LEGACY SERIES

ANGELITO ANTONIO BRINGS LEGACY SERIES TO GREATER HEIGHTS
Opens Black and White Show October 16-30, 2010
At Galerie Stephanie

The second set in a series of exhibits by modern masters in their feat to impart to the art public what they feel would be their art legacy, multi-awarded Angelito Antonio revisits his popular themes of women vendors, musicians, cockfight enthusiasts and the Filipino family in a unique style that the artist has not done since the 1970’s. This rare collection of 15 artworks are painted in a purely black and white mode with Antonio daring to explore tonal values and graduations of shade to dramatize his unique concerns and interests.

The show opens on Saturday, October 16, 6pm at Galerie Stephanie, and runs until October 30, 2010. Galerie Stephanie is located at Unit 1B Parc Plaza Building 183 E. Rodriguez Jr. Avenue Libis Quezon City. For inquiries, call 02-7091488 or 02-7239418 visit www.galeriestephanie.com.

Born in Malolos, Bulacan, Angelito Antonio (b. 1939) or ‘Mang Lito’ as he is known in Sta. Mesa Manila, took his secondary education at the V. Mapa High School. That was when he would frequent libraries, including that of the United States Information Service (USIS) to scour art books. “Everything is there”, he says, and he would soon be acquainted with the works of Graham Sutherland and Francis Bacon who would serve as his earliest influences.

A multi-awarded Filipino painter and master teacher for generations of art students at the Manila-based University of Santo Tomas (UST), he is an expressionist painter known for his strong cubist compositional forms using folk and rural motifs. The UST has had a strong tradition of Filipino modernists that include National Artists Victorio Edades, ‘Botong’ Francisco and Vicente Manansala. Antonio is part of a figurative expressionist movement from this school and count among his peers and colleagues Ang Kiukok, Antonio Austria, Danilo Dalena, Mario Parial, Jaime De Guzman and Norma Belleza.

He has over 20 awards from top Philippine art institutions and organizations and count as among his awards, a Grand Prize (1965), a 3rd Prize (1963), and a Best Work at Competition (1972) from the Art Association of The Philippines, 2nd Prize from the Shell Art Students Competition (1962) and is a recipient of the prestigious Araw ng Maynila award for contribution to the arts from the City of Manila.

Antonio is famous for his strong and confident diagonal lines, his unique approach at figurative distortion and his use of black juxtaposed with strong brilliant primary or muted tertiary colors. In this exhibition, Antonio challenges himself to do away the strong primary and tertiary colors attempting to achieve the same effect with a controlled black and white palette highlighted by their various shades and hues. It is a masterly approach to develop his themes and subjects.