Sahngri-La Plaza played host to the culminating night of the prestigious Ateneo Art Awards. Selected from a short list of 12, Kawayan de Guia, Bembol de la Cruz and Maria Taniguchi were named the winners at the awards ceremony at the Shang’s Grand Atrium.

De Guia’s “Bomba,” a multimedia installation, won him the arti residency grant for La Trobe University Visual Arts Center. It consisted of jukebox music playing, massive spinning bomb-shaped disco balls hanging from the ceiling and a flurry of adult video clips from the ’70s bombarding the audience.

The festive retro-pop setting presented an ironic reminder of a time when the world feared self-destruction from nuclear war stirred by the creative albeit apocalyptic spirit that came with it.

“House Blends” won De la Cruz the Liverpool Hope University Creative Campus Residency Grant. The exhibit reminds us that information sharing is a double-edged sword. Still-life paintings of household items paired with a video installation that showed clips of explosions revealed the paintings to be dangerous recipes.

There was also an installation on a wooden ledge displaying the actual objects he painted. The information was gathered online by the artist, reminding us that the Internet is something that entails responsibility.

Taniguchi’s “Echo Studies,” which won her the Common Room Networks Foundation Residency Grant.

The work explored the processes behind art-making as another wellspring of insight. Presented though graphite drawings mounted on wooden plinths, monochrome acrylic paintings, and monitors that showed a video documentary, the artist probed relationships among subject, representation and process.

Present during the awarding ceremony were Richie Lerma and Yael Buencamino of the Ateneo Art Gallery, Leovino Garcia of the Ateneo School of Humanities, Tessa Guazon of the Vargas Museum, Deanna Ongpin-Recto of Alliance Française de Manille, Jonathan Gilbert of the Australian Embassy, Debbie Tan of Smart, Raul Manzano of Metro Society, Isa Lorenzo of Silver Lens Gallery, Poklong Anading, Yvette Fernandez, Olivia d’Aboville, Erwin Romulo, Cristina Dy, Barni Alunan-Escaler, Crisan Olives-Celdran, Silvana Diaz, Chitz Ramirez and art blogger Trickie Lopa.