MGAP Selected Works for Exhibition

Amid the crisis brought about by the pandemic, the Ateneo Art Gallery celebrates its 60th anniversary with the announcement of the selected entries to the AAG-Marciano Galang Acquisition Prizes (MGAP). On August 27, AAG also celebrates the 96th anniversary of Fernando Zóbel, its founding donor.

With the theme centered on COVID-19, interested Filipino artists were encouraged to submit works on paper that reflect the turmoils, struggles, initiatives made, and hopes as the country continues to navigate through the pandemic. The Ateneo Art Gallery has received an overwhelming total of 329 entries after closing its call last June. All fifty-four (54) works on paper, rendered in different media, were selected by a jury to be part of the upcoming AAG-MGAP exhibition tentatively scheduled in November 2020. Each artist will receive a cash prize of Php 5,000 for each of their artwork selected for the show.

In alphabetical order, the following works and artists selected for exhibition are:

• Geovanni Abing - Quarantine
• Miko Acaso - Confined Thoughts
• Luigi Almuena - (1) Mala-sakit, Malas sakit at Malasakit; and (2) Buhol- Buhol
• Niel Atienza - The shadow of a tree on the ground
• Dennis Bato - Causal
• Lymuel Bautista - The Unseen
• Tom Bauya - Shroud
• Jonathan Benitez - The Mind in Isolation # 2

• Mars Bugaoan - The Distance 2
• Con Cabrera - Community of Feelings
• Raphael Carloto - The Place All Over the Place
• Joey Cobcobo - BANGUNGOT
• Vermont M. Coronel Jr. - In Quarantine No. 1
• Raymond Cruz - Physical Distancing
• Gerecho Iniel - The Product 2 (Automated Hand Sanitizer)
  
• Eugene Cubillo - Magkakahiwalay pero iisa
• Kathleen Dagum - Good Night World

• Edwin de Guzman - Street Masks
• Telle de Leon - Wheels of the Proletariat
• Janos Delacruz - Unsocial Distancing
• Yas Doctor - A Constant Reminder
• Bayani Galera - Distansyang pag aaral sa parihabang gamit (1)
• Corinne Garcia - 20 Seconds (Wash, Rinse, Repeat)
• Mitch Garcia - Quarantine archives of transitions at present 1
• Nina Garibay - Uwing-uwi na
• Caloy Gernale - A Quarantine View

• Lui Gonzales - Home Lessons on Patience
• Eric Guazon - Gray Area
• Philipp Ines - Bagong Simula at Kasalukuyan
• Tita Halaman - Super Powers Namin Ni Lola
• Is Jumalon - View from my window
• Alvin Kasiban - (1) May the Dead Not Take Me with It; and (2) Aid in the Frontlines
• Celine Lee - 1:10 (Whisper)
• Red Mansueto - Bayan Ko

• Celline Marge Mercado - Lost count of
• FM Monteverde - Padyak
• Alex Ordoyo - HOME
• Georgina Pomarejos - The Counter
• Mervy Pueblo - (1) Salvaje; and (2) Existential Insecurity
• Aki Rodriguez - Concealment is (not) a convenient tactic #4
• Catherine Salazar - We're All in this Together
• Dar San Agustin - (1) Connection

• Dar San Agustin - (2) Disconnection
• Art of Ligaya - G*A News: No Memorials, No Urn for Covid19 deaths
• Kirk Tabanera - How do you Sleep at the Dark Times
• Miguel Lorenzo Uy - Black Painting (Fragment of Silence)
• Yeo Kaa - anong araw na?
• MM Yu - No End
• Alvin Zafra - Mother and Child (Mama Belen and Nanet, May 13, 2020
• Jay-Ar Zaragosa - SALUMBIYAYA
• Pablo Zingapan - Infected

The deliberation was held online from June to July by a panel of jurors consisting of:

• Yael Buencamino - former Managing Curator of Ateneo Art Gallery and former Executive Director of Areté
• Leslie de Chavez - 2010/2014 Ateneo Art Awards – Fernando Zóbel Prizes for Visual Arts winner and founder of Project Space Pilipinas
• Fr. Jason Dy, SJ - visual artist and Ateneo Fine Arts lecturer
• Jose Tence Ruiz - multimedia artist and CCP Thirteen Artists awardee
• Deborah Anne Tan - Ateneo Art Gallery Advisory Council Member;
• Amb. Giorgio Guglielmino - Embassy of Italy Manila
• Boots Herrera - Director and Chief Curator of Ateneo Art Gallery

Meanwhile, the tentative schedule for the acquisition announcement is in November, in time for the launch of the exhibition. Out of the 54 selected entries, the Ateneo Art Gallery will acquire fifteen (15) works for museum’s permanent collection. The Embassy of Italy, through Ambassador Giorgio Guglielmino, will also purchase two (2) additional works for the growing Philippine contemporary art collection of the Embassy. Each acquired work will be awarded an additional Php 15,000 cash prize.

The Ateneo Art Gallery – Marciano Galang Acquisition Prize was introduced last April following the cancellation of the 2020 Ateneo Art Awards due to the pandemic. With support from the Embassy of Italy, the AAG-MGAP program aims to extend assistance to the Filipino artist community who have been greatly affected by the crisis. The program also honors visual artist Marciano Galang (1945 - 2001), whose 1964 assemblage Cavite was the first work acquired through Fernando Zóbel’s Purchase Fund. The Purchase Fund was conceived in 1965 in line with Zóbel’s mission to build and strengthen the Ateneo Art Gallery’s contemporary art collection by funding the acquisition of new works by Filipino artists. With the help of Emmanuel Torres, then-curator of the AAG, the Purchase Fund became instrumental in the museum’s acquisition of social realist and contemporary works.