Trader opens gallery for Cebuano artists

Cebuano artists will now have a place where they can display their masterpieces for free.

This after business patriarch Norberto Quisumbing Jr., chairman and founder of the Norkis Group of Companies, recently opened “Gallery Q,” an art gallery located near the Norkis compound in Banilad, Mandaue City.

“Cebuano artists need a dignified art gallery that will give their art true worth,” Quisumbing told The FREEMAN during the soft launching of the art gallery last Saturday.

Quisumbing said the gallery’s grand launching, the date of which has yet to be decided, will feature more than 100 paintings from known Cebuano artists.

“Through their paintings, this will bring Cebu to the rest of the world,” said Quisumbing.

He also said his gallery is not aimed at making profit but to provide a venue for professional artists to exhibit their artworks.

April Tudtud-Ramos, Gallery Q executive director, said that the gallery will also serve as a venue for art students and budding artists to learn from the artworks on display.

She said that all paintings that are exhibited pass through a screening committee.  Only artworks made by professional artists in Cebu and other neighboring provinces that pass the standards set by the committee are to be displayed in the gallery, she added.

During the soft launching, Hong Kong-based diamond magnate Carlos Yeung and his Cebuana philanthropist wife Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung bought a painting by Cebuano artist Ber Hermoso that they plan to give to a friend in Hong Kong.

Quisumbing also bought another painting from one of the artists who joined the exhibit, saying appreciating art “depends upon every person and the person’s choice is a reflection of who he is.”

Sixth district Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz and Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes and other art enthusiasts also graced the affair.

Eight Cebuano artists also conducted a live sketching session with Soon-Ruiz as their model.

Quisumbing, who owns more than 29 companies, is also a lover of art.

One of his properties, the 200 hectare Q-Park located in the town of Compostela is displaying life-sized portraits of the country’s presidents and statesmen.  The Q-Park complex also houses the Stations of the Cross, a Heroes’ Hill, among others.  —Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/WAB