(R)evolutionary Twelve @ ARTSpeak 2013

CEBU, Philippines - At the risk of sounding like the title of a reality show, this has to be said: Cebu’s got talent!

From Cebuanos topping the Physician Licensure Exam to a Cebuana turning heads her way in The Voice of the Philippines, the province’s top artistic talents have also been busy, proving that art in Cebu does not have a precarious relationship with relevance.

Systemic-yet-overt as well as old school-yet-contemporary, Cebu’s masters of the arts have made a habit in progressively defying the predictable, as the 12 (r)evolutionary talents we are featuring here have come to show.

Jorge Lao

From capturing the tranquility of the countryside to giving due emphasis to the roughness of stormy seas, Jorge Lao’s take on representational compositions is as dynamic as his contemporary inclinations.

Unpretentious and spontaneous, the artist’s contemporary works are rooted on process-and-composition oriented drives. They can’t be ignored!

Javy Villacin

With his works’ overall compositions taken from his forays into the realm of thought, Javy Villacin’s abstract expressionist inclination has long defined him as one of the region’s top artistic talents.

In Villacin’s creative world, words are not the only coins in the realm of thought, with visual ideals having their own value as its currency.

Renulo Pautan

New vistas of reality can be found in Renulo Pautan’s artistic portfolio, from the sensual to the stoic, to the calm and the turbulent.

Playful and masterful in the creation of works, it’s difficult not to view the artist’s aesthetic senses as an orchestra of dreams steeped in the waking life.

Palmy Pe-Tudtud

As an artist, Palmy Pe-Tudtud’s creative repertoire takes a profound stance in reminding everyone that empowerment is a choice.

Having built a reputation in the making of playful compositions that are gilded with vibrant tones, a rich sense of life is consistently evident in each of the artist’s pieces.

Gabriel Abellana

Gabriel Abellana has long proffered his versatile capacities as an artist, justly earning his share of awards, distinctions and accolades over the years

Born to a family of creative individuals, the Jose T Joya Award-winning talent is famed for the creation of works that are inspired by nature, along with the creation of contemporary pieces that are not geared towards simply causing change for the sake of change.

John Dinglasa

There’s a lot to admire in John Dinglasa’s take in the manipulation of colors, light and shade, a quality which the artist has mastered as a forte.

Consistent in his thematic inclinations when talking about the creation of paintings and pen & ink pieces, Dinglasa is elementally profound in the way he self-curates his compositions, themes and subjects, yielding to a profound simplicity that is inimitably outstanding.

Fred Galan

Fred Galan’s progressive aesthetic assertations can be described as rare, an artistic trait that is not easily found in each and every creator.

From narrative paintings to contemporary thought-provoking watercolors, Galan has long proven that his artistic eye is not blind to life’s sharpest metaphors.

Darby Vincent Alcoseba

Cebu is no stranger to Darby Vincent Alcoseba’s breathtakingly keen attention to detail, an artistic capacity that is made more impressive by his ambidextrous utilization of different mediums in the making of different works.

Recently winning this year’s Metrobank Art and Design Excellence (MADE) Competition’s Painting—Watermedia Category, Alcoseba’s standing as an artist can be easily pegged as a superstar-in-the-making.

Celso Pepito

With an unwavering creative tenacity, Celso Pepito remains to be one of Cebu’s well-loved talents, famed for churning out works that elevate and entertain the spirit.

Static and immensely temporal in the way he makes his compositions, each of Pepito’s pieces mirrors the dynamic sense of sound, sight and emotion constantly happening in his artistic visions.

Jose “Kimsoy” Yap Jr

“Profound” simply begins to describe Kimsoy Yap’s works, each made with a care and concern that says something about how essential creative vision is in capturing life’s day-by-day collisions.

A master in his own right, Yap’s aesthetic ideals are banquets of human expression and experience, made for the appreciation and consumption for one and all.

Cesar Castillo

Cesar Castillo’s aesthetic ideals are driven by an innate love for colors, punctuated by an effective amalgam of the standard and the unorthodox.

Transforming what is common place into something unique, the artist’s perceptible manipulation of space is as impressive as his penchant for richly detailed works.

Lucilo “Jojo” Sagayno

Jojo Sagayno’s take on the creation of his works is not bound by lines, shapes and hues, but extends to the utilization of various mediums, covering the traditional and the unconventional.

Just as he is eclectic in the use of artistic implements, Sagayno is also versatile in his works’ focused subjects and themes.

The (R)evolutionary twelve will be taking part in an upcoming celebration of functional form and beauty this October 4, 2013, spearheaded by The Freeman Lifestyle and Ayala Center Cebu.