Triangulo features Artistic Trio: Imao, Tayag and Sajid

CEBU, Philippines - The Gallery, the activity space at the second level of Greenbelt 5 in Makati City, was abuzz recently as it hived the highly successful threesome exhibit of big names in Philippine arts namely National Artist for Sculpture Abdulmari Asia Imao, multifarious artist Claude Tayag, and sculptor Juan Sajid Imao.

Organized by Art Gallery Philippines, the exhibit, called Triangulo, featured a triad of generations of creators, their masterworks honed using diverse styles and materials, distinctly guided by their different heritages and milieus.

The National Artist for Sculpture Abdulmari Asia Imao is a painter, ceramist, photographer, and documentary film maker known for his indigenous ukkil and sari-manok designs and naga motifs. Likewise a cultural researcher, writer and articulator of Philippine Muslim art and culture, he is most significantly regarded as being a sculptor, the craft from where he earned the title National Artist of the Philippines in 2006, becoming the first Moro to be awarded such an accolade.

Claude Tayag has ventured into a number of crafts such as painting, three-dimensional works, furniture design and culinary arts, aside from being a travel and a food columnist. He is a self-taught artist who is recognized for his brush strokes of Philippine folk festivals, religious images and Cordillera landscapes. Lately experimenting with huge sculptural wood pieces, he has participated in a number of one-man and group exhibitions in Manila, Beijing, Madrid, and Washington DC, with collections displayed in institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, PLDT, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and Bank of Philippine Islands.

Meanwhile, Juan Sajid Imao has indulged in creating prodigious public art in Metro Manila for the past 20 years. Two works of note include the bronze Jose Rizal statue in Fort Santiago and the stylized brass crucifix at the main altar of Church of the Gesu at the Ateneo de Manila University. Today he continues the same love for producing monumental works with his smaller-scale yet bold sculptures in hammered brass which reveal his personal experiences. A winner of several competitions both here and abroad, he wears the laurels of being among The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) of the Philippines in 2001 and Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World (TOYP) in 2006.