Wazzup Pilipinas!
The Negros Season of Culture is an initiative to
showcase the artistry of Negros Occidental. A province in the central
Philippines, Negros Occidental has produced an incredible amount of artists
that have enjoyed critical as well as commercial success at home and abroad. In
celebration of the National Commission of the Culture and the Arts’s National
Arts Month, the NSC is proud to showcase three amazing young artists from
Negros Occidental.
These three artists are featured by the Negros
Season of Culture as they discover, explore, and even pioneer areas in art and
design during one of the largest global pandemics in history.
Faye Abantao, Daryl Feril, and Christoph Sagemuller
have more in common than being Negrenses. These three artists graduated within
years of each other from La Consolacion College in Bacolod City, the capital
city of Negros Occidental. They are young, dynamic artists who, due to their
schooling, have a grounded foundation in the fine arts but have branched out,
experimented with, and are now using new and exciting media for their art. They
are also the farthest thing from the stereotype of the starving artist.
Abantao, Feril, and Sagemuller are successful both
critically and commercially. They each have several exhibitions under their
belts. Their art pieces and designs command interest not just from private
collectors but from Fortune 500 companies. They represent a new wave of artists
from a place that has always celebrated and supported the arts.
They are also at the forefront of pushing the
boundaries of what is possible in the current Information Age and the nascent
Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Internet is used as a source for research as
well as ways to communicate with people all over the world. Digital tools,
virtual and real, are used to create pieces of art for commercial and aesthetic
pursuits. Their reach covers the entire country to as far as South Korea and
the United States of America, a feat that one argues could have only been
possible for three young artists who just graduated from a local provincial
college in the Age of the Internet.
Digital Art defies limitations traditional art has
in its reach. A global pandemic may close galleries and museums and limit
patrons, buyers, and art lovers from enjoying or buying artwork. However, an
artist whose work is in virtual space does not share those limitations.
The prevalence of digital tools in people’s phones
and computers, the ease with which they can be used has given rise to not only
a new generation of artists but a new kind of artist. An artist who may not
have ever even seen a tube of oil paint or an actual paintbrush, one whose
portfolio exists entirely in the cloud, one whose studio and gallery are
located in a hard drive somewhere. Just as charcoal had given way to paints,
there is a new medium and artists who are making use of it.
Abantao, Feril, and Sagemuller are the first of
many who personify the new direction that art and the artists are shaping
themselves into in this new millennium. They speak a whole new language, one
that is an amalgamation of traditional and the digital. Their works are
unmistakable international in scope and appeal yet undeniably Negrense at
heart.
One could say, it is a change of the seasons.
https://www.negrosseasonofculture.com/
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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