Art from Batanes: Take two

Recently we featured Batanes’ dynamic art as part of a Sunday travel piece for this paper. We’d like to follow up on that article and focus some more on the remarkable art being produced in our northernmost province, this despite its relative isolation.

A group of young Ivatan artists with ages ranging from 12 to 29 have organized the Yaru Nu Artes Batanes. In affiliation and collaboration with the Pacita Abad Center for the Arts, they are planning the first Batanes visual arts group exhibit, to be held this summer.

Billed as “Batanes: Our Heritage in Focus” and featuring the works of six of the Yaru artists, the week-long exhibit will be held at the Batanes State College Auditorium in Basco from May 2 to 9. Former President Corazon C. Aquino has been invited to cut the ceremonial ribbon.

In a proposal to the National Commission for Culture & the Arts (NCCA) requesting partial funding to cover the costs of exhibition panels and documentation, the Center and the Yaru Nu Artes Batanes cite the benefits to be derived from the exhibit.

While the proceeds are to be used to sustain the activities of the Pacita Abad Center for the Arts, a positive image is also expected to accrue to the entire province. The project proponent, the Jorge, Aurora and Pacita Abad Memorial Foundation, writes:

“It would also reward our efforts to preserve our rich cultural heritage and environment, which is slowly being overrun by development. Lately, tourists have started to discover Batanes, partly because of the free media exposure brought about by the nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Unfortunately, most tourists go back to Manila without purchasing anything in Batanes. Thus, this exhibit also intends to promote the work of Ivatan artists as souvenir items, and help turn Ivatan art into a sustainable livelihood.”

The Yaru artists have been responsible for several public arts projects, such as the lovely murals of patron saints with town churches as backdrops for the Tukon Chapel ceiling in an upland barrio of Basco. In Manila, the pediatric ward of the National Children’s Medical Center has also benefited from contemporary Ivatan art. The young artists have also exhibited their works at the Museo Pambata and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

The six participating artists are Roland Gonzales, Jaypee Busangilan Portez, Teresa Gordo, Xavier Abelador, Javier A. Ponce, and 12-year-old Rhodelyn Come.

“Olan” Gonzalez comes from a long line of talented artists. He is the eighth out of 10 artistic siblings, with their mother Irene acknowledged as a master basket maker. Stories of Olan’s painting talent are legend in his hometown — from the time he painted Jesus while he was temporarily struck blind as a child, to the fine portraits and detailed architectural sketches he produces.

Gonzales was the first Ivatan to be offered a full scholarship in fine arts at UP Diliman. His works have been exhibited at the CCP and at the Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco. His art can also be found in many private collections, both in the Philippines and abroad, including that of Batanes Bishop Camillo Gregorio, on behalf of the Vatican. A first-place winner in the Pacita Abad Foundation’s annual contest, he has been the lead painter in the Tukon Chapel ceiling project.

Only 19, Jaypee Portez has had his works purchased at eBay and as far away as Australia. He is currently engaged in a couple of major commissioned projects: a mosaic at the Batanes airport, and a 50-piece installation for a hotel to be built in Manila by Ricky Gutierrez, the owner of Sentro Restaurant.

Jayson’s excellent paintings employ a unique, semi-abstract style and utilize a common motif, that of circles, which for him represent a familiar shape. He sees it often replicated in native gold earrings, the stones used for the sturdy Ivatan houses, and in the eyes of the dibang or flying fish, a staple Ivatan food.

Born in Mahatao in the main island of Batan, Jaypee spent his early years in San Pedro, Laguna, before coming back to his hometown for good. While in third grade, the child prodigy won first place in a painting competition. He was valedictorian of the Payuhuan nu Kapaypinta, the first arts training program in Batanes, and is now a leading youth arts trainer. He wishes to go to UP Diliman for fine arts, and to become a famous painter.

Of Ivatan and Ilocano descent, “Tere” Gordo has developed a colorful style that encompasses both realistic and abstract formats. She began painting in 2004, following in the footsteps of an aunt and a brother. She recollects: “I don’t know if I’m any good, but my aunt Auriele Loreto and my brother Virgilio Gordo are both good painters. I woke up one day and decided I wanted to be like them, so I joined the class in school.” 

Her first paintings sold immediately, and continue to do so. Her first entry in the Pacita Abad painting contest won 2nd place in the college level in 2006. The following year, she won the grand prize in the same contest. Presently working as a draftswoman for the municipal government of Basco, Tere is also a lead trainer for the remote island of Sabtang, where she led a group of four other trainers in a summer elementary school training program. She hopes to acquire a master’s degree in the arts someday, but is staying in Basco to work and help her brothers and sisters finish school.

Xavier Abelador is a much-sought-after representational and surrealist painter, one of the first Ivatan artists who have completed formal university training, having gained a BFA from FEATI University. While in Manila, he earned many distinctions, such as placing as a runner-up in the ArtPetron 2006 contest, a finalist in the Shell Art Competition in the same year, and a finalist in the PLDT-DPC cover design contest of 2005 and 2006.

Nicknamed “Awe,” he also serves as the project coordinator for the Pacita Abad Center for the Arts at the Batanes Heritage Center in Basco, under executive director Byron D. Peralta. His favorite mediums are oil and acrylic, although he also likes to dabble in watercolor, pastel, colored pencils and mixed media. He paints Batanes landscapes and seascapes in an impressionist manner, but also produces haunting imagery when he melds indigenous motifs with a mythic scale of imagination in his remarkable surreal paintings.

Javier Ponce was raised in Itbayat, the northernmost island in the Batanes group. He began painting in grade school and honed his talent in college. He won numerous awards throughout his school years, with well-detailed works that eventually evolved into an abstract tribal style. He still does realistic art, however, preferring oil and acrylic as his primary mediums.

Javier has found a new use for the palette knife, which he says makes it much easier for him to compose colors. “I work really fast with it,” he adds. Though he will not abandon the brush, he wants to continue experimenting with his new style.  

Only 12 years old, Rhodelyn Come has been painting since she was five. While in 6th grade, she joined the Pacita Abad painting contest and won third prize in the elementary division. She became valedictorian of the elementary class of the 1st Payuhuan nu Kapaypinta, and now serves as an assistant trainer for other youth in the islands of Sabtang and Itbayat.

She received the titular accolade, “Mistress of the Mural and Goddess of the Clouds,” for her contribution to the 6-by-10-foot mural exhibited at Museo Pambata last year. A realist painter, she prefers to work with acrylic, although even at such a young age, she has also proven to be adept with charcoal, crayon, pastels, poster color and watercolor.

These then are the six Ivatan artists whose works will go on exhibit and sale in Basco in May. Some of their works may be viewed at http://www.artbatanes.blogspot.com.

A visit to that site should reveal how wondrous and dynamic contemporary Ivatan art has become, thanks to the inspiration and influence of the celebrated international painter, Pacita Abad. Her untimely demise a few years ago led to the creation of a foundation and the Center in her name, both of which have taken a leading role in the development of more Ivatan artists.

May their tribe increase. And may their art continue to document and reflect on their exceptional environment, surely another reason why their painters’ eyes, vision and spirit are so evidently unique and exemplary.