.”
Dave Gomez, Communications Manager of PMFTC, Inc., thanked the partners of Philippine Art Awards. without whose support, the PAA would have not done its tasked for almost 20 years. He said “through the years, PAA, has maintained its preeminent status particularly due to the consistent support of our national as well as regional partners all over the country, and generally, by the eagerly growing participation of the Filipino visual artists nationwide.”
Aside from cash prizes, each of the eight winners received a trophy designed by National Artist Napoleon Abueva and a trip to the forthcoming Basel Art Fair in Hong Kong this May. The winners were to keep their winning entries as well.
Dr. Patrick Flores, a member of the Jury, in his curatorial introduction to the exhibit entitled Quest for Quality showcasing the forty regional finalists from all over the country says, “Philippine Art Awards is currently the only truly national art program of competition and exhibition, pursuing a vision that has adequately invested in both curation and criticism and has patiently and diligently engaged the fraught category of ‘nation’ and perhaps the afterlife of its oftentimes belabored ‘identity’.”
Flores further adds, “This gathering of artists who have been conferred the highest honors from the competition through the years testifies to the gains of this sustained endeavor. It reveals the diversity of media and temperament. It scans expression across the archipelago. And it traces the transformation of both talent and tradition, marking the achievements of artists in the intersecting demands of skill, narrative, concept, material, and social response. Their art has become telling moments in the passage of contemporary culture.”
The exhibition featuring all the eight national winners and the other thirty two regional winners are on view at the Yuchengco Museum, Ground Floor, RCBC Plaza Ayala corner Gil J Puyat Avenues in Makati City until April 30.
