Fernando Kabigting’s works featured in NY gallery

The works of famed Filipino artist Fernando Kabigting were featured at the Philippine Center New York Gallery to recognize his decades-long career and also as part of the Philippine Consulate's celebration of Philippine Independence Day.

Entitled “Seeing Beyond: An Artist’s Journey,” the exhibit, which opened last June 10, showed over 30 of Kabigting's latest pieces that depicted popular Philippine landmarks and landscapes on painted old wood sourced from train tracks around the country.

“Mr. Kabigting’s works that we exhibit today reflect his fortitude, dedication to his craft, and a passion to create beauty,” Consul General Mario de Leon Jr. remarked during the exhibit opening.
 
Among the paintings featured at the exhibit: (clockwise) Bird of Paradise, Sunflower, Antipolo Bells, A Meadow’s Treasure, Hope Springs, Nana’s Hut, Inside Looking Out, Floral Spray, The Old House Church Bells and Pink Parasol. Photo from Philippine Consulate in New York

Kabigting's wife Menchu explained that her husband had to train his left hand to paint with watercolors after a debilitating stroke in 1999 paralyzed his right hand and blinded his left eye.

“Art to Didi, as he is called, is synonymous to life, to breathing and to praying,” said Menchu.

The New York Times featured the artist's struggle to regain his prowess with the paintbrush in 2008.

“I used to be a perfectionist. Now I have to be contented with what’s there," Kabigting told the publication.

Kabigting first had a solo exhibit at the Philippine Center New York in 1988, showing off his signature pieces painted on wooden basins or batyas.

More recently, Kabigting had one-man exhibits at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in 2009, at the Italia Gallery in Bacolod City in 2012, and at the Ayala Museum in 2014.

The exhibit at the Philippine Center New York Gallery will last until June 25 (US time).

Menchu said this may be her husband's last solo show. —Rie Takumi/KBK, GMA News

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more