ABOUT THE WORK

Garibay’s paintings do away with conventional religiosity. The valorization of the masses- or finding analogies of the suffering of Christ in the masses- attains a new level in his paintings. The central figure in “Kaganapan” seems to be nailed to some invisible cross – reflecting the “penitencia” of the masses- when in fact he is actually hanging onto the jeep or bus. The figure radiates its own energies into the surrounding space – the interiors of a jeepney- as it expresses an intense communion with the divine. He, the son of a Methodist pastor, was raised in Davao, the multicultural city that nurtured his early interest in art. In 1993 Garibay held his first solo exhibition, which showed his ability to paint in oil, his favorite medium, and his talent to tell a story through art. Garibay paints ordinary people in an attempt to portray them as political entities. In this way Garibay’s activism shows through his work. He truthfully portrays ordinary people and places, leaving out the glamour that most Filipino artists add to their work. Garibay was once quoted: “If you come from a land like the Philippines, the daily realities of the people’s lives, you see a lot of poverty, a lot of hardships. These things don’t exist in isolation; they exist as a result of injustice and a lot of exploitation. And it is very hard to ignore them. The longer you are confronted by them, the more you see the different forces at work. And the sad part is there appears to be some complicity— complicity by some institutions that are supposed to uphold the rights of people.”