It’s been years since Cebuano artist Romulo Galicano, 69, left his hometown of Carcar in Cebu, a city where art abounds with with artists and sculptors living there up until now, he says. A member of the famed Dimasalang group, an informal coterie of artists formed in the 1960s, he moved to Manila after high school and studied art at Far Eastern University.
But his heart is still in his province. He has been based in Quezon City for a long time, and when he learned about the destruction wrought by Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) not just in Tacloban but also in parts of Cebu, he was deeply affected. He called on his fellow artists to organize a fundraising exhibit.
He didn’t stop there. In his studio, he picked up his paint brush and created “The Triumph of Life Over Death,” an oil painting that represents his version of Yolanda’s aftermath. It shows realistic images of dead bodies lying on the ground, and survivors picking up the pieces and attempting to flee the scene. It’s an emotional piece: You can smell the blood and desperation of the people in the painting.
Beyond the visceral images, however, is the principles of abstraction that Galicano employs with each one of his paintings. On a piece of bond paper, he drew circles and arrows plotting the movements in the canvas. The images didn’t just appear there from his imagination: each element has been carefully considered according to how it will affect the work’s composition and balance. This is how the veteran artist creates the perfect painting.
“The Triumph of Life Over Death” will be unveiled at the ManilART 2014 but will not be for sale — it is the artist’s personal collection. He also plans to work on a mural-size version of the painting in 2015. Watch our video below.
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Romulo Galicano’s “The Triumph of Life Over Death” is on display at the ManilART 2014: Crossing Borders, Oct 16-19, 10am-10pm, at SMX Convention Center Taguig. Tickets at PHP200, www.manilart.com.
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