Provenance: Provenance: Estate of the artist

ABOUT THE WORK

Jose V. Ayala Jr., an artist-writer and copy director, pursued visual art in the 1960s upon his friend and colleague Federico Aguilar Alcuaz’s encouragement. The husband of poet Tita Lacambra-Ayala, he started his artistic explorations in his watercolor paintings with distinct washes. As Ayala began utilizing acrylics and oil later on, his paintings exhibit “extreme” drawing and colorization, as noted by CCP museum director Ray Albano. During the 1970s, he moved with his family to Davao; the successful reclusive artist’s home studio is in Tagum, Davao del Norte, where he continued painting in gradual retreat from publicity. Archetypal Dream further reveals the distinctness of Ayala’s visual expression, an early work inspired by personal observation and reimagination.