Provenance: Private Collection, USA

ABOUT THE WORK

Few artists have been more eclectic in inspiration and lifestyle, and have fused his eclecticism into a personal style, than Oscar Zalameda. He delights in large simplifications of mostly genre themes. Zalameda is better known for the popular style that would be his signature of loose cubist forms painted with a bold and assured color sense. The artist never named the place or places that inspired his interpretations of genre themes, but it is likely that most if not all of them are various facets of his hometown in Lucban, Quezon, which is picturesquely located at the foot of Mount Banahaw. Aside from its annual Pahiyas Festival celebrated to ensure the people’s bountiful harvest in the coming seasons, Lucban is also known for its vast rice lands. Reminiscent of his memories, Zalameda evidently paints Rice Heavers as an embodiment of the rich farming culture of his hometown.