MANILA, Philippines - UE alumnus Maximino Mark “Maxbal” O. Balatbat recently won the Lorenzo il Magnifico award for garnering the second prize for his masterpiece “Avenida Manila” following his participation at the Seventh Florence Biennale (Biennale Internazionale dell’ Arte Contemporonea Florence) held at the historic Fortezza da Basso, Italy.
Sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Culture and the United Nations, the Florence Biennale is a prestigious international art event where selected artists from 80 countries converge every two years to exhibit more than 2,500 masterpieces for an extraordinary encounter between different cultures, styles and languages in the “Dialogue among Civilization” program.
The “Lorenzo il Magnifico” award is named after a patron of the Renaissance Arts, Lorenzo de’ Medici (the “Magnificent”) of Florence.
The Lorenzo il Magnifico has been awarded to many important names: Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Alfredo Zalce and David Hockney for Art; the Restoration Laboratories of the Vatican Museums for Recovery of Historical Heritage; Ferrari, Pininfarina and Harley-Davidson for Design; Carla Fracci, Ferruccio Soleri and Mario Luzi for Culture.
A UE College of Fine Arts graduate in October 2002, Maxbal is a pillar of the art group Sininggang Art Collective comprised of UE fine arts alumni.