Sculptor Agnes Arellano Info

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Best known for surrealistic and expressionist white inscapes composed of life size, livecast and direct modelled figures in plaster of paris and cold-cast marble. Arellano started her art practice in 1983, after having previously earned a Bachelor in Arts in Psychology at the University of the Philippines (1971). She has travelled extensively and participated in international group exhibitions in Berlin, Fukuoka, Havana, Johannesburg, New York, Brisbane and Singapore.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am engaged in a search. You might almost call it a need. I am seeking answers to certain metaphysical questions, which present themselves in the form of paradoxes, and concern the problem of ‘existence’ or the juxtaposition of, but essential interdependence between, Creation and Destruction.

I look for clues in myth, history, and folklore, these are the fabric of my work, and tend to give it a strong narrative element. However, we are not just talking here of fairy tales. The material has to plumb the psychological depths.

- Agnes Arellano
(Excerpt from statement for
Myths of Creation & Destruction II:
The Temple of the Sun God, 1990)

“The sacred and the mythical, the physical and the erotic, the magical and the mundane, the religious and the profane, and music and song all permeate the art of Filipina artist Agnes Arellano. Drawing from rich personal experience and an extraordinary range of influences, she makes some of the most dramatic art in Asia.”

-Myths of Creation and Destruction by Alice G. Guillermo
WORLD SCULPTURE NEWS Volume 7 Number 2 Spring 2001 pp. 32-35

BIOGRAPHY

1949 11.21 Born in Manila
1966 - 1971 Bachelor of Arts in Psychology University of the Philippines, Quezon City
1971 - 1972 M.A Units in Clinical Psychology Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City
1975 - 1976 Cours de Langue et Civilisation Françaises Dégré Supérieure, Université de la Sorbonne, Paris
1979 - 1983 Major in Sculpture, College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines, Quezon City
1984 - present Founder and President, Pinaglabanan Galleries Inc. (a non-stock, non-profit corporation run along the lines of a foundation dedicated to contemporary art), Manila
1991 - 1993 Senior Lecturer, Thesis classes in Sculpture, University of the Philippines

AWARDS

1988 Thirteen Artists Award, Contemporary Art Museum of the Philippines, Cultural Center of the Philippines
1988 Guardian of Arts and Culture (Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan), City of Manila Award for the Visual Arts (For Pinaglabanan Galleries Inc. of which she is Founder and President)
1990 Outstanding Alumna Award in the field of Art, St. John’s Academy, Manila
1996 Freeman Fellowship Residency, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont
2002 Guardian of Arts and Culture (Patnubay ng Sining at Kalinangan), City of Manila Award for Sculpture.

INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS

1988 Exchange: Manila-Berlin, Raab Galerie, Berlin
1989 Third Asian Art Show, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka
1990 Myths of Creation and Destruction II: The Temple of the Sun God, Mitsubishi-Jisho Artium, Fukuoka
1994 Quinta Bienal de la Habana, Centro Wilfredo Lam, Havana
1994 Die 5. Biennale von Havana, Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst, Aachen
1994 Asian Art Now, Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima
1995 Africus: Johannesburg Biennale, Newtown Cultural Precinct, Johannesburg
1996 Traditions/Tensions: Contemporary Art In Asia, The Asia Society, New York
1997 Sexta Bienal de la Habana, Centro Wilfredo Lam, Havana
1999 Beyond the Future: Third Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
1999 Volume & Form-Singapore 1999, Singapore

BOOK PUBLISHED:

"Inscapes: The Art of Agnes Arellano" by Dr. Alice Guillermo, published by Onion & Chives Inc. in the Philippines, ISBN # 978-971-94020-1-5