EXPRESSIVE ART — ACCORDING TO ARNEL GARCIA
The award-winning mixed-media artist’s output — sculptural pieces made from casted body parts and found objects — are inquisitive and unique, arousing the mind and captivating the senses
Arnel David Garcia’s art reflects his depth, dexterity and imagination in creating works that are striking and intense. His works are characterized by meticulous execution that every piece breathes with life and emotion — be it a mural or a free-standing sculpture.
Just like the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer, whose works are collectively described as soulful as they bring out what is hidden, Garcia’s projects show the conscious mental reaction and behavior of his subjects.
His output — sculptural pieces made from casted body parts and found objects — are inquisitive and unique, arousing the mind and captivating the senses.
Garcia wanted to take up Fine Arts in college but instead majored in Accountancy to follow his parents’ wishes.
Art became his hobby. Living in the Central Luzon province of Pampanga and surrounded by bodies of water, Garcia first experimented with pumice stones, which came from Mount Pinatubo’s violent eruption, which he sculpted into faces using his father’s screwdrivers.
He further honed his skills by joining a college publication and an art organization in which he would become the art editor and president, respectively.
After trying calligraphy and painting, he was drawn to mixed media in 1999 — an interest that has stuck to this day.
Top prizes
Garcia has held a number of solo and group exhibits and events locally and abroad. He was part of the National Commission
‘WE Heal as One’ (2021).
for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)-sponsored Mandala Art Festival in Pulilan, Bulacan, in 2012 and 2014, and the “Rizal through the Eyes of an Artist” exhibition in Berlin in 2016.
He has also won top prizes in the Art Association of the Philippines’ (AAP) 66th Annual Art Competition in 2013 and the Manila Bulletin Sketch Fest in 2019.
A number of his works are now part of the collection of institutions, such as the relief sculpture Kumunoy ng Kahirapan (2012) at the Poverty Museum in Las Piñas; the mural Lumud (2016) at Holy Angel University’s Pinatubo Museum; and the concrete sculpture Sharing Christ with Global Asians (2019) at the Radio Veritas Asia Museum in Quezon City.
Garcia is partial to relief sculptures, sculptures and mixed-media works to the durability and sustainability of materials.
At present, Garcia is a member of the National Committee on Visual Arts of the NCCA representing Central Luzon.
‘Expressive’ “Expressive” is how he defines his art.
“I found myself focusing on the solid form of art called mixed media, where
I built a morbid yet maverick kind of expressive artistry,” he said, explaining that his works