A TRIBUTE TO MALANG AT SM CITY NORTH EDSA
As “My City, My SM, My Art” continues its cultural journey around the Philippines, it celebrates the life and work of one of the best-known and best-loved artists of his time, Mauro Malang Santos, in an exhibit at SM City North EDSA from Jan. 16–30 at The Block Atrium.
“Malang Memorialized,” a collaboration with the Finale Art File, looks back and highlights the artist who had masterfully offered his vision through formidable, exuberant, and generous forms. The exhibit comes in time for the 90th anniversary of Malang’s birth on Jan. 20, as a way of expressing gratitude for his contributions to Philippine visual arts.
It will also showcase the works of the other members of the Santos Family who have followed in the footsteps of Malang in painting, but have each shown a unique and diverse artistic style of their own — Steve Santos, Soler Santos, Mona Lisa Reyes Santos, Luis Santos, Carina Samantha Santos, Isabel Santos and Jan Michael Santos.
A celebration of Philippine visual arts — painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and filmmaking, “My City, My SM, My Art” is a joint project of SM, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, the Shell Companies of the Philippines, and The Philippine STAR with support from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and Centerstage Productions.
“My City, My SM, My Art” brings art and people together by showcasing the works of masters, modernists, and millennials around the SM Supermalls. Advocating art for all, the team works with communities to mount exhibits, workshops, and contests in key cities around the Philippines. MAURO MALANG SANTOS: COLORFUL VIGNETTES BURSTING WITH THE BRAVURA OF LIFE
The works of master artist Mauro Malang Santos brim with rounded and curvaceous shapes, steeped in a menagerie of tropical colors, bursting with the bravura of life. The artist’s figuration is one of the most definitive in the landscape of Philippine visual arts, particularly in the second half of the 20th century.
Malang — born in Sta. Cruz, Manila on Jan. 20, 1928 — was only 10 years old when his parents Don Santos and Juliana Malang arranged his art lessons under tutor Teodoro Buenaventura. Back then, he felt that his older brother had more talent, but he soon developed his skills and necessary discipline which eventually launched his career.
Malang tried out the College of Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines in 1946 and although he remained there for only one semester, the artistic spark remained with him throughout his life. He then accepted a position under the Manila Chronicle’s art department and trained under the cartoonist Liborio “Gat” Gatbonton, and later under the great Hernando HR Ocampo, who encouraged him to paint.
It was here where he not only learned to draw cartoons, but did advertising, layout and photo retouching. It was also at the Manila Chronicle where his signature series Kosme the Cop, and later Chain Gang Charlie and Beelzeebub were published.
In the 1950s, Malang started painting vignettes of Manila’s folk culture in gouache — opaque watercolor — that he found easier to use. His subjects remained the same throughout the years — the graceful Filipina; curiously decorative barong-barong; and our archipelago’s exuberant vegetation.
In 1962, he had his first one-man exhibition at Lyd Arguilla’s Philippine Art Gallery. All the paintings in the
exhibit sold out, and Malang the artist emerged.
Art critics agree that a great deal of Malang’s painterly charm comes from his highly imaginative use of color. National Artist Arturo Luz has said that his colors glow, and each painting is a visual feast.
As it matured, his work became more and more abstract. He never quit trying out new media, colors and approaches, which is evident in his body of work over the years. As he grew older, Malang’s imagination grew only more vivid.
Malang’s paintings brim with joy and lightness. His decades of work have left behind a legacy that young artists of today can learn and take inspiration from. Some of his favorite themes are families, gamecocks, women vendors, and of course barong-barongs, which some would say are a bit too happy.
In 1966, Malang began a new project to bring printmaking, a huge passion of his, into the spotlight. Together with a few major contemporaries and friends, the project called “Art for the Masses” introduced affordable art for the first time through prints which allowed a broader base of art appreciators to get involved as collectors and supporter of the arts.
Even when his reputation was already firmly established, Malang was supportive of young artists, joining them in the regular sessions of the Saturday Group for painting, art talks, and fellowship. Together with his son Soler, who is also an artist, Malang provided the space and exposure to a new generation of artists through West Gallery, which continues to be one of the emerging
Malang married Mary San Pedro and together they had four children: Steve, Simon, Sarah and Soler. Steve and Soler have followed in their father’s footsteps to pursue art careers, and the third Malang generation in art is emerging. “Clear” by Isabel Santos (acrylic on canvas, 2016)
Isabel Santos combines typography, abstract elements, and the possibilities of color in her meticulous forays into contemporary art-making. She has attended art residencies in New York, France and Germany and has had solo exhibitions at West Gallery, Finale Art File, Artery and Galerie 102 (Berlin). She finished a degree in AB European Studies, minor in Marketing and German Studies at the Ateneo de Manila University. showcases of young talent.
In his lifetime, Malang received many citations and awards for his work. In 1957, he was included in the esteemed Twelve Artists selection by Lyd Arguilla of the Philippine Art Gallery. In the following year, he was also given the award for Editorial Design by the Art Director’s Guild of the Philippines.
He was among the Ten Outstanding Young Men awardees in 1963, and was named
“Medici (After Michaelangelo)” by Soler Santos (mixed media on paper, 2017)
In his recent works, Soler Santos has been exploring the juxtaposition and layering of painterly gestures, drawings and elements of collage, which feature both classical and contemporary imagery, in order to vivify perception of contemporary experience. He has been a full-time painter since finishing a Fine Arts degree at the University of the Philippines and having his first-one man show at Luz Gallery in 1981. A Thirteen Artist Awardee in 1992, Soler has represented the country in various international art exhibitions. Artist of the Year by the Philippine Society of Illustrators and Cartoonists in 1964. The City of Manila bestowed the great honor of the Patnubay ng Sining at Kailnangan upon Malang in 1981.
A chapter of Philippine visual arts had closed when Malang passed away on June 10, 2017, but not without leaving behind an extensive body of work chronicling the life and aspiration of the Filipinos.
“There Is Nothing There” by Carina Santos (watercolor on paper)
Interrogating how the painted gesture may be able to accommodate conceptual yearnings and approaches, Carina Santos has had eight solo exhibitions, with “Orbiting the Last Known Surroundings” (West Gallery) and “Satellites for Minor Planets” (Blanc Gallery) the most recent. A contributor to various print and online publications, she is currently taking a master’s degree in Theory and Philosophy at Central Saint Martins.
“Landscape” by Steve Santos (acrylic on paper, 2004)
Steve Santos, in “Landscape,” evokes the contours of the natural world through striations and the overlapping of shapes, enveloping the scenery with colors that are at once atmospheric and haunting. Steve has had solo exhibitions at West Gallery, Finale Art File and Luz Gallery, among other art spaces. For a good part of his life, he also worked as an art director in various publications in Hong Kong and the Philippines. He studied Advertising and Painting at the University of the Philippines.
“Teal” by Mik Santos (acrylic on paper, 2017)
Featuring a graphic sensibility in his works that combine geometric shapes and vibrating fields of color, Jan Michael Santos currently works as the associate creative director of VYGR Digital Agency. In 2014, he participated in the group show, “Tracing Faces,” at Vinyl on Vinyl Gallery. He majored in Advertising Design at the University of Santo Tomas.
“Blooms IV” by Mona Santos (graphite on paper, 2016)
Notable for her depictions of luscious flora in close, intimate proximity, which combine rigor of hand with a feminine sensibility, Mona Santos is a full-time artist, having had solos exhibitions at Finale Art File and West Gallery. Her works have been featured in various group shows and in publications such as 20th Century Filipino Artists, Homage to the Masters and 1+55: Perspective on Corporate Art Patronage among others.
“United (Ulysses)” by Luis Santos (oil on canvas, 2014)
Luis Santos explores the surface appearance of things, and how this surface registers interior states and realities through pictorial interventions and distortions. His recent solo exhibitions include “Index” (Finale Art File) and “The Binary” (Mo). In 2014 and 2015, he was shortlisted for the Ateneo Art Awards-Fernando Zobel Prize for Visual Art of his shows, “Measuring Distance” (Silverlens Gallery) and “Nocturne” (West Gallery), respectively.