Literature: Literature: Bautista, Jay et al. Alfredo Esquillo. Eskinita Art Gallery, Makati City. 2018. p.103.

ABOUT THE WORK

Making the familiar unfamiliar, the art of Alfredo Esquillo Jr. loves to overturn expectations, moving inexorably from the studied social realism of his early career to a world of fantasy and a deeply personal surrealistic style that better reflects his vision of the country and the world. He has drawn on a wide range of international influences that speaks beyond the limits of cultural boundaries. His detailed visual intellectualism is in tune with his more poetic approach to art, whether social realist or folk-esoteric and this attitude influenced a number, if not all, of his works. This extremely dense picture is replete with symbolism, reflecting Esquillo’s interest in esoteric folksy themes, with latently magical elements all incorporated in a highly personal style. The handful of clothes iron circling her multiple legs, the laptop, the feather duster, and the hammer all connote that the subject is a goddess of the household. Even her showy headdress implies another Filipino passion: beauty contests with their requisite National Costume segment. Once again, Esquillo returns to the theme of the effect of profound religious faith on an apparently simple people, which had preoccupied him in some of his most important social realist works. His painting style captures quite cogently the hybrid cultures of the Philippines today. He paints off-the-beaten-path tableaux of Philippine social life, attempting to uncover the almost surreal ironies of a culture convulsing with myriad contradictions. The artist’s emergence in the Philippine contemporary art scene is noted for his credible competency in illustration and the retooling talent in figuration.