Caloocan jail inmates' artworks set for exhibit

The Caloocan City Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) announced yesterday it will hold its first-ever prisoners’ art exhibit next month for the benefit of “visitor-less, indigent, sick, and aged” or VISA inmates.

A brainchild of jail warden Superintendent Lyndon Torres, the “Puso para sa Preso” art presentation would be held on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day at the jail’s chapel.

Torres said that the project’s main objectives are “to provide support to VISA inmates, to offer talented prisoners extra income, and for the inmates to fight boredom.”  

He said the inmates started painting in mid-December and have produced decent reproductions of works such as Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, as well as paintings depicting their day-to-day life in prison. 

Torres appealed to “art lovers” to support the prisoners’ art show. Half of the project’s proceeds would go directly to the artists and another half to VISA inmates’ fund, he said.

Randy Sorilla, 42, imprisoned for robbery, said Torres’ project makes use of his “inborn” talent. “It’s in the family. My older brother is an art and interior designer in Saudi Arabia while my second year high school son, Ralph, was recently adjudged as their school’s artist of the year,” Sorilla said.

The prisoners’ art show will feature at least 50 “very good pieces” ranging from framed oil paintings, molded plastic animal figures to miniature paper houses, Torres said.