If there is one thing Filipino artist Allanrey Migz Salazar knows, it’s that comfort zone is a very nice place.
“But nothing grows there,” he says.
Some two decades ago, Salazar, 45, decided to embark on a journey that took him across Europe where he was able to plant his roots on fertile artistic grounds.
Salazar conducted a brief formal study of fine arts at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris, and took an intensive brief course in photography in Würzburg, Germany. He also stayed for long stretches of time in Venice and Florence to immerse himself in Italian Renaissance art history.
Among the artists he considers his influences are Michelangelo, Tintoretto, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Picasso, Modigliani, Rothko, Basquiat, Damien Hirst and Filipino masters Juan Luna, Fernando Amorsolo, Botong Francisco and his contemporary, metal sculptor Joe Datuin.
‘Study the masters’
“In order to master your craft, you need to study the masters—how they think, how they create, how they produce,” he says.
Salazar’s father was a banker and his mother a preschool teacher, but he believes he got his artistic inclination from his grandfather, a classical musician and a former member of an international touring philharmonic orchestra.
The artist held exhibitions in France, Italy and Argentina starting 2002, but it was in 2014 when Salazar’s dedication finally bore fruit when he received an invitation from the International Selection Committee of Florence to participate in the 10th Florence Biennale of Contemporary Art.
Venice Biennale
He then went on to participate in the 11th edition and, in that same year, was also part of the Anima Mundi during the 57th Venice Art Biennale.
Last June, Salazar was awarded the Marble & Gold Trophy of the Bust of Julius Caesar Imperator, besting more than 2,000 artists from around the world. The award was given by the L’Accademia Italia in Arte nel Mondo Associazione Cultural in Brindisi, Italy.
Angus Morrison, author of the financial and technological thriller “Bandwidth,” writes, “Salazar is among the few international Filipino contemporary artists who live their passion for art in Paris.
“His recent body of works is a radical departure from abstract to cataclysmic biblical iconography with secular socioreligious and political narrative.”
Salazar and Datuin recently opened their joint show at the House of Representatives, Batasang Pambansa Complex, Quezon City, entitled “I Obras Maestras Della Biennale (The Biennale Masterpieces).” These are works, around 55 paintings and sculptures, from the masterpieces collection of the 10th and 11th Florence Biennale and the Anima Mundi International Art Festival during the 57th Venice Art Biennale. The exhibit will run until Sept. 27. —CONTRIBUTED