MALANG MEMORIALIZED AT SM CITY NORTH EDSA
Ashowcase of a master’s works brimming with rounded and curvaceous shapes, steeped in a menagerie of tropical colors, bursting with the bravura of life. Three generations of artists highlighted in a family exhibit. A heartwarming speech by Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte mentioning how her father Representative Sonny Belmonte fondly recalled his days as a colleague with the artist at the Manila Chronicle.
The recent stop of “My City, My SM, My Art” at SM City North EDSA paid tribute to master artist Mauro Malang Santos, highlighting his amazing life and works in an exhibit in partnership with the Finale Art File at the mall’s The Block atrium. “Malang Memorialized,” which was just in time for the artist’s 90th birthday on Jan. 20, also gave mallgoers a glimpse of the vibrant arts scene in Quezon City, where the artist worked and lived with his family.
In 1938, President Manuel L. Quezon dreamt of a city that would become the future capital of the country, and home to middle workers. Today, Quezon City has joined the ranks of Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei as one of the London Financial
Times’ Top Ten Asian Cities of the Future in 2007, leading many other cities in terms of economic potential, cost-effectiveness, quality of human resources, and quality of life.
More than that, it has become a leading residential, lifestyle, communications and educational center. It is home to some of the leading universities and academic institutions in the country that enrich the community with their arts and humanity courses. The University of the Philippines, the Ateneo University, New Era University, Miriam College, Kalayaan College, and Asian College all offer programs ranging from Fine Arts to Theater Arts to Animation courses.
These, plus art classes and the Quezon City Performing Arts Development Program, which Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte started in 2001 to provide free performing arts training to underprivileged children, have led to the flourishing of culture in Quezon City.
A joint project of SM, the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Shell Philippines, the
Philippine STAR, with support from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and Centerstage Productions, “My City, My SM, My Art” is a celebration of Philippine visual arts — painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography and filmmaking.
The campaign brings art and people together by showcasing the works of masters, modernists and millennials in a road show 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.
No less than Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte graced the event, which was a gathering of artists and art lovers. The artist’s family came in full force — children Soler, Steve, Simon and Sarah; grandchildren Isabel, Luis, Mik and Badge; as well as his great-grandchildren.
National Historical Commission deputy executive director for Administration Carminda Arevalo and Rosario Sapitan; as well as artists Agustin Goy, Mark Andy Garcia, Raffy Napay, Richard Tuason and Neil Pasilan also joined in the celebration.
Project partners Mary Ann Luis, Ian Felix Alquiros and Don Angelo Quilaman of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and Grace Laurel and Doddie Gutierrez of the Philippine STAR also attended the event. They were warmly welcomed by SM officials led by SM senior vice president for Marketing Millie Dizon and SM Supermalls regional operations manager Jocelyn Lapid and AVP for Marketing Timothy Jonas Cuenca.
Guests enjoyed the program, which included an AVP hosted by Lia Cruz featuring the amazing works of Malang and the Santos family. These works were exhibited in and around the My Art Gallery, which was inspired by the Bahay na
Bato in the Luzon. These included the works of two of Malang’s children: Steve Santos, who 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; and Soler Santos, who has been exploring the juxtaposition and layering of painterly gestures, drawings and elements of collage in his recent works, which feature both classical and contemporary imagery.
Also featured were the works of daughter-in-law Mona Santos, who is notable for her depictions of luscious flora in intimate proximity, which combine rigorous handwork with a feminine sensibility.
The exhibit also revealed the emerging of a third generation of artists from the Santos family. These included Malang’s grandchildren Carina Santos, who has interrogated how the painterly gesture may be able to accommodate conceptual learning and approaches; and Isabel Santos, who combines typography, abstract elements and the possibilities of color in her meticulous forays into contemporary art making. Luis Santos, on the other hand, explores the surface appearance of things, and how this surface registers interior states and realities through pictorial interventions and distortions; and Mik Santos, whose works feature a graphic sensibility that combine geometric shapes and vibrating fields of color.
The highlight of the event was a tribute to Mauro Malang Santos, whose 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 arranged his art lessons under tutor Teodoro Buenaventura. He later tried out the College of Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines in 1946, after which he 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.
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 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 abstract. He never stopped trying new media, new 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.
In 1966, Malang, together with a few major contemporaries and friends, began a new project, Art for the Masses, which introduced affordable art for the first time through prints. Even when his reputation was 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, Malang provided the space and exposure to a new generation of artists through West Gallery, which continues to be one of the emerging showcases of young talent.
In his lifetime, Malanga 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. He was among the Ten Outstanding Young Men Awardees in 1963, and was named 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 Kalinlangan upon Malang in 1981.
A chapter of Philippine visual arts closed when Malang passed away on June 10, 2017, but not without leaving behind an extensive body of work chronicling the life and aspirations of the Filipino.
With its aim of bringing art and people together, “My City, My SM, My Art” also sponsored a painting workshop conducted by Sip and Gogh, the first-of-its-kind “paint and sip studio” in the country. Jose Padilla Jr. of the Judge Feliciano Belmonte High School won the Grand Prize and brought home P10,000 worth of SM Gift Certificates.
“My City, My SM, My Art” is a takeoff from the previous My City, My SM campaign which promotes tourism, “My City, My SM, My Cuisine,” which highlights regional culinary specialties, and “My City, My SM, My Crafts,” a celebration of traditional art and modern Philippine design in cities where SM has malls. “My City, My SM, My Art”’s next stop will be in SM City General Santos.