Isabel Echevarria Rocha wins Orensanz award

We are always glad when we hear of Filipinos getting any form of recognition abroad. From the National Museum of the Philippines, we just learned that the Orensanz Foundation in Manhattan Borough New York recently awarded Isabel Echevarria Rocha’s oil on canvass painting entitled "Morena" the third prize from a group of 28 international competing artists. First place went to Spanish Artist Antonio Suarez-Chamorro and Denis Nona of Australia, Dorothy Krakauer of the United States received second prize. Isabel Echevarria Rocha’s son Inaki Rocha, also was a participant in the contest, got honorable mention for his work "Lemuria".

Of Isabel Echevarria Rocha’s prize-winning work, the jury said, "Through traditional media she exposes a way of life giving access to someone’s personal journey. Highlighting how culture and position affect identity and experience, through gesture she insights curiosity of the experience through the character subject matter and the artist eye."

The board of judges of the Oresanz Award was composed of distinguished directors, curators of museums and established art critics. The winning paintings will be featured in the coming December issue of the New York Artscape magazine.

This is not the first time that Isabel Echevarria Rocha wins an international award. In 2001, she received the Seleccionado award in Spain. Two years later she got the Nicolas Massieu Award for her oil painting "Sueno" again in Spain. Currently on exhibit at the Martin Luther King Library in Washington, D.C., are her works and her son’s Inaki. Next year, the Peruvian Consulate will sponsor her exhibit along with three other artists in New York. And in support of Filipino art and culture, she and her son will hold a joint exhibit at the Philippine Center on 5th Avenue, New York. Her three exhibitions in New York and Washington D.C. were all sponsored by Philippine Air Lines. Isabel is now director and chief of public affairs of the Philippine Association for the Scientific Conservation of Cultural Property.

Isabel’s husband is a descendant of Don Luis Rocha, whose name is historically linked with Malacañang. Don Luis resided in Manila. A very bad earthquake destroyed his home and he moved into the very site of what is now Malacañang Palace. The traditional story is that the place got to be called Malacañang when people began to refer to it by saying, "May lakan diyan", meaning "A noble person lives there."

What we would like to see is an exhibit of Isabel Echevarria Rocha’s paintings in the Philippines. It is a sad comment that a Filipina painter who is winning prizes abroad is not very well-known in her own country. It has been said that all art is an expression of the relation between the artist and his time. We would like to add "and place." For that reason Isabel Echevarria Rocha’s work should be more meaningful here. Do we owe her belated recognition?