PANCHO M.

PIANO finished bachelor’s Degree in Economics at the University of

. Nueva Caceres (1978), and look a degree in Fine Arts at the University of the
Philippines Diliman as a Jose Joya Scholar (1984-1987). The first Filipino artist to
exhibit Leather Art in the Philippines, Pancho has executed numerous murals and
stained glass designs for civic and religious patrons in various cities and municipalities
throughout the Bicol region. Pancho`s paintings and stained glass designs focus on
Bicolano myths and traditions, most especially the Bicolano devotion to the Lady
Peñafrancia. He has mounted more than thirty solo exhibitions and participated in
over 50 grouped exhibitions, in the Philippines, Japan, Saipan, and the United States
of America, France, Austria, the Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, Italy, and
Switzerland.

Pancho has won over 10 major national competitions in the Philippines,

including Finalist at the 1997 AFP Centennial Mural Painting Competition, and the 1998
AAP Centennial Painting Competition. Pancho was given Artist of the Year Awards for the
total of twelve times by various Bicol institutions. Pancho Piano was also featured in
television networks ABS-CBN, and his work has also been featured in 10 coffee table book
publication. Recently, he was awarded as Most Outstanding Bicolano Artist 2009, My City
My SM Award 2010 and Orgullo Kan Award for Visual Arts 2011.

VOYADORES OUR LADY OF PEÑAFRANCIA

 Pacita Abad’s large-scale, richly colored paintings, textile collages,
and mixed-media assemblages have long been revered in her native
Philippines, and since her death in 2004 they have drawn international
acclaim. Abad is celebrated for her quilting-inspired trapunto canvases
that she stuffed and embellished with materials like buttons, beads, and
shells. As the first woman to receive the Philippines’s The Outstanding
Young Men award in 1984, she blazed a trail for women artists in
Southeast Asia. Abad traveled among parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin
America, and her work blended the diverse artistic styles and traditions
she encountered in those places. Her painting Marcos and His Cronies
(1985), included in the 11th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art,
reflects her varied influences —such as African masks to Tibetan deities
—while her series “Door to Life” and “Abstract Emotions” exemplify her
innovative blend of painting and textiles. An unwavering activist who
escaped political persecution during the Marcos dictatorship, Abad also
produced sociopolitical portraits of immigrants, refugees, and other
marginalized groups.

HERMES, 2000 RED AMARYLLIS, 1993