The architect opens up about his favorite artists, growing up around art, and encouraging his clients to purchase their first piece of art
“You can marry art and design, but they’re two very different disciplines,” says Anthony Nazareno, principal architect of Nazareno Architecture + Design, at the inaugural ICA Art Fair where he was invited to share stories on how architecture and art come together in his body of work.
“Art is more emotional whereas design is very functional. I cannot really say when and where at one point in the design process I include art in my work, but it is there,” he says. “I have been really blessed with—and I’m not sure why that is—clients whose art collection is just jaw-dropping.”
Nazareno’s modernist architecture with tropical sensibilities is a possible answer as to why clients with big, beautiful art collections gravitate towards him. After all, his structures feature expansive double-height walls that welcome grand artwork. But what does he do when someone doesn’t show much appreciation for art?
“Art is more emotional whereas design is very functional. I cannot really say when and where at one point in the design process I include art in my work, but it is there”
“I had a client whose passion was collecting cars. And I think ‘educating’ is the word—I try to educate him. When I suggested [that he] purchase artwork for his living room, he was shocked at the price. And I said, ‘This is just maybe one or two wheels of your cars! The moment your car leaves the casa it depreciates by 20 percent,’” Nazareno recalls.
“It takes about two and a half years to finish a project. At the end of that project, that client had so much art he is now a partner with one of the galleries.”
Nazareno also points out that when we host visitors at home, we don’t hang out in our garage where our collection of cars are so it is wise to add art to spaces where we congregate or pass by often—for instance, the entryway, the living room, the dining room. That said, he doesn’t take all the credit for sparking art appreciation in his clients.
“It’s one thing to educate people from the standpoint of an architect or an interior designer, but it’s another thing for the galleries to be able to find artists who are actually worth the pride of a wall or house or a space.”
It’s not all fun and games—there was also art
Nazareno’s inclination to art started when he was a child. “From a young age, I could not get away from art. The moment I left my room, it was already plastered all over the hallways of our home. Art became fun for me because my folks not only collected contemporary art—and the contemporaries then are the masters now like Romulo Olazo or BenCab— but they also collected a lot of antiques. The thrill of the hunt was there.”
“At one point I was pretty much like that show on History Channel called ‘American Pickers.’ We’d have these little semester breaks and [my dad] would have me pack with him to Bohol and Cebu. Bohol and Cebu at that time in the ’80s had a huge amount of antiques. At that young age when all your friends are on a football field, you’re on the side of a monastery scouring through old stuff.”
When asked about his favorite artists, he starts with Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, singling out his 1696 painting “Las Meninas” then adds Czech painter and graphic designer Alphonse Mucha to his list. “I started learning about Alphonse Mucha’s work because my dad had a coffee table book of his in the house. I leafed through it and I could not wrap my head around how someone could actually be both an artist and a graphic designer. He also was a furniture designer.”
When asked about his favorite artists, he starts with Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, singling out his 1696 painting “Las Meninas” then adds Czech painter and graphic designer Alphonse Mucha to his list
Locally, he had a strong connection to one painting by Fernando Amorsolo. “Fernando Amorsolo’s portrait of Fernanda de Jesus is beautiful. It sat in my parent’s living room and is part of our family heirloom. Nobody knows who Fernanda de Jesus is up to this day. But that’s probably for me the most important piece of work of one of our most beloved special artists.”
On the contemporary front, he lists Romulo Olazo, Lao Lianben, Patty Eustaquio, and Maria Taniguchi (whose works also grace many of his clients’ homes). Lianben showcased 11 new original works influenced by Zen Buddhism at the ICA Art Fair.
As it turns out, Nazareno has been equally setting an example himself. Curator Glenn Cuevo, who was in the audience, shared a story in which he was helping a client with putting up an art collection in their new home.
“It turned out that Anthony was the architect of the home. There was a time when Anthony visited the house and I had just finished doing the interior styling,” Cuevo says.
“Anthony stepped in and said ‘The house now has a soul.’”