The Life of Winner Jumalon and his Contemporary Philippine

Art Masterpiece

Winner Jumalon born on December 28, 1983 in Zamboanga,

Philippines. He is a Filipino contemporary visual artist based in

Manila. His works of oil and encaustic on canvas have been described

as "late capitalist masterpieces marred by illogical marks, haze, and

aggregations of reality that not only displaces portraiture as the totemic symbols of power and

status but questions the formation of identity itself as the trap where man cannot go forward". He

has won the Artist Award of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2009. He also trained for

four years at the Philippine High School for the Arts at Mt. Makiling, Los Banos, Laguna, with a

major in Visual Arts. After high school, Jumalon pursued his childhood dream of entering the

College of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. He graduated

with a baccalaureate in fine arts, majoring in painting.

Jumalon finds inspiration in anything and everything-—a candy wrapper, a moment,

debris. He takes much from the past and speaks of it in the present, where nostalgia doesn’t

necessarily mean memory as it does an assertion of what remains relevant and real across time.

Jumalon begins with ideas and challenges himself to transform them into a visual form-—the

only one he feels is powerful enough to carry his message. And then Jumalon, apparently, flies

with it. The challenge to him has been the creation of something powerful and interesting. This

beauty can represent the kind of life he sees and lives and knows. Jumalon finds solace in the

urban spaces he occupies, and imagines this space as distinctly pregnant with meaning and ideas

and visual possibilities. Back in his native land, he painted mostly colourful self-portraits.
Whimsical and carefree are the auras that describe his works. Spending his high school life in

Laguna has been still artistically inclined having visual arts as his major. His paintings were done

in subdued earth colours. He was then living in a mountain where his school is located, learning

the rigors of the academic world.

Winner was fondling for an identity, painting self-portraits. It came to pass, he started

using a layering technique, and drawing faces over faces, an observation perhaps, watching

fellow students with their diverse individuality go under guises just to create that harmony.

According to Residency Unlimited Inc. article that I’ve found and read as well, Winner

Jumalon is one of the most compelling and widely acclaimed Filipino artists of his generation.

He is known for his on-going exploration of personal, cultural and artistic identities, and often

focuses on the relationships between painters, paintings and the art world. Infusing into his

works implicit elements with strong subliminal context, Jumalon’s figurative style emotionally

taps into the viewers’ subconscious. His portraiture is highly detailed, rugged, and brilliantly

questions the formation of identity itself. His use of the human figure bears such powerful

qualities, speaking in deep context beyond their aesthetic sensibilities.

Now, his living alone, playing with wide spaces and abstract figures, graffiti, black

scratches on white background. He sees blunt black and white, anonymous, animosity, bare, his

insight of urbanity. Random and varied images are his confidant to fit and sustain in his

necessary evolution.

I choose to write about him since I love his story on how he strive to be like this or to be

an artist, not just I love his story but I also inspired of his works.

This makes me inspired of his works; it’s full of creativity and passion.
 Bibliography

Wikipedia contributors. (2022, March 7). Winner Jumalon. In Wikipedia, The Free

Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:00, March 18, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?

title=Winner_Jumalon&oldid=1075788082

Residency Unlimitted(RU). (2018). Winner Jumalon , from

https://residencyunlimited.org/residencies/winner-jumalon/

Samito Jalbuena. (2015, January 13). “Winner Jumalon and the artistic construction of reality”,

Business Mirror., from https://businessmirror.com.ph/2015/01/13/winner-jumalon-and-the-

artistic-construction-of-reality/
 The Life of Winner Jumalon and his Contemporary Philippine
Art Masterpiece

Winner Jumalon born on December 28, 1983 in Zamboanga,

Philippines. He is a Filipino contemporary visual artist based in

Manila. His works of oil and encaustic on canvas have been described

as "late capitalist masterpieces marred by illogical marks, haze, and

aggregations of reality that not only displaces portraiture as the totemic symbols of power and

status but questions the formation of identity itself as the trap where man cannot go forward". He

has won the Artist Award of the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 2009. He also trained for

four years at the Philippine High School for the Arts at Mt. Makiling, Los Banos, Laguna, with a

major in Visual Arts. After high school, Jumalon pursued his childhood dream of entering the

College of Fine Arts of the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. He graduated

with a baccalaureate in fine arts, majoring in painting.

Jumalon finds inspiration in anything and everything-—a candy wrapper, a moment,

debris. He takes much from the past and speaks of it in the present, where nostalgia doesn’t

necessarily mean memory as it does an assertion of what remains relevant and real across time.

Jumalon begins with ideas and challenges himself to transform them into a visual form-—the

only one he feels is powerful enough to carry his message. And then Jumalon, apparently, flies

with it. The challenge to him has been the creation of something powerful and interesting. This

beauty can represent the kind of life he sees and lives and knows. Jumalon finds solace in the

urban spaces he occupies, and imagines this space as distinctly pregnant with meaning and ideas

and visual possibilities. Back in his native land, he painted mostly colourful self-portraits.
Whimsical and carefree are the auras that describe his works. Spending his high school life in

Laguna has been still artistically inclined having visual arts as his major. His paintings were done

in subdued earth colours. He was then living in a mountain where his school is located, learning

the rigors of the academic world.

Winner was fondling for an identity, painting self-portraits. It came to pass, he started

using a layering technique, and drawing faces over faces, an observation perhaps, watching

fellow students with their diverse individuality go under guises just to create that harmony.

According to Residency Unlimited Inc. article that I’ve found and read as well, Winner

Jumalon is one of the most compelling and widely acclaimed Filipino artists of his generation.

He is known for his on-going exploration of personal, cultural and artistic identities, and often

focuses on the relationships between painters, paintings and the art world. Infusing into his

works implicit elements with strong subliminal context, Jumalon’s figurative style emotionally

taps into the viewers’ subconscious. His portraiture is highly detailed, rugged, and brilliantly

questions the formation of identity itself. His use of the human figure bears such powerful

qualities, speaking in deep context beyond their aesthetic sensibilities.

Now, his living alone, playing with wide spaces and abstract figures, graffiti, black

scratches on white background. He sees blunt black and white, anonymous, animosity, bare, his

insight of urbanity. Random and varied images are his confidant to fit and sustain in his

necessary evolution.

I choose to write about him since I love his story on how he strive to be like this or to be

an artist, not just I love his story but I also inspired of his works.

This makes me inspired of his works; it’s full of creativity and passion.
 Bibliography

Wikipedia contributors. (2022, March 7). Winner Jumalon. In Wikipedia, The Free

Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10:00, March 18, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?

title=Winner_Jumalon&oldid=1075788082

Residency Unlimitted(RU). (2018). Winner Jumalon , from

https://residencyunlimited.org/residencies/winner-jumalon/

Samito Jalbuena. (2015, January 13). “Winner Jumalon and the artistic construction of reality”,

Business Mirror., from https://businessmirror.com.ph/2015/01/13/winner-jumalon-and-the-

artistic-construction-of-reality/