Casa Gorordo to feature works of Cebuano painter

CEBU - For its 25th year, the Casa Gorordo will feature the works of renowned Cebuano painter Martino Abellana for a month-long anniversary celebration.

The first exhibit entitled “Martino Abella: A Student of Amorsolo” was opened to the public last night.

Heide Palapar, communications officer of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc., the exhibit is only the first of a three-part series, which is part of the multi-museum retrospective on national artist Fernando Amorsolo, a nationwide project of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila also referred to as MET as short for metropolitan.

MET tapped Casa Gorordo for a simultaneous exhibit together with more than 20 museums across the country to establish the Amorsolo- Abellana connection. Abellana, a native of Carcar, was a student of Amorsolo.

The main exhibit at MET, which opened last September 26 showcased collections related to the national artist like paintings of rice farming, the country side, and local traditions. 

At the Casa Gorordo, the 10 Abellana paintings will be displayed side by side by a reproduction of an Amorsolo artwork, Palapar said.

These paintings are collections of RAFI, Seminario Mayor de San Carlos, Boy Kiamko and the Abellana family itself. This exhibit will run until January.

The second series of the exhibit, which will run from February to April, will focus on Abellana as a father and artist. The third series, which will run from May to June, will feature the works of Amorsolo’s students. 

Aside from the exhibit, Casa Gorordo’s month-long anniversary celebration would also include the “Capability-building Seminar-Workshop for the Conservation of Heritage Structures for the Visayas and Northern Mindanao Regions,” the first to be organized in Visayas and Mindanao.

The seminar-workshop will run today until Saturday at the University of San Carlos College of Fine Arts and Architecture at the Talamban Campus. The organizers include the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Province of Cebu, RAFI and USC.

The panelists for the seminar-workshop include Dr. Jocelyn Gerra, Executive Director of the RAFI-Cultural Heritage Program, under which the Casa Gorordo Museum is integrated; Architect Omar Maxwell Espina, Dean of the USC-CAFA; and Architect Melva Java, Director of the Conservation Heritage Research Institute and Workshop of the USC-CAFA.  — Liv G. Campo/JMO (THE FREEMAN)