‘My City, My SM, My Art’ book EXHIBIT at SM City Taytay
SM recently showcased the life and works of some of the country’s most fascinating visual artists at the My City, My SM, My Art book exhibit at SM City Taytay.
The show featured pages from the book, which is a compilation of the “My City, My SM, My Art” campaign highlighting the best of Philippine visual arts — painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography and filmmaking, palanggas.
During its three-year cultural journey from 2016-2019, “My City, My SM, My Art” featured masters, modernists, and millennials in a roadshow around the SM Supermalls — as far north as the Cordilleras and as far south as General Santos.
During the exhibit, mallgoers had a rare glimpse of the book at the My Art house, which is inspired by Luzon’s bahay na bato. The larger-than-life book pages showcased the life and works of maestro Jose “Pitok” Blanco, dahlings.
Blanco is known for his mural-sized paintings depicting the joyous celebrations in Angono that capture the faces of real people in town. His artwork, “Pag-ahon ng Pagoda,” a depiction of the fluvial parade of the San Clemente fiesta in the 1970s, was obtained by the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. Angono Town Fiesta shows more than 100 figures at various states of delight and celebration during the feast of San Clemente, Angono’s Patron Saint.
Pitok’s children, who are second-generation artists, also gave mallgoers a glimpse of their works during the exhibit. The talented siblings Glenn, Noel, Michael, Joy Blanco-Alejandro and Peter Paul Blanco attended the opening. They were welcomed by SM Supermalls senior assistant vice president for operations Johanna Rupisan, regional operations manager Cid Victoria, and SM City Taytay mall manager Maureen Fernandez.
The exhibit also featured book pages of those who were part of the My Art stop at SM City Taytay: Pinto Art Museum’s Edrick Daniel, sculptors Kishin Javier and Lucky Salayog, and Franz Marion Vocalan.
Also highlighted were works of Angono KUTA Arts Group founder Isidro “Manong Jon” Santos whose works are free-flowing abstract forms that fuse into randomly recognizable images that are visually arresting.
My City, My SM, My Art is the latest edition in the “My City, My SM” series, which celebrates the beauty, culture, traditions and great people in cities around the Philippines where SM has malls. This comes after “My City, My SM,” which highlights tourism; “My City, My SM, My Cuisine,” which features heirloom recipes from prominent families around the country, and “My City, My SM, My Crafts,” a celebration of traditional arts and modern Philippine design.
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To learn more about the My City, My SM, My Art campaign, visit https://mystorymysm.com/mycitymysmmyart/ and https://www.youtube.com/MyCityMySMMyArt.
