“Filipino artists are reared in different environments – in cities and the islands, in hometowns and neighborhoods of migration. They share with us inspiring and urgent visions of the vital values we cherish and the complex realities we face”. – Patrick Flores, PhD.
The Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art (ILOMOCA) attempts to connect the Ilonggo audience and visiting art viewers of the upscale museum to the world of contemporary art by featuring a combined pieces of sculptures and paintings in the exhibit: The Connected World of Contemporary Art.
The collection was unveiled at the Adoracion Valencia Gallery last year in time for the commemoration of the Museum and Galleries Month, an annual event every October, which highlights the importance of “arousing national consciousness and pride in our rich Filipino culture and heritage embodying the rich aspirations of a nation, expressed in all media of art as well as historical and religious artifacts.”
The collection was curated by Dannie R. Alvarez a renowned person in the museum and art gallery circles being an administrator of the Yuchengco Museum and the head of the National Committee on Museums of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).
The Connected World of Contemporary Art is a showcase of the various expressions in contemporary art to propel its audience to experience the different layers of artistic intentions of their creators.
The works are described by Alvarez as a “romance with material and technic” – both a result of the artist’s desire to articulate an artwork that may best express the many layers of incidence and coincidences which may have wandered in his mind.
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Similarly, the pendulum of realist and abstract expressions is the unique proposition afforded by museum of contemporary art. When one goes through its galleries, the intention and non-intention of an artistic subject provides a delightful or argumentative engagement between the artist and the viewer.As the artworks wonder across geographic origins, genders and ages of their creators, the visitor discovers that museum, as I (it) should, in a way democratizes and strips off expected biases of the viewer.
The museum is an open field for delightful dialogue between the collector and the collected as it showcases the collections of individuals and institutions. The intention of sharing a collection to the public is not a bragging right, but rather it is at most, on the contrary, a mission to share commonality of experiences that art brings to a greater number of people.
The sources of these collections, be it galleries, auctions, art competitions or rightfully so from donations and loans, should have a collective temple for the artists to articulate the sentiments of our contemporary times.
The Adoracion Valencia Gallery
Various inspirations moves a person to collect art. But one shaped by the love for life an the art that seeks to portray it is the most cherished. In the case of an art patron Edwin Valencia this love was nurtured by his mother, Adorocion.
Adoracion Valencia was a Humanities professor who not only shared with her students the appreciation for and enjoyment of the arts. True to her calling as a passionate art enthusiast, she first and foremost raised her children to appreciate the beauty of life through all forms of art. Although all of them had been imbued with an artistic spirit, it was Edwin, an international banking, finance, and management professional, who earnestly pursued this love by collecting works of art. His collection reflects the range of perspectives through which the many facets of life may be revealed.
Edwin Valencia, for over three decades, has assembled an extensive collection of diverse artworks across the globe – paintings, sculptures, prints,. He and the Valencia family have decided to share them with art-loving, museum-going public through the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Art.
The gallery honors the woman and the mother who reared her children with a consciousness for the arts. The pieces carefully chosen for this section honor as well the commitment of the art community and its audience tho the dynamic and vital life of the arts in Iloilo and wherever it takes root and thrives.
