■ PROMOTING INDIGENOUS ART
An exhibit was held in SM City Cebu’s Art Center entitled “Neo-Tribe 2018, Abstraction Outreach.” The exhibit ran from Feb 16 to March 1. The artworks featured were by Daryl Quiros and Kenny Joy Relampagos, along with Leopoldo Aguilar, Jr. as project director. “Though the theme of the outreach centered mostly on abstraction, my main inspiration are local tribal art with the occasional outbursts. My art is always about simplicity, inspired by simple lines and doodles like teaching a man to be an innocent boy again,” said Aguilar. The group is now promoting its art space called “Drawing Museum” along the shores of Tabok, Maslog, Danao City.
Art reaches far and wide regardless of one’s situation. The ability to create art does not differ. However, the availability of opportunities for the artist and the cultural background surrounding the discipline create a huge disparity between those who were given the chance to create art from the very beginning and those who need to make their own chances. Because although one can be born with the talent to create art, honing it will need a few investments.
In 1991, Leopoldo Aguilar Jr. worked full-time as a company artist after graduating as a Fine Arts student from the University of the Philippines - Cebu. However, this didn’t work out due to the repetitiveness and the restrictions placed on the type of art the artist had to make. This led to a “bumming period,” which was how the artist called it. Together with other art students, he created the Neo-Tribalism Movement whose goal was to provide a venue for the artist’s own brand of art from installation works and performance art to painting exhibits held outdoors.
However, in 1998, its advocacy shifted to “Bringing art to the grassroots” by conducting free art workshops in rural areas as far