And the winner of the 2016 Maningning Miclat Art Competition is Robert I. Tiaño, a 26-year-old drop-out from Lipa City Public College. He had to stop schooling due to a lingering illness and taught himself to paint.
Eminent artist Imelda Cajipe-Endaya commented: “The grand prize painting reflects the pervading contemporary issue of teenage pregnancy and the preparedness of a young woman for motherhood.”
She headed the jury composed of watercolor realist-impressionist Perfecto “Jun” Martinez and social realist Pablo “Adi” Baen Santos.
For his 60 cm x 90 cm oil “Inbestigatori Pradyek,” Tiaño went home with a Julie Lluch trophy plus P28,000 cash prize and deluxe copies of the books “Soul Searchers and Dreamers: Artists’ Profiles” by Alma Miclat and “Fairground: A Literary Feast,” edited by Gémino Abad and Alma Miclat.
Alternating with the Maningning poetry awards, this year’s art competition with the theme “Mother and Child” received 179 entries from 30 schools. The contest is open to painters 28 years old and younger.
The jurors discussed the merits of the works based on visual impact, poetic expressiveness, maturity or cohesiveness and consistency in technique and rendering, and distinctiveness.
Second prize went to “Family Blood,” (60 cm x 90 cm, mixed media) by Joen Magpusao Sudlon from Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology (Earist). It expresses a woman’s internalization of the role of childbearing, including her dilemma, anxiety and need for prayers.
There was a tie for the third prize. Oddin Sena, a University of the Philippines Diliman Fine Arts graduate, submitted a 60 cm x 90 cm acrylic-on-canvas showing a mother and child with indigenous features in a global environment where animal parents and offspring play.
Eleven-year-old Maria Angelica Tejada, a Grade 5 student of P. Burgos Elementary School, was the other winner. Her distinct work had a naïve, playful and joyous composition showing a mother and her child at play. The jurors were not aware of the artist’s age but enticed by her work.
A crowd-drawer was that of 9-year-old Lauren “Tori” Guevara of Multiple Intelligence International School, who was among the 36 shortlisted. Her painting was bought on the spot during the event.
In memoriam
The 2016 Maningning Award ceremony held in Art Circle Gallery at Robinsons Galleria was dedicated to Norma Liongoren, of pioneering Liongoren Gallery in New York, Cubao. Known for encouraging, supporting and nurturing young artists, Liongoren was a benefactor of Maningning herself, who Norma featured in one of her “Walong Filipina” series.
For the event, songs were rendered by composer Manu Ferrer of Malikhaing Alagad ng Musika’t Sining Kultura ng Maharlikang Pilipino.
Masters of ceremony were Maningning Foundation trustee Pambie Herrera and UP professor, singer and theater actor Banaue Miclat Janssen.
The art competition is being held during even-numbered years alternately with the trilingual poetry awards since 2003. Miclat was a multiawarded visual artist and trilingual poet and published author who passed away in September 2000 at age 28. —CONTRIBUTED